University of Tennessee Athletics
Track & Field Vols Visit UT Medical Center
September 27, 2002 | Men's Track
Sept. 27, 2002
Seven Tennessee All-America track and field stars and two coaches nixed training Thursday and spent the afternoon at University of Tennessee Medical Center visiting patients and brightening an otherwise dreary day as the rain beat down on the facility.
Attired in enough orange to brighten up any room, head coach Bill Webb, assistant coach Vince Anderson, Dwayne Bell Jr., Rocky Danners, Stephen Harris, Gary Kikaya, Hassaan Stamps, Marc Sylvester and Kevin Thompson spent time talking with patients, signed NCAA Championship posters and passed out orange and white shakers to make the hospital walls a little more colorful. At the end of the afternoon, the Volunteers had once again proved worthy of their nickname.
The Tennessee contingent milled through the pediatric and cancer floors of the hospital talking and sometimes just listening to patients ranging from 13 weeks old to retirees. The Vols visited with patients from as close to home as South Knoxville and as far away as Romania. The conversation topics ranged from chemotherapy to a discussion about how to run faster. One boy who had been in the hospital for 93 days got his photo made with the group and showed the Volunteers around the pediatrics floor.
"I love working with kids," Danners, a two-time SEC pole vault champion and 2002 SEC Good Works Team member, said. "I like being part of a track team that likes to help other people. Being able to see the kids who were happy to have us there made me feel good. It made me happy to see the kids and their parents smile despite their conditions."
Bell, a 4x400M relay All-America selection and participant on two NCAA championship teams, offered up a similar sentiment. "It was a really uplifting time for me," Bell said. "I didn't know what to expect. It felt good to see the faces of the children and patients happy to see us. It felt right to give back to people."
Thompson, a decathlon All-America selection on Tennessee's runner-up squad at the 2002 NCAA Outdoors, likewise found the afternoon rewarding. "It was a good experience for me personally," Thompson said. "It makes me thankful for my health and makes me think how often I take it for granted. It's good as a student-athlete to be able to walk in a room and make someone feel better just because you took the time to come. I think it's a good thing to do community service to help put things in perspective. A lot of times we don't realize how lucky we are."
Assistant coach George Watts got the community service ball rolling with his distance group's annual assistance at the Race for the Cure to benefit those dealing with breast cancer. Webb, Watts and Anderson wanted the track and field/cross country squad to do more in the community to help assure the men coming through the program would be more well-rounded when they graduated. The staff joined Molly Justice of the university's CHAMPS/Lifeskills program to up the squad's community service opportunities.
More members of the squad will assemble Saturday to meet with fans prior to the Tennessee-Rutgers football game. Team members are slated to be in attendance pregame Saturday at VASF Day festivities at Thompson-Boling Arena and at Volunteer Village in the Humanities Plaza to sign posters commemorating the 2002 NCAA Indoor Championship and visit with fans. Additionally, the Vols will show off their second NCAA championship trophy in as many years to the Neyland Stadium fans as SEC and national title winners from last year will be introduced at halftime.
