LIBERTY CENTER, Ohio — Football players across the state are getting ready to face off in the state championship, but players on one of the teams are taking time out of their busy week to help some younger students who may soon follow in their footsteps.

What You Need To Know

• Tobin Pieracini and other seniors on the Liberty Center football team visit a third-grade classroom once a week to help students with their reading and math in a fun way


• The football players and third graders split into teams during one of their visits, as they went head-to-head, trying to see who can answer each math problem the fastest


• The visits are also inspiring to a lot of the kids

Tobin Pieracini and other seniors on the Liberty Center Football Team visit a third-grade classroom once a week to help students with their reading and math in a fun way, and there’s a different activity each time.

“Our goal is to have fun with them,” Pieracini said. “They have something planned every week. We’re just glad to be able to stop in for 30, 45 minutes and kind of make their day because every time we leave, they’re always super excited.”

The football players and third graders split into teams during one of their visits, as they went head-to-head, trying to see who can answer each math problem the fastest.

Raellen Shadler teaches in one of the classrooms they visit, and she says getting them all in one room is a pivotal moment for all these kids.

"You know, it means more to these kids than these boys ever can imagine,” she said. “It's not about football when they come to this classroom. They're a motivator. These kids, Monday through Friday, they work hard because they know the football players are coming and they get to work with them. When they see them in the hallways, too. They make them feel like they're somebody.”

It’s inspiring kids like 9-year-old Dawkins Badenhop.

"They (the football players) always, like, pick me up sometimes,” he said. “They always encourage me."