Just a few years after graduating from , Ryan Mundy and Steve Breaston were on opposing teams during Super Bowl XLIII, solidifying their spots in the big time.
Mundy is a 2003 graduate who won a Super Bowl ring as a member of the practice team with the , while Breaston, a 2002 graduate, had a chance to play the historical game against his former teammate and friend as a member of the Arizona Cardinals.
This Saturday, they give back to the community where their football legacies began with the Breaston/Mundy and Friends Youth Clinic, which will bring in more than 200 students between the ages of 8 and 13 who will learn more about the game of football and what it takes to be a good student.
Teamwork, communication, sportsmanship and the importance of education are some of the themes the camp will focus on. It will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Wolvarena in Turtle Creek.
“I am more proud of the young men they turned out to be than anything else,” said , Woodland Hills athletic director and their former coach. “They’re both great kids, outstanding students, positive role models and leaders for the younger players when they played here, and now they are being role models for these kids in the community.”
This is the first year for the camp, which Mundy and Breaston proposed to the school . Registration was free for all Woodland Hills students.
“It’s a way for them to give back to the community of Woodland Hills,” Novak said. “I was excited and really happy about it.”
The goal of the clinic is to introduce football to the children, talk to them about the positive things that can come from the game and relate it to life skills. The former Wolverine teammates also will discuss the importance of being a good student while being a successful athlete.
Novak said the current and athletic staff will be assisting the NFL professionals throughout the day.
“I am just so proud of them and everything they have accomplished in their lives so far,” Novak said. “You see them on Sunday in the and kids idolize professional athletes, and these are two great guys to look up to and to use as role models for your life.”
Novak said both Mundy and Breaston were good students in their own rights, and had they not been so successful in football, they would have excelled in other walks of life.
“Stevie is an accomplished poet and writer who graduated from Michigan and Ryan graduated from Michigan and got a master’s in West Virginia,” Novak said.
Mundy also is well known for scoring the highest on the NFL entrance exam, called the Wunderlicht test, with a score of 29, the average score of a chemist. This achievement is why the Steelers gave him the #29 jersey, Novak said.
“Even when they were in high school and college, they would come up here and play one on one and watch each other and do patterns,” he said.
Tim Bostard, Woodland Hills equipment manager and assistant offensive line coach, said he is looking forward to the experience at the stadium this weekend.
“I came through the school district and it will be a great experience to teach the kids how to stay positive,” Bostard said. “Football is a great experience, but this is about teaching the kids how to be better students and living a better life in general.”
Novak also said he is sure the players will help students growing up in the school district today.
“It’s a football camp but it’s going to be much more than that,” Novak said. “I really think they are going to give our kids some direction.”
Registration for the youth clinic is closed.
