Seniors Mike James and Brandon McGee, juniors A.J. Highsmith and Akil Craig and freshmen Tracy Howard, Deon Bush and Gray Crow helped deliver 48 turkey dinners and other traditional nonperishable Thanksgiving food items to the Greater Mercy Missionary Baptist Church in Overtown on Tuesday.

The wife of coach Al Golden, Kelly Golden, as well as Diona Kehoe, Valerie McNamee, Kelly Pierce, Hurlie Brown, Brandon Lumish and Ryan McNamee accompanied the players.

“It’s great, we have a lot of kids that come from that area, they’re blessed and they had an opportunity with Ryan McNamee, our assistant operations director, to give back, which is tremendous,” Golden said Wednesday.

“The community wins and our kids grow up a lot because of it. They understand gratitude and appreciate what they have so I think it’s a really important lesson for everybody.”

• Golden said the team, which practiced on the soccer field Wednesday, will have a light practice Thursday morning. UM leaves for Duke on Friday.

Manny Navarro