ROCKINGHAM — Albeit through social distancing, the Richmond Raider football program picked up its first victory of the spring.
Started through a virtual challenge on Twitter by West Bladen High School head football coach Jon Sherman, dozens of Raider players and coaches competed in a push-up challenge last Friday.
Recording themselves and posting to social media, each player and coach’s total was added up in the final tally. Richmond powered itself to victory, posting a total of 2,237 push-ups to West Bladen’s 1,408.
“I’ve known Coach Sherman for the last 10 or 12 years from clinics and we have a friendly rivalry,” Richmond head coach Bryan TIll said. “He said he saw a lot of what we’re doing on social media asked me about doing a competition.
“His words were ‘I’m watching you guys every week to see what sort of activities you’re doing’,” he added. “I thought it was great because it was a competition that could challenge our players and coaches.”
All day Friday new videos popped up on Twitter of players and coaches knocking out as many push-ups as possible to add to Richmond’s count. Based on the videos posted, junior cornerback Amir Webb led the way for the Raiders with 81 push-ups.
Also hitting the 80 push-up mark was junior running back Jaron Coleman, junior linebacker CJ Tillman pumped out 77 and sophomore defensive lineman JD Lampley impressed with 76 push-ups.
Other notable performances came from: Emoni McBride (70), coach Chris Campolieta (65), Brandon Askins (61), Gabe Altman, Caleb Hood, Tremel Jones, Dalton Stroman and Lance Wilson (all with 60), Isaiah Jones (56), coaches Andy Shuler and Greg Williams (both with 53), and Kellan Hood, Turner Howell and coach Brad Denson each putting up 50.
“Overall we we’re really happy,” Till said of the participation. “I think there will be some guys who read this and say I wish I had participated. We want to see more guys participate like our 100 percent club, so we’re shooting for that.”
Till also said the competition is beneficial to all players’ and coaches’ physical and mental health during the current quarantine.
“When you’re doing stuff like this, it helps with mental health and a lot of studies show how important this is,” he explained. “The key is regularity, and we’re athletes for a reason because we’re building a certain way.
“Competitions like this help us maintain a sense of normalcy, and that’s extremely important,” he closed. “We want to make sure we’re making intentional outlets like this during a situation where people are frustrated.”
While the NCHSAA still has all sports activities shut down, Till wants Raider fans to keep an eye out for future competitions like this.
