Coach David Moore stood in front of Mar Vista High School in Imperial Beach and smiled. He was happy even though someone broke into his football team’s locker room, spray-painted graffiti on tables and lockers, dumped Gatorade on a pile of uniforms and stole roughly 50 footballs.
Towards the end of October, team captain Nathan Pulido found the mess before a Monday practice.
“‘Oh, I need to tell my coach. I need to tell him,’” the senior captain recalled.
Coach Mo, as his players call him, said someone apparently broke in over the weekend. The missing footballs really hurt. Coach Mo said each one costs more than $100 to replace.
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“So, for 50 to be gone, it definitely took a pretty penny out of our budget right there,” he smiled.
Yes. He smiled.
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“I’m frustrated but this is not a negative story. For me this is super positive,” said Moore.
He posted a picture of the vandalized locker room on Twitter and was instantly rushed with offers to help.
“‘I’m sending you 10 footballs tomorrow,’” he smiled while ticking off the messages. “‘I got a mop. I got a bucket. I’m coming down to help you clean up.’”
“The smile comes from everybody having a big heart right about now,” added Coach Mo.
“It felt really happy,” said Pulido. “There’s so much great people in this world.”
The break-in appeared to motivate the team even though they didn’t have any quality balls to use during practice.
“Oh, it was not a setback at all,” shrugged Pulido.
In Mar Vista’s very next game, they notched a school record 10 touchdowns.
“It just shows the resilience of these kids,” concluded Coach Mo.
A couple of online fundraisers have been established to make sure his team is ready for next season. In the meantime, Coach said he was proud of the football community.
“The good is way overshadowing the bad.”
The school said it didn’t know who broke into the locker room. The mess was wiped away in less than a day by the school’s cleaning crew.
