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More than five months of hard work paid off this weekend, when we took our “9 Kids Challenge” champions to the Carrier Dome. They were guests of Dr. Daryl Gross and the Syracuse University Athletic Department at the season-ending SU/ Cincinnati football game.
“The 9 Kids Challenge” is a partnership to fight childhood obesity, between NewsChannel 9 WSYR and SUNY Upstate Medical University. It started at the end of school last spring. Six young people from around Central New York are working out three times a week with personal trainer Joel Brown at Training Champions Institute in East Syracuse, and receiving individualized nutrition counseling from Upstate dietician Mary Henson.
Some of our team of champions had never been to a football game before. But they all seemed to grasp the task at hand… what the Orange would have to do to beat the favored Cincinnati Bearcats. (“Make a couple of hundred touchdowns,” according to Maddie.)
As game time approached… the anticipation mounted. “This is the greatest day of my life!” Daniel said. “It’s so cool!”
The Orange stayed within striking distance well into the second half… keeping the score close until the third quarter. Many of the kids agreed with Claude when he saluted the Orange effort. “I’m glad they’re trying still, and not giving up,” he said. They were all inspired by the hard work and training that goes into making the team at the college level.
And our group of champions knows all about “not giving up.” They got to the Dome by accepting a team challenge issued back around Labor Day. “We challenged them to lose 25 pounds as a group within six weeks,” said Joel Brown, the group’s trainer. “They not only did that, they lost more than 32 pounds.” Joel accompanied the kids on the limo bus provided by Caz Limo. They all wore special “9 Kids Challenge” wind suits, another reward for their hard work designed by Seaboard Graphics.
The real score for them was to enjoy the game without undoing all the good they’d done to earn the trip. “Just being at any sports event,” Sabrina said, “there is a lot of junk food around. And some times, especially when you’re trying to slim down, you’ve got to avoid it.”
Derek said “Most people like to eat junk food and stuff. For most people it’s kind of hard to stay away from. It’s still a little hard for me. It’s really hard to stay away from pizza and hot dogs, stuff like that.”
The kids fought the urge, and stuck to healthy food options… especially tough since it was a night game, and they drove to the Dome during the dinner hour. They shared turkey subs on wheat rolls on the ride up. And during the game, they nibbled on some of the healthier choices available at the Dome concession stands. “Some people had soft pretzels, which aren’t bad,” according to Sabrina. “Water, no soda, no juice, water. And then we had a little bit of popcorn, and people shared popcorn, they didn’t like stuff popcorn in their face… And that’s really all we had. And I think that’s pretty good for Syracuse Carrier Dome.”
Pretty good indeed. Unfortunately, things didn’t go quite as well on the field. The Bearcats pulled away in the fourth quarter, to win the game 52-31. But the final score didn’t really matter for the 9 Kids Challenge team.
“The best part of it was just being there and seeing the game,” Mark said as he left the Dome. “It was great, we had a great time.”
“We earned these tickets,” said Sabrina. “It wasn’t just like freebie, here’s your tickets. We earned these so it felt really good.”
- Tim Fox
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