State Patrol sergeant helps Seattle high school get new sports field

After talking about doing a better job at telling the story of inner-city schools, Sgt. Courtney Stewart of the Washington State Patrol encouraged us to consider connecting with the students and coaches at Cleveland High School in Seattle.

Before she became the longest-tenured female sergeant with the state patrol, Stewart was a standout college athlete herself, playing softball at Oregon State. As a collegiate athlete, she learned the value of skill and discipline while playing with a team. She learned how to turn obstacles into opportunities, and she learned resilience while overcoming struggle and failure.

When she saw the struggle at Cleveland High School, she decided to quietly take action.

Sgt. Stewart explained that one of her troopers, Nolan Washington, was an African-American football coach at Cleveland. She introduced us to this amazing young coach and we did a story on Trooper Washington last fall. You can read it here.

As we learned more about the Cleveland Football Program, we discovered how much grit and fortitude these coaches and their kids possessed. We also discovered three unique challenges they faced:

1. These kids were playing with outdated safety equipment. After our partners, the Seattle Seahawks heard about this on KIRO Radio, they recently bought the program $20,000 in brand new equipment. Also, five Seahawks players went to visit all the kids in the sports programs at the school. Their message to the kids was “to never give up” and to know “your community has not forgotten you.” You can read more about their visit here.
2. So, what about a field to use the brand new equipment? Cleveland still didn’t have one. We told you last year that the money for their utility field was approved six years ago, but the field was never built. Here is that story. That field is also a symbol. We said, “if you forget about building the field, you forget about these kids.” While all the other schools in the Seattle school district have updated sports utility fields, Cleveland has gone without. Well, we have some great news. Here is an update we just received from Flip Herndon, the Asst. Superintendent of Facilities and Operations at SPS.“We plan to start the project in July (2018) and finish before the end of September. This puts us about a month behind, but we should be fine on everything else. When we break ground it would be great to have the (radio) show there.” That is fantastic news. We’ll be there Flip.
3. Finally, we learned that some of these kids were showing up to play football in order to eat. We had never heard of such a thing. Coach Paul Arnold said, “my kids need protein.” So how was the Cleveland High School Football team getting protein before their games? Someone was going out and purchasing food for the entire team. We asked who was feeding a whole high school football and learned it was somebody the kids called their “Meal Mom.” It can cost a family of four over $100 to go out to dinner. How much was it costing this “Meal Mom” to feed an entire team over a 10-game schedule? Thousands? Who was this mysterious “phantom of food?” We would soon find out.

It was late last fall and it was the last game of the season for the Cleveland Eagles at Memorial Stadium. A group of us had been invited to speak to the kids after the game. One of our colleagues went to Costco to pick up some snacks so that we wouldn’t arrive empty-handed. While he was at Costco, he saw a familiar face with a huge cart full of hundreds of dollars of dinner items. It was enough to feed a whole football team.

It was Sgt. Courtney Stewart from the WSP. She had never told us that she was the Cleveland High School football team’s “Meal Mom.”

This year, Safeway has agreed to step in and help feed all the great athletes at Cleveland High School, but before there was a great partner like Safeway, there was a Washington State Patrol Sgt. who quietly showed up , reaching into her own pocket to make sure that the kids of Cleveland didn’t go hungry, and she also made sure that their story of perseverance, courage, and commitment was shared.

Because it’s been shared, the Seahawks, Safeway, KIRO Radio, and the Seattle Public School District have now all responded to help the kids at Cleveland. In fact, we will be there in July when the first shovel starts shoveling and we will return in September when we finally will hear the laughter of kids once again take over a sports field that had sat dormant for years. Would this all be happening right now if Sgt. Stewart had not reached out? Absolutely not.

At a recent event at Cleveland to receive the check from the Seattle Seahawks, Dr. Larry Nyland the Superintendent of SPS, and Mike Flood, the VP of outreach for the Seattle Seahawks, both sought out Sgt. Stewart to thank her personally. The football team wanted to honor her with a signed football, but her chair sat empty at the event. She didn’t want the attention.

When contacted by KIRO Radio, Stewart said, “I really didn’t do much. It was the dogged determination of others that made sure the kids’ story and their coaches was told. I get uncomfortable with attention. I am so appreciative to see Safeway step in to feed not only the football team, but all the kids playing sports at Cleveland. And to have the Seattle Seahawks surprise the entire school? That is just incredible. Talk about showing up!”

So just remember the next time you get pulled over by the Washington State Patrol. If it says “Sgt. Stewart”on the uniform, promise you’ll stop being a distracted driver, ask for a warning, and know that you were just pulled over by one of Washington State Patrol’s Top Cops. And by the Cleveland High School football team’s “Meal Mom.”

“Whether it’s for a stranded motorist, one of her troopers or for our kids at Cleveland, she always showed up. Always!” ~ Cleveland Head Football Coach, Paul Arnold

If you think you have the grit and fortitude to do what Sgt. Stewart does, the WSP is hiring. You can reach out to the Washington State Patrol at www.wsp.wa.gov. It all starts with just showing up.

Hanna Scott contributed to this story.