Miami Dolphins draw tears with gift to girls flag football team
WATCH: Miami Dolphins support Forest Hill flag football with surprise gifts
The Junior Dolphins dropped a surprise at Forest Hill High School on Wednesday in support of the Falcons’ burgeoning girls flag football program.
Alex Peterman, Special to The Post
WEST PALM BEACH – Players yelled their enthusiasm, a coach was brought to tears and the Miami Dolphins made good on a promise Wednesday afternoon.
Forest Hill’s girls flag football team was the collective recipient of the Junior Dolphins Fall Donation, a community program designed to positively impact schools across South Florida.
“In our community efforts in the last five years, we’ve tried to impact over 50 schools,” Miami Dolphins manager of youth programs Aaron Harris said. “Not only have we reached that goal, we surpassed it. At the same time, we’ve provided over five hundred thousand dollars’ worth of equipment.”
Falcons footballers were treated to a lunch by Pollo Tropical, who partnered with the Dolphins for the event, after listening to a few words of wisdom from the likes of Harris, along with President and CEO of the Education Foundation of Palm Beach County James and Adam Miller, Chief of Performance Accountability for Palm Beach County School District.
And of course, in the middle of that, was the fun part.
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The girls led the Dolphins program leaders in a countdown before the equipment truck was opened, revealing gifts such as football cleats and training equipment in addition to the Dolphins T-shirts and team hats they’d donned at the beginning of the event.
“We just love it, because not only are we growing participation in football, but girls flag football – and that’s what is really, really special about doing it in South Florida.”
Perhaps the best part of it all? It was a complete surprise for the girls. Only head coach Angelica Blum knew of the plan, which was introduced to her earlier this year.
For Blum, it was a hard-kept secret for such a tremendous gift to the program – and to the girls who put so much work into it.
“They actually called me this summer, and I cried for about a month,” Blum said. “I also wasn’t allowed to tell anyone about it. It was a big surprise, which was super awesome. It pays off today, but it’s been really hard keeping this in, because I’m a talker,” she said with a laugh.
As the event winded down, Forest Hill players walked around thanking all those who were part of the event, offering handshakes and genuine appreciation.
Among them were Taylor Brockman, Lainy Gonzalez, and Tiffany Winston.
Winston expressed shock at the event, and Gonzalez explained why it was so meaningful.
“We’ve been playing since our freshman year, and we’d been using previous, old jerseys,” Gonzalez said. “Sometimes, they had rips. It’s our senior year, and we finally get to have stuff brand new.”
“Thank you,” she finished, a statement echoed a dozen times and more by the entire team as the Junior Dolphins left the program with bigger smiles than when they’d arrived.
