Just wanted to brag on our high school here in League City.... Clear Creek loaded with winners Wildcats team up to lend assistance to Kingwood player Sometimes, there are things bigger than the final score or where you stand in your district race. Kudos to the Clear Creek Wildcats for bringing that to our attention. Following their game against Kingwood last Friday, the Wildcats made an impressive gesture. During the week leading up to the game, some of the Wildcats were browsing the Internet to find out facts about Kingwood that would fire them up. Instead, they came across the story of Matthew Seitz, a Kingwood player who is battling cancer. So the Wildcats took it upon themselves — without any prompting from the coaching staff — to start raising money to donate to a fund in Seitz's name. "For those kids to jump in there and raise those funds, it was an enormous accomplishment," Kingwood coach Dougald McDougald said. "There was just so much character and class shown by those kids." The players pitched in themselves, then asked for donations during the school's lunch period and at Clear Creek's junior varsity football game. They collected $547.34, and after Kingwood's 28-0 win the Wildcats gave the money to McDougald on the field to donate to the Matthew F. Seitz Medical Fund, which was established to help the Seitz family with medical costs. Then they knelt in prayer. "I've been coaching for 25 years and it was one of the most amazing things I've seen," McDougald said. Seitz was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer in early June. He has been undergoing chemotherapy and is scheduled to have surgery on his upper left arm on Sept. 19. His father, Jim Seitz, says Matthew plans to join his teammates to watch and support them from the sideline when the Mustangs play Alvin next week. Jim Seitz said he and his family were touched by the gesture the Clear Creek players made. "Every time we think about it, it just brings tears to our eyes," he said. "It's just an amazing act of kindness. Here they go to help him, and they haven't even met him." Clear Creek coach Darrell Warden said the idea came from junior defensive back Will Tragni, and other players joined in and ran with it to raise as much as they could. Warden stressed how proud he was when he found out what they had done. "You're always concerned with what your players are doing on and off the field," Warden said. "It's something like this that lets you know you're making some headway with them." I coached Will Tragni in basketball a few years ago. Just a great, great kid.
