HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Football players from two teams who will compete this year in the Gasparilla Bowl on Friday build bicycles for dozens of students on Wednesday night.
Ryan Smenda, Jr. is a football player at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. He joined dozens of other athletes to build bicycles for students.
"Maybe they will be that next D1 athlete, that superstar and that’s what’s going to keep them up at night, keep them wishing, keep them dreaming big. That’s all we want to do out here, keep them dreaming," said Ryan Smenda, Jr., a football player at Wake Forest University.
Football players from Wake Forest University and the Missouri Tigers are in Tampa for the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl happening on Friday.
Students from Sligh Middle Magnet School and Foster Elementary in Tampa partnered with the athletes to build these bikes. The students later learned the bicycles were from them.
"Players from Wake Forest and Missouri, in partnership with the Gasparilla bowl and ESPN and the Bullard Family Foundation and so many great Tampa staples, have come together to pull off this community day," said Julius Tobin, co-founder of onbikes.
Titus O'Neil also attended Wednesday night's event. As part of the Gasparilla Bowl Gives Back initiative, teams handed out nearly 100 bicycles.
"It's really just about bringing all the kids together to have a good time and let the student-athletes interact with them," said Scott Glaser, Executive Director of the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl.
Wake Forest is set to take on Missouri in the 2022 Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl on Friday, Dec. 23, at 6:30 p.m. inside Raymond James Stadium.
