TAMPA, Fla. (WFTS) — In sports, a huddle is a critical moment. The team comes together to get on the same page and share some encouragement.
On Friday, ten high school football teams put their huddle skills to the test at Blake High School for the Battle of the Bay.
But breaking those huddles means so much more than usual.
Jeffrey Singletary is the CEO of Huddle Touch. The goal is to give student-athletes more than a chance to play the sport they love.
"Every time we touch a child, we reach a family. It changes the community and makes America a little bit brighter," he said.
Pastor Singletary started Huddle Touch in 2012. His church provided game day meals for local high school football games. A local high school coach called him up, asking him to bring food for his team on a Thursday night.
"He said, 'My kids won't eat when they go home tonight.' This is 2012. Tampa, Florida, America, the home of the brave, the home of the overfed," he said. "There's 80 kids sitting there. The coach said, 'If lunch is your last meal of the day, meaning that you won't eat when you go home that night, stand up.' 90% of those young men stood up."
More than a decade later, Huddle Touch is feeding the stomachs and nourishing the souls of student-athletes throughout the country and the Caribbean. More than 100 schools participate. Pastor Singletary said they believe in M&M: meals and a message.
Singletary compares his mission to the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme.
"Everybody saw an egg-shaped object sitting on a wall. And when you see an egg-shaped object sitting on the wall, everybody knows that object is going to fall," he explained. "We all see Humpty, and we know that nobody will do anything until Humpty falls."
He said that same allegory was happening in front of his eyes.
"That's the story of my community. And so we say Humpty had issues. Humpty Dumpty had anger issues. Humpty had academic issues, Humpty had community issues. But nobody helped Humpty until Humpty fell," he said.
Unlike all the king's horses and all the king's men, Huddle Touch is there before young people like Javion McKay ever fall.
"I like getting taught. So I always feel like there's something I've learned," McKay said.
McKay stepped onto the sweltering football field, ready for another summer of football and fellowship.
"Definitely feel like I've changed as a person just to see how god is always with me," he said.
While the football field was hot, it was even hotter inside Blake High School.
The students took a break to watch battle rappers go hard in the paint inside Blake's gymnasium.
Pastor Singletary said he's not familiar with battle rap and he doesn't quite understand it.
"We've got to meet them where they are so that we can take them where they ought to be," Pastor Singletary said.
Singletary and Huddle Touch's primary goal is to take shared common interests and turn them into a lifetime supply of experience.
"We've seen guys rise like a rocket and fall like a rock because his talent took him where his character couldn't keep him," he said.
Their goal is to make sure every athlete is equipped with the tools to be successful.
