Kentucky Football Press Conference
Kentucky Football Media Conference
Kroger Field – Lexington, Ky.
Monday, June 3, 2019
Student Athletes
#67, Landon Young, OT
Opening Statement …
“I just want to say how excited I was to be on this trip. I want to thank Jason [Schlafer], Coach Stoops, and Mitch [Barnhart] just for being able to throw all of this together and for us to have the opportunity to be able to go and just give back a little bit to the people of Ethiopia. I had a really, really good time over there and I’m sure these guys will concur. It was a long ride over there, but we got to do a lot of things throughout the week. For example, my biggest impact thing that I got to go through was, we did a feeding program in Tonto Mountain, Ethiopia, where we hiked up what felt like roughly five miles, but it was probably closer to a mile and a half, two miles, something like that. We got to go up there and walk with some locals and feed roughly 300 kids or so in a feeding program there where they got to eat some rice and bread. That was just amazing seeing all those kids and just how well behaved they were, how disciplined they were, how selfless they were. We went up there and fed them all and ended up with getting to where there were three left at the end that didn’t get food and we gave them some snacks to make sure they got food as well. The process of being able to give an actual hungry kid food was just something that will never leave my mind. Just seeing their face light up, seeing how grateful they were just to get a meal. You saw at the beginning when we fed them that there were a couple of kids that would even pour all of their food onto one plate and share from the same plate because of the different serving sizes that they had. Just to see kids that literally have nothing, that this may be one of their only meals for the week, and most definitely one of their only hot meals for the week, just be so selfless to pour all their food and eat together as a community, that was amazing. Seeing them help out the person next to them and feed the person next to them, give a little bit of food off their plate, that was amazing too. Just to see they don’t have anything, and they’re willing to sacrifice everything for their friends and their family and people up on that hill. Another thing going up onto Tonto [Mountain], we got to see a lot of people that worked off the mountain. The kids that we were actually walking up the hill with, they live on the top of the hill and walk down the hill every single day for school. While me Calvin [Taylor], and Boogie [Watson] were over here, and Jason, sweating really bad, all the way through our shirts just winded and breathing hard, these little kids were just walking up next to us with not a bead of sweat of their forehead. It was absolutely insane. I said ‘Man, I am really out of shape,’ after I saw that. The fact that they do that every single day just for the opportunity to go to school really humbled me a lot. We saw women that would create these bundles of sticks that they would carry on their back all the way down the hill every single day. They said it would take six hours to make the bundle of sticks and they could be upward of 300 pounds. They could make these bundles, put them on their back, walk all the way down the hill, sell them and walk all the way back up the hill for the night to make little to no money all week. That was amazing. Calvin actually tried to pick one up and couldn’t do it, so that speaks a lot to these 5-foot-nothing women who had these 12-foot-wide bundles of wood on their back carrying them back and selling them on the hill.
What I took away from that trip and just being able to go up on that mountain and doing that feeding program, is just how good we have it over here. Just the luxury of being able to get up in the morning and get into our air conditioned-car. There’s no air conditioning over there anywhere. Just being able to be able to drive to school and that we’re getting to play at the University of Kentucky for free, on scholarship. That we’re able to have a hot meal whenever we want it and being able to eat as much as we want. It just really humbles you that we have it so good and these kids are still so selfless that they will share maybe their only meal of the week with somebody else. But again, I’d like to thank Jason, Mr. Barnhart and Stoops for putting this together and giving us this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something I never would’ve been able to go on if it wasn’t for UK football to let me do it.”
On what impact they left on the children …
“This is something that those kids are going to remember forever. We sort of joked with Jason [Schlafer] that it’s kind of like a fish story, it’s going to keep on getting bigger and better for future generations. Just seeing the smiles on their faces and just giving them an experience that they may never have again. Some of these kids, no matter what, it’s going to be hard for them to break the cycle. Some of these kids are going to live in Korah for the rest of their life. Who knows, they may have an injury and be forced into to Korah but they can always look back and say we had those big guys come over and we got to go to a movie with them. We got to go eat dinner with them and we got a coke and a popcorn. That’s impactful for us because it’s sort of like we’re leaving a mark and planting a seed for those kids. We’re not trying to take all the credit for it because Ordinary Hero does a lot, and a lot of the other groups do a lot as well, but if we can plant a seed to break that cycle for at least one kid, I feel like we’ve done good work and we’ve helped out a lot. It’s just so rare to see somebody break out over there and do something good. We met a guy named Tesfaye that ran sort of the Korah area. When he was young, he lived in Korah and being able to get sponsored allowed him to get two degrees, including one in computer engineering. Instead of going out and working a real job, he decided to give up everything to help his village and help Korah. That was powerful considering you have guys who come to this university and it’s not even a thought to when you get your degree to go and get a job in your field. Imagine someone going and getting a doctorate degree and just abandoning everything to go help his hometown. That’s what Tesfaye did. That’s really powerful just considering how much love and how much care he has for that whole area. He’s willing to give up everything just to help one person break the cycle.”
