Buckeyes move a mountain of mulch Friday – Ohio State Buckeyes
4/24/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
April 24, 2015
COLUMBUS, Ohio – At 9 a.m. Friday the first group of coaches, administrators and football players from the spring game scarlet team showed up at Buckeye Grove, just south of Ohio Stadium, and were greeted by a pile of black, steaming mulch as large as three sport utility vehicles.
There were also more than a dozen of each – shovels and rakes and rake-looking devices – plus an equal number of wheelbarrows, the tools needed along with upper body strength and good legs to move this massive pile from the road to the grove of buckeye trees that honor each one of Ohio State’s All-Americans.
There was a nip in the air, but the sun was blazing and the skies were as blue as those in a Willie Nelson song.
“Blue skies, smiling at me. Nothing but blue skies do I see.” – from the album “Stardust”
It was work. But it was worth it work. Buckeye Grove deserves this annual service project by the current members of the football team who happen to be on the losing side of the final winner-loser event of the spring season.
It was win-win for all.
“We are cleaning up and landscaping Buckeye Grove so it is okay,” scarlet quarterback Stephen Collier said, “but I’d much rather be on the other team right now.”
The work wasn’t easy. An onlooker carted one load of the moist mulch the 50-to-60 yards to one end of the grove just to see what the effort was like. Shoulders, legs, biceps, lung capacity and dexterity were all needed. The onlooker stopped after one load. The players and some administrators, collectively, hauled perhaps a thousand loads up the winding paths – including over 100 loads by senior linebacker Joshua Perry – while passing the names of the greats in Ohio State history: Willis, Fessler, Horvath, Byars, Carter, Vrable, Katzenmoyer, Winfield, Smith, Laurinaitis and Jenkins to name but a few.
“To be out here and taking care of Ohio State is what it is all about,” Perry said. “It give you some motivation [to want to be an All-American] but even doing something like this, you want to do it the best you can do.”
Some players were on site early. Some were there late.
“We had some guys who really took ownership out here,” Perry said. “We had some guys who just had a rake in their hand. But it is what it is. Honestly, we have a good group of guys and we really did get it done. Maybe not as fast as we wanted to; it might not have been the greatest but the experience is what matters.”
About two-and-a-half hours after the work started, it was over. Virtually all of the players on the scarlet team contributed something to the effort. The temperature was on its way to lovely and the sky was still blue.
And Buckeye Grove looked great.
