
Armani Rodriguez wasn’t sure he wanted to continue in Scouting. He had been in the program since he was a Cub Scout. His father was a Scoutmaster. He had seen his older brother Nathaniel earn the Eagle Scout rank. Scouting was engrained in his family.
Still, as a teenager, he was instead focused on another passion that he had been involved in since he was 11 years old: football.
“You can call your teammates ‘brothers,’” Rodriguez, now 18, says. “You have a relationship like nobody else. For 10 months of the year, you’re working out, working hard, and we all have one goal. Football helps us become who we are.”
A Scouting unit is a team too. And his leaders in Troop 1 of Providence, R.I., (aka “First Providence Troop”) weren’t going to let him pull up before reaching the Eagle Scout rank.
Combining passions
Rodriguez’s Scoutmaster, Mike Hogan, and his father teamed up to convince him to earn Eagle. He was soon reminded how Scouting had contributed to the skills that he was using on his football team.
“Scouts helped me find my leadership,” Rodriguez says. “The younger classmen look up to the upper classmen.”
When it came to picking an Eagle Scout project, Rodriguez wanted to do something a little different. He looked into several possibilities but ended up settling on helping youth in his community by organizing a free football clinic.
“Think outside the box,” he says. “Find something you love first — football was my thing. I wanted to help the youth. There’s not a lot of opportunities for them; they don’t have the funds to go to a football camp.”
Hut, hut, hike!
The clinic wasn’t meant to just be a day of throwing the pigskin around. Rodriguez set up four stations that honed the participants’ agility, teamwork and strength. He recruited more than a dozen volunteers, including some of his high school football teammates, to help run the stations for the 30 youth that registered. They also ran contests at each of the clinic stations, and the winners received T-shirts.
“Everything went according to plan,” Rodriguez says. “The kids loved it.”
Not only was the clinic fun for the kids, but it also aimed to improve their self-confidence and physical fitness. He recognized that younger youth will need to Be Prepared for their next phase in life.
“They’re going to be in our same position,” Rodriguez says.
Rodriguez was a four-year starter on his high school football team, playing both center and defensive lineman, helping the Central High Knights make it to the state championship one of those years. He hopes to play ball in college and already has an internship with a construction company. He’s also pursuing another interest of his: carpentry. As he looks forward to the next season of his life, he now knows the value of earning the Eagle Scout rank.
“Being an Eagle Scout, it helps you with everything,” Rodriguez says.
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