Brighten Your Day

Pro football player donates $60,000 for highschool athletic fees

August 20, 2012

Lamaar Woodley of the Pittsburgh Steelers heard that his high school had to start charging athletic fees due to budget cuts and decided to pay the fees for the entire school district.

Each student that wanted to play a sport was going to have to pay $75. The total came close to $60,000, which Woodley put on his tab. This included middle and high schools in the Michigan district.

"For kids to lose out on an opportunity to maybe earn a scholarship or learn about playing team ball ... to miss out on that because your family can't afford $75 was going to be tough," Woodley told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "I wasn't going to sit back and allow that to happen."

Coaches noticed that the numbers at practices and try outs were dropping due to the new fees. Woodley stepped in to make sure that every kid had an opportunity to play a sport they loved.

"People can make the argument that it wasn't going to hurt participation, but it was," Szatkowski told MLive.com. "Because of this, kids will have an opportunity to participate, an opportunity to be part of a team. People don't understand how important that is."

Woodley has been generous to his former high school in the past donating hooded sweatshirts to the marching band.