Off-season outreach: Chapman sports teams give back to community

From left to right: Ashleigh Wielenga, Emily Stocker, Emma Harper, Sarah Connolly, Channon Coyle, Lily Jose and Emily McHorney — all members of Chapman’s women’s soccer team — plant trees March 12 at Grijalva Park in alignment with the mission of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's Urban Forestry Program. Many Chapman sports teams are opting to fundraise and bring awareness to several philanthropic causes connected to the respective teams and local community. Photo courtesy of Womens Chapman Soccer Team

During the offseason, sports teams typically focus on conditioning, improving their technique and bonding with their teammates.  At Chapman, several sports teams on campus are breaking from the usual off-season routine by stepping up to raise funds and awareness for various philanthropic causes.  

Shannon Coyle, a team captain and defender on the women’s soccer team, planted trees alongside her teammates on March 12 in Grijalva Park,  which is where they frequently practice  when Wilson field is unavailable for use. 

“We thought that it would be a great opportunity to kind of give back to something like (Grijalva Park), because it specifically impacts our team,” said Coyle, who is also a junior applied human physiology major. “We practice there a lot in the off-season.”. 

The tree-planting event was held by the City of Orange as part of Cal Fire’s AMPlify the Urban Forest grant, which provided $1.5 million in funding for volunteers state-wide to plant 2000 trees across California in one day.  

The soccer squad borrowed shovels from coaches and neighbors for the event and spent two hours planting dozens of trees next to local residents, girl scout troops and Cal Fire representatives.

Next time the women’s soccer team visits Grijalva Park to practice, they hope to see visible growth in the trees they volunteered to plant.

“It'll be really fun when we go back this next off-season or during the summer to get to see the trees that we planted as a team and go back and track how they're doing,” Coyle said.

Coyle added that, as the pandemic draws to an end, and more places open for business, the women’s soccer team is excited to bond with one another and continue serving the community.

“In this next year, we will definitely — whether it's through the same organization or other local organizations — try to get more involved in the community,” Coyle said.

Though the women’s soccer team is not the only sports team at Chapman who took initiative to support the local community in the off-season. The university’s football team has similarly spent their off-season raising awareness for a non-profit organization that resonates with team members.

The football team’s Be The Match campaign, which was held in person this year for the first time since pre-pandemic, consists of signing up members of the Chapman’s community to possibly be a blood donor match for those with rare forms of cancer. 

Senior linebackers Cody Paresa, a senior biochemistry major, and Brocton Schlaf, a business administration and economics double major, stepped up to be the leaders of their team’s philanthropic efforts after head coach Bob Owens delegated the role to them. 

“It was a certain level of trust,” Schlaf said. “Coach Owens knew that we were up to the challenge and that we are willing to put in the work to be a good representation not only (for the team) but (also) the program.”

Paresa found commonalities with his area of study and the Be the Match program, as the non-profit aims to find a cure for those with blood cancer. 

“A lot of (what is behind the Be The Match program) is genetics, and I am doing breast cancer research right now so it’s pretty cool to get to work with another form of cancer, because Be the Match is all about leukemia and lymphoma,” Paresa said. 

Both Paresa and Schlaf are continuously motivated to participate in the charity, because during their first year on the team, former teammate Hunter Spriggs had his life saved through this bone marrow transplant program.  

“(Spriggs) came back for his senior season in 2019 while he was in the hospital multiple times a week,” Paresa said. “After that, it was like an inspiration for (me and Schlaf) to be involved in this kind of project and carry on that legacy.”

Paresa and Schlaf made sign-up sheets for a Be the Match tabling event in Chapman’s Attallah Piazza, so they would be able to educate students about the campaign and sign them up for a simple cheek swab; the program then mails a kit so participants can send  in. The linebackers said they were hoping to have about three players running the table at a time, who would then rotate throughout the four-hour event.

“It actually turned out that we had at least eight (teammates) there throughout the rotations, and it wasn’t a mandatory (event) — it was completely volunteer,” Schlaf said. “(The turnout speaks to) a certain expectation and culture (on the team).”

For the month of April, Chapman’s baseball team is also supporting several causes its members feel a personal connection to. 

Junior creative writing major Grant Manning, a pitcher on the baseball team, believes that supporting organizations like Go4theGoal — a non-profit committed to assisting children with cancer achieve their goals — unites the team to play for something greater than themselves. 

The baseball team has also raised awareness about Carter Strong Forever, a tribute to the late Carter Ankeny that donates to the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation.

“Carter Strong (Forever) has been a great way to give back to the community, and also spread awareness for childhood cancer research,” Manning said. “It breaks my heart to think these kids hardly got a chance in life so bringing this awareness can help provide funding for research to hopefully help people of all ages with cancer.”

Ankeny was six years old when he passed away in 2017 due to complications with his leukemia treatment. Before then, he frequently visited Hart Park to play alongside the Panthers. 

“To remember our forever teammate, we have ‘Carter Strong’ patches on our uniforms to remember what we support and fight for,” Manning said. “Fundraisers help us give back to our community and build a better reputation within the city of Orange.”

The baseball team held a ceremony during an intermission between their double header against Whittier Apr. 23 to recognize all the fundraising efforts for Go4theGoal this week.