On talking to the kids about American Football …
“Usually when we said football, they thought we played soccer, and so we pulled out a little football and sort of did a little demonstration of what we do. It was hard to do with only three people, but we gave them a pretty good rough idea. I threw the ball to Boogie and Calvin tackled him. I asked if they had ever watched American football and a bunch of them said yes but when we pulled out that actual football, they all had wide eyes, like what is that? But no, I don’t think many knew about what American football was.”
On riding camels …
“There are not 300-pounders in Ethiopia. That camel had never seen what was coming at it. The worse thing was, the camel went and had lunch while we had lunch and it still wasn’t done when I had to ride it after lunch, so it was hurting. It was very sore. You can ask [Boogie and Calvin], it tried to get up with me a couple of times before it finally did it. It was growling.”
On absorbing the fact that their home is a landfill …
“It’s crazy because you see and hear people all around us every day that complain that their house isn’t big enough or their car isn’t nice enough, and these people…you can’t even own land over there. It’s pretty much a long-term lease, so to see people live in a trash dump…we met one woman that still has to pay $40 a month for her section of land in the trash dump. To see that they have to pay for that, and they’re literally living around trash with mosquitos, with flies absolutely everywhere, and I’m sure you get used to the stench, but the smell was just something that you’ve never experienced. It’s crazy to think that they still have shelter, but that people have such little improvements in their home life, and they literally have to dig through trash or find another tarp in the trash just to make sure rain doesn’t leak on them while they sleep. It’s just amazing to know that there are people that even though the live in that situation still have that amount of love and care that they do. Everywhere is just smiles, it’s love, it’s holding hands and it’s hugs. That’s what really, really amazed me about that.”
On what they can take back from the trip …
“Something I talked about in one of our team huddles late one of those nights is a really powerful thing that I took away from the trip and that’s even though your living conditions aren’t great, or if you get three meals a day or you get one meal every week, nobody is better than anyone else. We’re all equal and they treated everybody just as equal, no matter if they lived in Korah or if they lived on the countryside. They look at everybody as family, they treat everyone accordingly, and if you need help, they’re there to help you out. If you just need a hug, they’re there to hug you. It just really showed me that there’s no difference and there’s no difference for people to treat anybody as their lesser because they put their pants on one leg at a time just like you do every single day. They eat just like you do every single day. They work just like you every single day. So, there’s no sense in treating them any different.”
On how the people remained joyous despite their living conditions …
“I think a lot of it for them was their faith. It was a very prominent thing over there. They had Orthodox Christians and they had Muslims. They all believed that was their plan by God and that there were always better days in the waiting if they believed. That resonated with me because I’m very strong about my faith and to see a whole country that was so prominent in their faith that they could believe that everything is happening for a reason and always have belief that it’s going to get better. The kid that Calvin had, he was an amazing little boy. I literally swear to this that you could have probably slapped that kid across the face and he still would have smiled at you. He always had joy on his face and was always grateful for every little thing whether it be because he got drink a coke or just got some popcorn. No matter what it was, he was grateful for it, even the candy. They love candy.”
On picking the kids up and tattoos …
“On Tonto Mountain, Calvin and Boogie made the mistake with all of these kids getting around us and picking them up into the air. Every single 315 kids that were there then wanted to be picked up and swung around, and if one got it once, the other wanted to do it twice. That was really cool just to see that something like that could make them that happy, so we just had to start being like ‘we can’t pick y’all up anymore.’
They loved their tattoos and there was a girl that had a marker there and she completely drew her arm up and tried to match their tattoos. That was really, really funny to see and really cool that they just looked up to us like idols even though we’re just normal guys there just to try and make a difference.”
#31, Jamar “Boogie” Watson, OLB
Opening Statement …
“First, I just want to thank Jason [Schlafer], Coach Stoops, and Mitch [Barnhart] for the experience. It was my first time out of the country so just that experience alone is something that I will remember forever. The most impactful thing for me on the trip was going to an area called Korah. It is surrounding a trash dump in Ethiopia. Basically, everyone in that area lives off of the trash dump. The food, their houses, everything they get comes from the trash dump mainly. They said when the airport drops off their trash that’s like a five-star meal for them because the airport has the best food. Seeing those kids and their families have to live off of that, seeing the trash dump and seeing that that’s where they get their main source of food is kind of crazy to me. Growing up, I’ve complained to my parents that I don’t want McDonalds, I want this. Stuff like that. Seeing them have to do that makes it very hard to complain about a meal or anything ever again. Just the experience as a whole was very eye opening. They live completely different out there, but at the same time, everyone has a smile on their face. They don’t have much to be happy about from our eyes, but every person we came across was excited to be there, excited to see us. They walked around with a smile on their face every day. Just being there makes me very grateful to be in the situation I’m in. Every day I think of how grateful I am and how blessed I am to be in the place that I’m in.”
On what is was like to leave the country …
“I saw some stuff that I expected to see, but for the most part it was new to me. There were all types of animals. It was crazy. The flight alone, I’d never been on a flight that long. Just the whole experience of going out of the country was great. I really enjoyed it.”
On riding camels …
“[The camel] was foaming at the mouth. Very different [from riding a horse.]”
