Cooper Hurley Injury Lawyers stepped in to help when we heard about a break-in at the equipment shed of a Virginia Beach youth football team that threatened their attendance at a prestigious tournament in Florida.
The VB Cooke Redskins’ equipment shed was ransacked before a big trip to play in the national league championships in Florida in December. The team will be competing in the American Youth Football National Championship. The players aged 7 to 11 worked hard all season to compete.
The team was fundraising to cover the costs of the trip to Florida at the time of the break-in. The vandalism and theft at the hut in the Seatack area of Virginia Beach left them facing an uphill task.
Cooper Hurley Injury Lawyers helped them out by making a donation of $1,400 to head coach Dequan Johnson last week.
Johnson said someone ransacked the team’s equipment shed. He found about 15 shoulder pads and helmets missing, nine team jerseys were stolen, and the shed was spray painted.
“I feel real, real bad to know that somebody would want to take from the kids. Not even us — it’s the kids,” Johnson said. “Our kids were hurt by the incident.”
Cooper Hurley Injury Lawyers decided to help the team as soon as we heard the news. Johnson is one of partner Bill O’Mara’s former clients.
“The community is important to us. We here at Cooper Hurley are part of the community. We were upset when we heard what happened,” said Bill O’Mara.
“We actually decided we were going to step in and help before we even realized coincidentally that the coach Dequan is a former client of mine. We reached out to Dequan. We wanted to try to make this right,” he said. “These kids qualified for the national tournament in Florida. They cannot play in the tournament without equipment.”
Bill O’Mara said the donation will allow the team to buy new jerseys and equipment and take part in the tournament in Florida and “hopefully bring home the championship.”
“When I represented Dequan, I told him if you ever need anything you let us know. We mean it when we say that to our clients,” he said.
The shed is at Seatack North Park close to the Virginia Beach Law Enforcement Training Academy. There were no signs of forced entry at the hut, WAVY reported.
Go to the VB Cooke Redskins Facebook page to find out how to make a donation. The team is trying to raise $5,000 for the trip to Florida.
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