Addix names winners in Great American Giveback contest

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Posted By: Jeff Fisher August 9, 2018

Six high school football teams from around the nation have been named champions in the Addix Great American Giveback contest. The online, social media competition was launched a month ago with a goal of getting communities around the country excited about “Cause Games” in several categories including cancer awareness, military/first responder tribute, the Michael Sadler Foundation, Gilda’s Club  and an Open Category.

Teams from twenty different states entered the competition to win up to 50 jerseys for their cause event. The contest was held on Addix’s Facebook page and Twitter and Instagram accounts.

Below are the category winners with write-ups from the Addix website:

Open Category

Trinity HS (North Carolina) 

Trinity had over 2,000 votes in all three rounds.

“Thank you to Addix Gear and the Great American Giveback for investing in our nation’s schools.  We also want to thank the local community of Trinity, North Carolina for your tremendous effort and enthusiasm in support of this worthy cause. Trinity High School entered this contest to honor a student-athlete who recently suffered a terrible family tragedy.  Thank you again, to Addix Gear, who has provided another opportunity for our community to rally behind our student-athlete. #BuiltTylerTough” – Dr. Brian Toth – Principal Trinity High School

Here is Trinity’s cause game description: This will be a football jersey. We will be dedicating this Jersey to one of our players named Tyler Bova, who is a defensive back and receiver for our Trinity High School Football team. As of last week Tyler lost his Father, Mother, and 11 year old brother in a car accident while on vacation. At the moment Tyler is in critical condition and is fighting for his life. We are praying and believing that Tyler is going to pull through. Tyler was originally given a 20 percent chance to live and each day that goes by he is defying the odds. He has had multiple surgeries and is continuing to fight and recover. This is not shocking to any of his family, coaches, or friends because he has always had a tremendous amount of fight. Tyler embodies everything good about a high school athlete. His work ethic and determination to get better is second to none. He is a coaches dream and does all of the little things right. His attitude, intensity, and effort is contagious and he leads by example. He gives every area of his life 100 percent. We would love to be able to honor Tyler with these new jerseys and reveal the jerseys at a fundraiser game to help Tyler’s family with the major expenses coming their way. Our Community has rallied around Tyler in this tough time and it would be very special to be able to dedicate a new team uniform in Tyler’s name.

Result – Trinity won by 1,903 votes.

Michael Sadler Foundation Category

Forest Hills Northern HS (Michigan)

Both Forest Hills Northern and Sumner Academy had gone back and forth with Forest Hills Northern coming out on top. The Huskies overcame a lot of votes from Sumner Academy on Facebook to get the win by winning the Twitter poll and having more Instagram comments. Forest Hills Northern Head Football Football Coach Matthew Moffett told us “We are thankful for the opportunity to have our Mike Sadler Foundation football game on September 28th with the help of Sports Addix. Addix has done an amazing job helping promote community and school sports through various events and we’re very glad we get an opportunity to be a part of this. Our entire community would like to thank Addix for their help in our event! ”

Here was Forest Hills Northern’s cause game description: This is the high school that Michael Sadler graduated from. My son Joshua Wierenga is a Senior on the football team and was Michael’s ball boy when he kicked for FHN. Joshua also attended games with his mother Karen at MSU and Michael always made time for Josh. Michael was an inspiration not only to my son but many others at FHN. Michael’s academic and athletic ability were amazing but his character, humor and love of life were truly amazing. He will forever be remembered at FHN. We want to honor him and the foundation that his mother is so passionate about.

Result – Forest Hills Northern won by 418 votes.

Cancer Awareness Category

Carrollton HS (Ohio)

In one of our most competitive categories, it was Carrollton High School in Ohio who came out on top. After grabbing an early lead, Carrollton was trailing Hudsonville High School in Michigan by less than 100 votes with under 24 hours to go. Hudsonville had an incredible amount of Instagram votes, but it was the Facebook votes from Carrollton that pushed them over the edge. A huge late push by Carrollton gave them the victory by over 400 votes thanks to those Facebook comments as well as a win in the Twitter poll.

“I am really proud of our community. This is community based town, and they really got behind this giveback. I also want to tip my hat off to Addix on seeing the need of giving back to cause events. It’s something we really try to teach our kids at Carrollton, the importance of giving back and paying it forward. These jerseys are definitely going to put our annual cancer awareness game over the top!” – Carrollton High School Head Football Coach Phil Mauro

Here was Carrollton’s cause game description: As a Football Program at Carrollton HS we have been sponsoring our Cancer Awareness Game for the past 7 years. This game always takes place in October with our players wearing everything from wrist bands, to mouthpieces, to shoe laces, to tape in pink. We also select a member of our community who is either currently receiving cancer treatment or in remission from their cancer as our Honorary Game Captain. We read a short bio on this individual and have them participate in the pre-game functions with our team captains and the call the choice for the coin toss. This has always been a tremendous event for both our Football Program and The Carrollton Community. If we could secure pink jerseys to wear for this game that would put this event, “Over The Top!”

