No pain, no gain

Lions subject to heavy workout for worthy cause

Jeff Rice

UNIVERSITY PARK — In his typical quiet baritone, Navorro Bowman summed up Penn State’s annual Lift For Life fundraising challenge about as well as anyone ever has.

Craig Houtz

Penn State football player Shaine Thompson competes in the iron cross during the Uplifting Athletes' Lift For Life on Friday, July 10, 2009.

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“We just came out ready to get our butts kicked and work out hard and give back to the people that are going through kidney cancer,” the Nittany Lions’ all-conference linebacker said Friday.

Once again, Penn State’s draining, 11- event physical challenge helped raise tens of thousands of dollars — more than $81,000 as of late Friday evening, to be a little more exact — for the Kidney Cancer Association. A crowded Holuba Hall proved that the annual event, now in its seventh year, continues to be an effective way of using the Nittany Lions’ celebrity for a good cause, and that the players have a great desire to continue to make it grow.

“Every single person I’ve talked to — I don’t know if they’re trying to be nice or if they’re being honest — said they’ve had a tremendous time, every player they’ve talked to has been respectful and great to talk to,” said Brett Brackett, a junior wide receiver and president of the Penn State chapter of Uplifting Athletes. “Everybody’s had great things to say about the setup of the event, and the way things have been going.”

Brackett, who is still recovering from a separated shoulder he suffered during the spring, was one of about a half-dozen players who did not participate for precautionary reasons. Twenty-four teams went through the circuit, which concluded with fatigued participants taking turns flipping a giant tractor tire over and over.

Penn State strength coach John Thomas designed and ordered the exercises — originally part of an annual team cookout — so that a variety of muscles are worked and that any advantages the team’s biggest players might have are mitigated by endurance drills.

Still, some players are more cut out for the challenge than others.

“The linebackers,” said 178-pound wide receiver Graham Zug, with little hesitation. “They’re big, strong and fast. Being big, strong and fast usually helps you out a lot. Being a receiver, not as much. It’s tough for smaller guys who can’t carry as much.”

The results of this year’s competition backed Zug’s claim. The “Linebacker U” team of Bowman, Sean Lee, Josh Hull and Mickey Shuler (a tight end), finished first. The “Mad Real World” team of Jared Odrick, Brennan Coakley, Jack Crawford and Andrew Quarless took second and “We Are Going In” — Zug, Chris Colasanti, James McDonald and true freshman Kevin Newsome — took third.

For some players, simply completing the course on two feet is the prime objective. But they’re as willing to do it today as they were when Scott Shirley, Damone Jones and Dave Costlow launched the first challenge in 2003.

“It’s for a great cause,” safety Drew Astorino said. “We stay in touch with some of the patients, some of the families that we help out. There’s nothing better than doing something like this for cancer patients.”

The Nittany Lions work year-round to raise funds for the KCA, which battles a disease that affects 30,000 Americans each year. They’ve been thrilled by the progress made by the association.

“In the past seven years, they’ve developed three new treatments for kidney cancer, in that time we’ve raised over $300,000,” Brackett said. “We take pride and like to think we’ve played a little bit of a part in that happening.”

Brackett and other event organizers were also pleased to see that Penn State fans were also willing to make sacrifices for the cause. Friday’s fundraising total was the highest in the event’s seven-year history.

“One of the cool things is that we look back and see who’s donated in years past and the majority of the people that have donated in years past continue to donate,” Brackett said. “I think they just have such a great feel for what we do, they know the money’s going toward a good thing, and with the economy the way it is, people aren’t going to donate to something they’re not confident in.”

The annual event also serves as a reminder to both fans and players that the season is less than two months away.

“Just seeing how much support we get, that’s what drives us from here on out,” Bowman said. “Just knowing that we’re going to have a great attendance at every game, rain, sleet or snow.”