Cole Boger reads to students from Unity Christian Elementary School in Rome, Ga., while Mustang teammate Kyle Schuck looks on during the NAIA Champions of Character program activities leading up to the 2012 Russell Athletic-NAIA Football National Championship.

Mustangs Visit Students At Unity Christian Elementary School

Darius Hicks helped lead the Unity Christian Elementary students in Christmas carols.

Players from Morningside’s football team visited students at Unity Christian Elementary School in Rome, Ga., during the NAIA Champions of Character program activities held in conjunction with the 2012 Russell Athletic-NAIA Football National Championship.

The players were greeted on their arrival with signs the students had prepared to welcome the Mustangs and wish them luck in this Thursday’s national championship game against Marian University. The players listened to a cheer the students had prepared, signed autographs, read books to the students, and sang Christmas carols with them.

Cole Boger, a junior defensive back from Battle Creek, Iowa, was one of the players who read to the Unity Christian Elementary students.

“It was cool seeing how excited the kids were and seeing them so happy,” Boger said. “I wish we would have had something like that when I was in elementary school.”

The Unity Christian school system has a connection to Morningside in Tom Baker, who is Unity Christian’s Director of Student Support Services. Baker grew up in Le Mars, Iowa, and attended Morningside during the 1985-86 academic year before he took a position with the Sioux City Police Department.

After visiting the school, the team attended a Fellowship of Christian Athletes – Champions of Character Luncheon presented by Chick-Fil-A Dwarf House & Fellowship of Christian Athletes held at the Rome Forum. The keynote speaker was Josh Niblett, a former three-year letterwinner at the University of Alabama and head coach of 2012 Alabama High School Athletic Association Class 6A state champion Hoover High School.

Morningside lost 30-27 against Marian University in the 2012 Russell Athletic-NAIA Football National Championship game.

Unity Christian Elementary School students greeted the Mustangs with signs to welcome the Mustangs to Rome and wish them luck in the 2012 Russell Athletic-NAIA Football National Championship. Joel Nixon (below) signs an autograph for a Unity Christian student.