The first Tuesday of each month, we interview someone from Charlotte Latin Athletics with twenty questions to help the CLS community get to know some of our athletes, coaches, and supporters a bit better.
 
This November, meet Ms. Evatt's second grade class. Throughout the fall season, starting in August, this group of seven- and eight-year-olds have been providing a special kind of support to our varsity football team. Each week that the team has a game, these Lower School students decorate paper sacks with encouraging pictures and messages, which the players receive stuffed with Chick-Fil-A biscuits after Thursday morning walk-through practices. The following day, Game Day, several of the players visit the class during the Upper School's Community Time to play games and do activities with Ms. Evatt's students. It's a tradition passed down to Ms. Evatt from Marsha Ashcraft, who retired in 2024 after 26 years in the Lower School. In this unique, multi-person Tuesday 20, you'll hear from several different perspectives, but the real stars are the second graders! Read on to learn about this beloved Charlotte Latin tradition that creates authentic connections between some of our Lower and Upper School students.
 
1. Mrs. Ashcraft, how did this second-grade connection with the varsity football team initially start?
Mrs. Ashcraft: I think it was around 2004 or 2005, maybe? I was talking with my class about the football game that night and asking them who was planning to go, but most of them didn't even know there was a game and had never been to the stadium. So we walked over to Patten to see it, and I saw a player in the distance that I thought was my son, Ben. I started calling to him and waving at him, but it turned out to be a varsity player who wore the same number as Ben (who was on JV at the time). We struck up a conversation and I said he should come by and visit our classroom some time. He did! And then he kept coming and bringing more friends, and it all started from there.
 
2. That was a very serendipitous start. How did you keep it going?
Mrs. Ashcraft: It has to be intentional, and the players have to buy-in. It also takes a specific type of teacher to take it on, because it is extra work and it takes up instruction time. But there are so many valuable things that can be learned from these relationships, and the impact it can have on these kids – both the young ones and the teenagers. That's something you can't teach.
 
3. Ms. Evatt, you were approached by Mrs. Ashcraft before her retirement about taking over the tradition of hosting the varsity football players. What did you think when she asked you?
Ms. Evatt: I was completely honored. I see it as such a privilege. What's special about a school like this is that even though they leave your grade, you still get to see kids develop over time. The thought of knowing that in a few short years, kids that I taught could come back and take on the leadership role as players – that's really exciting.
 
4. How does it work?
Ms. Evatt: We decorate the bags at the beginning of the week. There are 43 bags, so we do some on Monday and some on Tuesday. During morning work, we have a slide on the board that shows who the opponent is and a little blurb about anything extra like Homecoming or senior night that differentiates the game, along with some football-specific images like a helmet or field goal post. The seniors and captains get personalized bags, so we (Ms. Evatt and her assistant teacher, Mrs. Little) created a schedule so everyone gets a turn doing those and I feel like those bags get the most effort. Especially as the weeks go on and the kids now know the players they're making the bags for, the messages have become more personal.
 
5. That's Monday and Tuesday, but then you also have the classroom visits on Fridays. Do you worry about missed instruction time?
Ms. Evatt: The Upper School Community Time is usually when we do math, so we have to move those lessons around to accommodate the visits, but it's 100-percent worth it. We plan activities each week that promote interaction and hopefully make it fun for these upperclassmen that are giving up their free time to hang out with seven and eight year olds. It might be a word search with football terms and the players just naturally start teaching the kids about the game. On one visit, we had the Lower School kids interview the players. Through the positive role models that these young men are and the relationships that have formed, my class is learning something equally as important as math.
 
6. Have there been any unexpected surprises? 
Ms. Evatt: The kids get so excited for the players' visits on Fridays and they line up at our classroom door to watch and wait. When they see the players walking toward the classroom, they start chanting, "Let's go Hawks!" We never told them to do that. And then they started setting up a bridge or a tunnel with their arms for the players to walk through. They just naturally started doing that around the third visit and it is really heartwarming. (Click here to see the spirit tunnel in action!) 
 
