San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman had to do something when he saw a story on Fox 11 Los Angeles about a Compton pop warner football team trying to raise funds so that they could attend a championship game in Florida.
The undefeated team consisting of children under the age of six was invited to play in the National Youth Championship in Florida, but didn’t have enough funding to cover accommodations.
A GoFundMe with the goal of $15,000 was started on the behalf of the 20-member team. The kids on the team raised $700 on their own.
Once Sherman found out about “Hub City 6u”, he wrote on Twitter, “Someone get me in contact with the person running the show here please. I respect good football but I respect the 3.1 min gpa more. Establishing good habits young. I would like to help.”
Sherman ended up donating over $5,000 to jumpstart the fundraising. Since then, the GoFundMe has surpassed the original goal, gaining $29,700 from 411 donors. Now, not only will the team be able to make their trip, but they will be rolling in style.
“They worked really hard this season,” said one of the parents Phenice Hurtado. “Their long hours of practicing, the parents have also done their part showing up every day, our coaches don’t get paid to coach. So they’ve donated their time and their skills and they’ve really prepared these kids to perform on that level…”
