News 12 First at Five; May 12, 2008

LOUISVILLE, Ga. --- It's a total team effort to clean up the damage from this weekend's storms in Jefferson County. This time, a high school football team took the clean-up challenge. That team, including freshman to seniors at Thomas Jefferson Academy in Louisville. They grabbed a rake, got dirty and showed pride in their school.

A flag pole that's bend looks like a scene straight out of World War II, but on this Monday morning, it's not.

"At first, I was like why us? Then, I realized everything happens for a reason," says football player and junior Ben Phillips.

Ben is taking the lead and almost all of his teammates following behind to clean up their school after Sunday's Storms left a mess.

"We are extremely proud of our school. We take pride in our football team. We want it to look good," says Ben.

This clean up, "we're really just moving around limbs, trying to get everything cleaned up," says Ben, is so much more than just bagging up the debris.

"In the locker room, they don't come together but out here today, they come together to help each other out. They're trying to be better to each other. It's incredible," says Ben.

"I'm not going to lie, I rather be lifting weights but you know, what needs to be done, needs to be done," says football player and junior Derrick Mathas.

You can see the damage just by driving past the school... it needed to be done.

"Actions speak louder than words," says Derrick.

Those actions including raking, cutting and leading, all by example.

"This is our school. My school. I take pride in it. I love this school and all it stands for. And, we want it to look back to the way it was," says Ben.

They weren't the only local football team out in Louisville. The Jefferson County High School football team was out helping people in the community clean up after the storm.