7. Varsity football players, do you guys enjoy going to Ms. Evatt's class?
Anthony McGill, Jr.: Yeah, it's great. When you can be with the same kids each week, you get to know them and they get to know you.
Myles Gathers: It's actually really fun.
Matthew Flynn: Yeah, I look forward to it. The kids get so excited.
Banks Cutter: It's my favorite Charlotte Latin football tradition.
 
8. Ms. Evatt's Second Grade Class, had any of you been to a Charlotte Latin football game before this year?
A few hands go up. One student says, "I go to Hawk Hill."
 
9. How many of you have gone to a game this year, and did you see a player you'd met on the field?  
About half the hands go up. Two boys excitedly share:
"I saw one and it was awesome because he scored a touchdown."
"I met one of their dads and he showed me a picture and told me I could get his autograph, but I don't remember his name."  
 
10. Can anyone explain what you guys do to support the football players?
"We make them football bags with little treats inside them."
"We write them messages to help them win."
"We do mazes and charades and stuff with them."
"We play games with them and do word searches and sometimes we do hidden pictures."
 
11. How do you like to decorate the bags?
"We might put a big sign that says, 'Go Hawks!'"
"We put the mascot of the team we're playing against and put a big X through it."
"I like to write, 'Never give up!'"
"I write, 'Hawks fly together.'"
 
12. Do you think the bags are important?
"It feels like we're giving them prizes that help them win the game."
"I feel like the team wins because we're giving them courage from the bags."
 
13. Your teacher told me that you interviewed the players. Who can tell me about that visit?
"We asked them things like what their favorite color is or what is their favorite position."
"Our teachers gave us some questions, but we got to ask our own too."
"At the end of our interview, the players gave us some advice that was like encouragement."
 
14. What have you enjoyed most about your visits with the football players?
"I like when we play games."
"I like when they give me high fives."
"I like when, before they leave, they pick us up high in the air."
"We sing 'Go Hawks!"
"We line up at the door and sometimes we make a bridge and they have to do this (ducks down) to go under."
 
15. What's something you learned about the players from their visits?
"The guy that I did for my first bag, he goes by Junior McGill, but his name isn't actually Junior."
"I learned that even though they're big, you shouldn't go that aggressive on them."
"I learned that even though they're big, they're still kids too."
"I don't remember which Matthew it was, either Matthew Barber or Matthew Flynn, but he told me he has played every position except quarterback."
"I learned that they're all like a big family. They're still kids and they still play together. When I raced them in the maze, they were also racing against each other."
"Yeah, two of them were both trying to tell me that they are a better player than the other one."
 
16. How do you feel when the team gets a win?
"We feel happy."
"We feel grateful."
"We feel like we cheered them on and we feel pride."
 
17. What about when we have a loss. How do you feel about that?
"Bad!"
"We feel like we let them down."
"It makes me sad."
"We work harder on their bags to make sure they can win the next game."
"I was there when we lost and so I just said hi to Matthew Barber."
"We tell them that it's okay. That's what we try to do through our bags."
 
18. Do any of you feel an extra special connection with one of the players that visits your classroom?
"Matthew Flynn because his mom is my sister's teacher."
"Banks because he always comes to our classroom."
"Matthew…I don't remember his last name, but he is number 50. He is my favorite because he's always the funnest and silliest."
"Troy because he plays my favorite position."
"Myles because he is always nice to me."
"I like Griffin Donnelly because he might be littler than the other seniors, but he's fast."
"I like…um, number 10. Oh, Junior, because he kept telling me 'You got it' and he's nice."
 
19. Do any of you hope to play a sport for Charlotte Latin when you get old enough? If so, what?
"What if we have two?"
"I would like to do basketball and football, but I don't know which one, and my mom is trying to make me decide which one and I said I would do that when I am eight."
"I would want to do cheer."
"Soccer or basketball."
"Cheer and tennis."
"Baseball."
"Cheer and field hockey."
"Baseball and football."
"Debate and baseball."
"Either football or lacrosse."
"Swimming."
"Soccer and basketball."
"Swimming and soccer."
"Football."
"Football."
"If by the time I'm old enough, if they have a girls' football team, I would like to play football."
 
20. Okay, last question. What is something you've learned from supporting the football players this year?   
"I've learned that you always have to have good sportsmanship."
"I've learned that even though we're just little kids, we can still do something to help the bigger kids."