Result – Carrollton won by 466 votes.

Military/First Responder Appreciation Category

Snowflake HS (Arizona)

The Snowflake Lobos have been crowned our champions of the Military/First Responder Appreciation Category after 2,189 votes in the final round. The Lobos beat out 2nd-place Montrose by 212 votes. They also beat 3rd place Mason and 4th place Salesian. This was an incredibly competitive category and we tip our hat off to all four schools. Snowflake had a lot of unique Instagram comments which gave them the edge.

“Our 9/11 Tribute Game was started by our players and it has taken off to our student body and our community. It is the best game of the season.” – Snowflake HS Assistant Coach Bryan Lang

Here was Snowflake’s cause game description: Our football team for the past four years has done a 9/11 night. Our school allows military and first responders into the game for free. Our entire team will run out on the field with American Flags. At half time our student council does a tribute and has a giant rodeo flag that the students pull for this tribute. This was started by our football players and student council, we as coaches just supported the idea. We don’t have the budget to get these jerseys, so winning this would be a big deal to our students and to our football players. Thank you for your consideration

“We like so many schools in America we always did something special when 9/11 fell on a game night, a few years back as I was organizing what I wanted to do for our varsity football game. Our student council started to organize a special program before the game, at halftime, and after the game. Here are a few pictures and videos from what we call “Heroes Game” where we allow all Veteran’s, Active Duty Military, Law Enforcement and Firefighters into the game for free as our school shows our Patriotic Spirit:

– This was a video made by one of the Lobo player’s parents.
https://www.facebook.com/rhonda.solomon.566/videos/10206777187220023/

– This is a video of how the Lobo Football team takes the field at the “Heroes Game”.
https://www.facebook.com/camalee.west/videos/788278967947750/

– This is a video of the Halftime activities with our Choir group (Madrigals) singing as other SHS students wave a giant American Flag on the football field.
https://www.facebook.com/sam.flake.73/videos/10206531053866958/

– This is a video of the Post Game Retiring of the Flag with a community member playing “Taps” with his trumpet.
https://www.facebook.com/ann.r.webster.1/videos/10153538770990435/

SO with this opportunity to get special jerseys for this special night, LOBO NATION came together and FOUND A WAY (Lobo Football 2018 Motto) to pull it out!!” – Kevin Standerfer, Snowflake High School Athletic Director

Result – Snowflake won by 212 votes.

Gilda’s Club Category

Fruitport HS (Michigan) and Leto HS (Florida)

After the conclusion of the voting at 2:00AM EST on August 2nd, the counting began in our categories. Two schools, Fruitport High School (MI) and Leto High School (FL), had separated themselves from the competition. The two schools however could not be separated from each other. After eliminating duplicate votes, eliminating votes from those who did not follow our social media pages, and counting up all of the good votes the two schools were separated 7 votes. We went to thoroughly recount every one of the votes confirming the fact that both schools were within 7 votes of each other. It was determined with such a fine margin (.003%), we would award both schools.

“We want to credit our new head coach Nate Smith for the initial step of getting us involved in this giveback. It was a community wide effort. As we continue to expand the Trojan Strong initiative, to have these jerseys supplied is a great way of getting this all started. We appreciate the efforts of Addix for putting on this contest and for all Coach Smith has done for this.” – Fruitport Athletic Director Ken Erny

“We are definitely excited to win this contest, wear these jerseys, and put on this game. We have a lot of kids in our school and community who have either been affected by cancer or know people in their lives who have affected by cancer. To be able to honor those battling this terrible disease with names on the back of the jerseys and to have a group like Gilda’s Club involved will be a really special event for us.” – Leto High School Head Football Coach Joey Jame

Here is Leto’s cause game description: Our cause game is for cancer awareness. In conjunction with this we also want to raise awareness for the losses people suffer due to cancer. I always ask my players if they know anyone who has ever been affected by cancer and every time all my kids raise their hands. People suffer losses to this dreadful disease more than normal and it is ok for people to have certain emotions toward it. I lost my father to brain cancer when I was 10 years old. I am currently 29 and it still hurts to this day. To have a group like Gilda’s Club where people do not have to grieve alone, is truly important. The goal of this awareness game is to let people know that it is ok to not be ok and that there is someone here for you always.

Here is Fruitport’s cause game description: Fruitport runs a Trojan Strong game which will raise awareness for Gilda’s Club and those fighting cancer.

Result – Fruitport and Leto Within .003%, both won by 372 votes.

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About the Author

Jeff Fisher
Jeff is an award-winning journalist and expert in the field of high school sports, underscored with his appearance on CNBC in 2010 to talk about the big business of high school football in America.Jeff turned to his passion for high school football into an entrepreneurial venture called High School Football America, a digital media company focused on producing original high school sports content for radio, television and the internet.Jeff is co-founder and editor-in-chief of High School Football America, a partner with NFL Play Football.

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