When Tavares Johnson accepted the head football coaching position at Vicksburg High, one of his long-term goals was to get his Gators to interact with the community in various service projects.

In the wake of the Mississippi High School Activities Association penalties for a brawl with Murrah Oct. 19, the project has taken greater importance as the program aims to rebuild its reputation.

The MHSAA didn’t order the team to perform community service, but the Gators volunteered their own time Friday by reading to children at Bowmar Elementary and intend for their reading project to be a weekly one, if possible. In addition, during Thanksgiving, the Gators plan to hand out gift baskets at several local nursing homes.

Vicksburg defensive coordinator Darrell Scott, who is running the team while Johnson recuperates from injuries sustained while trying to break up the fracas, said the program is part of Johnson’s vision to help his players become good citizens — on and off the field.

Scott feels that building a rapport with the community is vital for the Gators to take the next step as a football program.

“This project will show our kids are well-behaved,” Scott said. “You want to take that negative look out of the situation, when emotions flared that night, it was in the heat of battle. We run a pretty decent program and we put the community first. It’s not all about football games.”

Scott hopes the community service program will be a good life lesson for Vicksburg’s players, in addition to what they learn on the practice field, in meetings and under the lights on Fridays.

“If you look at your big programs, there is life outside of football,” Scott said. “Football is year round, weight lifting, conditioning, but you have to give to your community, because without your community, your program doesn’t exist.

“Football is a life lesson,” he continued. “It teaches you to deal with different adversities. It teaches you to deal with the highs, as well as the lows. Everyone won’t go on to play at the collegiate level and everyone at the collegiate level won’t go on to play at the NFL level, but if you can take kids on whatever level they’re playing on and teach them to better themselves morally and spiritually, it shows it’s not just about the Friday night lights.”

Another lesson that Scott hopes the ongoing project will teach Vicksburg’s players is that good works don’t always involve a checkbook.

“Everyone thinks that it (service) has to be in a money form,” Scott said. “It doesn’t. Time is a valuable thing and if we can take time out of our day to give to the youth and to the community, I’m pretty sure one day, even if we just touch one person, it’ll be valuable for us at Vicksburg High School.”