Alabama high school football coaches go viral for teaching life skills in inspirational 'Manly Monday' classes
An Alabama high school football coach was quite surprised when he became a viral sensation due to his videos of members of his school team learning how to change a tire. Athens High School's head football coach Cody Gross was in awe of how his videos of students learning basic life skills spread like wildfire on the internet.
Speaking about the inception of these life skills lessons, which he and assistant coach Steve Carter call the 'Manly Monday' classes, Coach Cody exclusively told MEA WorldWide (MEAWW), "We wanted to be more intentional about reaching our players. We want to develop the whole person and not just the athlete. Instead of just talking about that and hoping they would 'catch' it, we wanted to be more intentional."
The videos on Cody's twitter handle show Steve's unorthodox training methods, where people can see how the assistant coach teaches players things like changing a tire, checking oil and transmission fluid and cutting PVC pipes with twine and string. According to Steve, it was Cody who initially came up with the idea for these classes.
Steve also gave a little insight into the head coach's initiative, saying: "Coach Gross is a super caring person who loves and wants the best for the kids as are all our coaches here at Athens High School. He's all about building character in his student-athletes and teaching them valuable life lessons. He's taught them many lessons about the importance of how to respond to and treat other people, etc."
He continued, "I'm kind of a handyman and I'm always working on the coaches and players cars, lawnmowers and whatever else needs fixing around the organization. Coach Gross thought it would be a great idea if I started teaching the kids and coaches some practical lessons on how to perform different tasks that many people never experience anymore."
