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Youth football team raises money to travel for tournament, wins
Community generosity allowed the Minnesota Jays not only to travel and compete, but win.
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Jays returned home Tuesday morning after competing in a D1 Nation national youth football tournament in Atlanta over the weekend.
It took 17 hours to drive back to north Minneapolis., yet on Tuesday afternoon, the team met with KARE 11 to show off a new trophy and share a message of gratitude.
“Came back with a trophy,” said Zaakr Clark, who plays quarterback and cornerback. “We went into overtime and I threw the game-winning touchdown.”
“He threw a perfect pass and our receiver just went up and got it,” added Coby Stearns, one of their coaches.
The outcome is especially heartwarming, considering just weeks before the Jays left for the fall tournament, they couldn’t afford the trip – even though they’d earned a spot there because they were the champions back in spring.
“So, we did a fundraiser,” Clark said.
“Yeah, we were raising money,” Clark’s aunt Lavina Jackson said.
A single parent whose son also plays for the team, Jackson says they went door-knocking and bagged groceries in addition to posting an online fundraiser.
“We went over our goal, which is great,” Jackson said. “Thankful and very blessed for everyone who donated.”
The goal was $8,000 but $13,845 was raised.
“Yes, it’s a football team but it’s so much more than that,” Jackson said. “It’s the foundation to get us to where we want to be as developing our youth and our young men to get them on the right path for success. These are our future doctors, lawyers, football players.”
At this point in their lives, they indeed have football dreams:
“Make it to college and then try to go D1.”
“I would probably want to go for, like, best lineman in the nation.”
“Just trying to keep my team safe and get D1 Nation.”
The Jays returned from a cold and windy Atlanta to a snowless Minnesota. They’re now on winter break for two weeks, and they plan to remain active. Tuesday afternoon, they were already watching and critiquing their highlight reels, and thinking ahead to the spring season.
“We as a coaching staff, we came together and gave the boys a goal — like start with 50 pushups a day,” Stearns said.
“Oh yeah,” Clark said. “I still gotta train.”
And just as soon as they returned, parents and coaches launched a new fundraiser called Help Us Help Them.
They say they work with more than 100 boys, and equipment like helmets, shoulder pad straps and mouth guards are needed. They’d also like to travel again in spring, with hopes of getting a team bus for all age groups instead of having to drive separately. That would allow for more team-building opportunities, they said.
If you’d like to contribute, click here.
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Katie Santry has lived at the east Columbus house for about a year. She said she stumbled upon the strange discovery while digging holes for fence posts.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Columbus woman has gone viral on TikTok after sharing a story about finding a rug buried in her yard. The discovery prompted the Columbus Division of Police to get involved.
Katie Santry has lived at the east Columbus house for about a year. She said she stumbled upon the strange discovery while digging holes for fence posts.
“We were building a fence, and we, through digging a post wall, came across a carpet. It was weird but I kind of let it go,” Santry told 10TV on Thursday evening.
LATEST UPDATES: Columbus police provide update after digging up rug from woman’s backyard; no remains found
Some time later, she said her computer was shattered and her desk strewn about in the middle of the night, but no one in the home reportedly did it.
“I jokingly said, ‘did the body in the rug do it?’ and I put that on TikTok, and now everyone at this point has seen it,” she said.
Santry said she was going to leave the carpet-like fabric alone but was influenced by TikTok viewers to call police to dig it up.
“When they first came out, they thought nothing of it, and I think because of the virality of the TikTok, they called me today [Thursday] when my friends and I were actually going to dig this rug up today out of curiosity,” she said.
Columbus police told her they wanted to bring K-9s to investigate.
Santry streamed some of the investigation on TikTok Thursday afternoon. More than 100,000 users tuned in to watch at times, as she showed video of the K-9s sniffing through her yard.
At one point, Santry watches as the dog sniffs a spot and then sits down. She can be heard gasping in the video.
“The world saw the dogs sit on the hole and it kind of ended there,” Santry said.