On how they will re-focus on football …
“I think it’ll be easy becaue seeing that makes you work that much harder. I can’t imagine giving one of them the opportunity that we have to go work out every day and have the opportunity to go to school and get a degree for free. I’m just trying to put myself in their shoes. The opportunity that we’re blessed with just drives me that much harder to go work out and go try and be great.”
ference and be able to give back to them a little bit.”
#91, Calvin Taylor, DE
Opening Statement …
“I would like to thank Jason [Schlafer] and also Ms. Kelly (Putty) with Ordinary Hero. That’s the organization that allowed us to come stay in their guest house and also participate in all of these activities. My biggest takeaway also came from Korah. Korah translates to ‘The Village of the Forgotten.’ People go there that have certain disabilities and diseases or just other various things. As Boogie [Watson] said, they live off a landfill. It supports pretty much everybody in the village. My biggest takeaway from that was just the sense of love like God’s love or just love in general. These people don’t have many resources, so for me I think that would be a very daunting task. To them, they allocated every single resource from anything they find in the trash dump to build their homes, food, just anything they could use. Even medicine, if they could find it. Just anything. I thought that was very powerful. Even in the most adverse circumstances, everyone seemed genuinely happy. It was just love in general, so if anyone could just help the next person they would. We fed kids and the kids would feed their friends before they ate themselves. I thought that was very powerful because myself, I know that I would be selfish and I would eat first before I fed my friends, so I thought that was very powerful to me. It just gave us the chance to give back and for people to see us. We could brighten their days with something small like just spending time with them or bringing them food. It just really impacted their lives. To pile on to that, we also took some kids out of Korah to a movie. We don’t speak Amharic at all and maybe learned 10 words apiece, but they couldn’t understand anything we said. Just us taking them out of the city, they’ve never left their village. We took them to a movie and we saw Avengers: End Game, which that’s a pretty cool movie for someone to see as their first movie. It was so powerful just to see. We had little buddies, so each of us had one, so my buddy was just…his face just lit up every time he saw me. They hold hands as a sign of affection and he was just holding my hand, very excited the whole movie. It was so great to be able to pour love back into them and just be able to do that. It was a wonderful experience that I wouldn’t have gotten any other way. It was an eye opener. It changes your perspective. It gives you a perspective that there is no way I would’ve gotten unless I went to Ethiopia. Again, I want to thank Jason and Coach Stoops, just everybody in administration for allowing us to go. It was an honor to be able to go and to be selected. It felt great. So, I just want to thank everybody.”
On the devastating landslide that happened in Korah and if they spoke of that …
“Actually, when were there they actually talked about it. It killed roughly 200 people, so we saw the area where the majority of the homes got wiped out. I couldn’t even put it into words. Just the loss in a community like that. I couldn’t even fathom losing 200 people in my neighborhood or anything like that. They obviously responded and they have helped other people build their homes back up. Like I said, they have a very strong sense of community, so with that strong sense of community, everybody was able to overcome that situation.”
On if they knew about Ordinary Hero before the trip …
“I didn’t. It honestly was kind of a surprise when we first landed. They picked us up from the airport, so when we got to the guest house where we were staying, we had a little team huddle and introduced ourselves. Through the week, after we would go out at maybe 7 p.m. at night, we would all have a group huddle, and we would all talk about our experiences through the day. All of us journaled every day so we wouldn’t forget anything. We honestly became a family. Ms. Kelly gave us her testimony and then everybody pretty much gave a testimony, so by the end of the week, we became a very close-knit group. Ordinary Hero, how she kind of broke it down, is when she was first over there, somebody said that she was a hero because she would give back, but she was like, ‘No. I’m just an ordinary hero.’ It kind of gives you the power for everybody to do it. It’s hard, but it’s not something impossible. We all can do it. We can all give back. Just, everything honestly counts. That’s what the slogan of Ordinary Hero means. You can be ordinary, but you can also help people. You don’t have to be somebody, like a polarizing figure, you can just be someone normal like me just being able to give back.”
On what they can take back from the trip …
“I take back a sense of being different. There’s no reason to make an excuse that you can’t do something, like I can’t do this because it’s raining or I can’t go to class, I can’t go to workouts because I’m tired or something like that. It’s just really a perspective of there’s no reason to make an excuse to do anything. You can do anything. If those people can do anything with very limited resources and I have an abundance of resources just at my fingertips that I can use, then there’s no excuse in life for me. Honestly, it gives you the sense that you can do more. That’s what the main takeaway for me. I can’t make any excuses honestly.”
On how they will re-focus on football …
“They also built a makeshift weight room over there which I thought was really powerful, so I honestly couldn’t wait to get back and start working out with a newfound perspective. It’s a new kind of drive to work out and just go a little harder, give a little extra, so it kind of made the transition a little easier. I have a bracelet that I usually wear every day. I took it off for this because we have weight room, but I wear it every day. When I look at my wrist, I can kind of just see it, just something over here. I can be driving or hear something watching TV and I just see something and it gives me a flashback to where I was. It’s something that will be with me forever and they will remember us. Some of the guys that had went before, they still remember them and would say their names. They’ll always have a little piece of me.”