When asked about the previous owners of the home, Santry told reporters that they were in their 90s and had moved into a nursing home. She believes they were the only owners before her family moved in.
While viewers have tuned in to watch what happens next in the investigation, Santry has watched her following grow.
“The day I posted it I had 6,000 followers,” she said, “It happened like snap of a finger. I didn’t anticipate virality in the slightest.”
A nearby neighbor who has lived in his home for 20 years told 10TV that the attention has been disturbing and alarming.
“This is the loudest it has been in a long, long time,” he said. “I hope they find what they’re looking for and we can get back to life as normal and quiet and peaceful.”
Columbus police began excavating outside the home Friday morning. Officers provided an update in the afternoon saying that no remains had been found.
On Amy Schultz’s birthday, she finally got word their new house withstood catastrophic flooding in their town.
DALLAS — Amy Schultz was supposed to be in the mountains of Western North Carolina for what she called one of her speedbump birthdays – a year that ends in a five.
She lives in North Texas but used to be a Florida resident, so she doesn’t take hurricanes lightly.
She and her husband were scheduled on an American Airlines flight from DFW Thursday.
But when the airline waived its change fees because a hurricane was bearing down across the southeast, they took it as a sign to cancel their trip.
“I am so grateful that we didn’t go,” Amy said. “On the other hand, I’m so devastated by seeing people and their lives and their property. And the culture of that Asheville community is just been toppled and it’s catastrophic.”
Amy Schultz is an artist, and the Blue Ridge Mountains is a haven for the arts.
That’s one reason the couple started visiting years ago. Amy called the region “a national treasure.”
“It’s just so special. It’s out of a fairy tale. The natural beauty is extraordinary,” she said.
Regular visits turned into buying a home in the city of Black Mountain.
They closed on the home on Second Street two months ago. Then came deadly floods.
Buncombe County, where Black Mountain is, reports 57 lives lost and the search for survivors continues.
The Schultzes had become fast friends with their new neighbors, but without power or cell phone service across the region, they couldn’t reach any of them.
They left messages and held onto hope for days on end.
Finally, on Amy’s birthday, a neighbor who had driven to Raleigh finally got cell service restored and let them know their house was standing and only had minimal damage.
“Damage on our end of the street was due more to falling trees than flooding,” Amy said. “We are so relieved and grateful. And still so sad.”
“Our plan is to go back as soon as we can. As soon as it’s safe. As soon as we’re not taking gas away from people who want it, and as soon as we’re not taking water away from people who need it, That’s when we’re going to go back,” Amy said.
Surveillance video shows the car driving on the grass and sidewalk close by a busy playground.
MINNEAPOLIS — Editor’s Note: This video originally aired Aug. 19, 2024.
A 10-year-old is in custody after Minneapolis police said he drove a stolen vehicle recklessly across a crowded school playground.
Minneapolis police (MPD) said officers responded to Nellie Stone Johnson School on Sept. 20. Surveillance video shows the car driving on the grass and sidewalk close to the busy playground multiple times. School staff moved children out of harm’s way and no one was struck.
The 10-year-old boy was identified as the driver and was booked into the Hennepin County Juvenile Detention Center on Thursday for probable cause second-degree assault.
MPD stated that the boy has been arrested at least twice before for crimes related to auto theft. He is also a suspect in more than 12 cases ranging from auto theft to robbery to assault with a dangerous weapon.
MPD Chief Brian O’Hara said the family is cooperative with police and have asked for help working with their son.
“It is unfathomable that a 10-year-old boy has been involved in this level of criminal activity without effective intervention,” O’Hara said. “Prison is not an acceptable option for a 10-year-old boy. But the adults who can stop this behavior going forward must act now to help this child and his family.”
“This is only one example of the revolving door we’re dealing with – arresting and re-arresting the same juveniles for auto theft and other violent crimes,” he added. “This is a complex issue, and we need every entity involved in intervention to come together immediately to establish short- and long-term solutions.”
