Staples Wreckers Football Workout Honors Our Veterans, Raising Money For Catch A Lift Fund
The Staples Wreckers football team takes to the stands before a presentation by Jason Smith, retired Army Sergeant who was severely wounded serving in Afghanistan. Above, (l. to r.) joining and assisting in the event is Adam Vengrow board member and vice president of the Catch A Lift Fund, Staples Football Head Coach Adam Behrends, Jim Adrian head of the Gridiron Club, First Selectwoman Jen Tooker, Catch A Lift team leader Andy Berman, Sergeant Smith proudly displaying a Wreckers State Championship ring he was given by the team, Westport Police Chief Foti Koskinas, Wreckers assistant coach Matty Jacowleff and office Brian Quick.
Photos and Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.
Thursday evening, Westport’s Staples High School Wreckers football team participated in their version of the Murph Memorial workout, a CrossFit workout that honors U.S. Navy Seal Lieutenant Michael Murphy, who died in Afghanistan on June 28, 2005. Murphy was the first service member to receive the Medal of Honor for his service in Afghanistan, and he was posthumously awarded the medal on October 22, 2007. Please read about this American Hero at the end of this story below.
Above, waiting for the event to begin are supporters First Selectwoman Tooker, Chief Koskinas, Andy Berman and Head Coach Behrends.
The wreckers football team raised thousands of dollars in support of the Catch A Lift Fund. Catch A Lift provides fitness for free for post 9/11 Afghanistan and Iraqi veterans coming back suffering from series, PTSD and other series injuries. To learn more about this exceptional program which has helped so may veterans, visit: CatchALiftFund.org
Jason Smith is a retired Army sergeant who served from 2009–2014 in the infantry. On July 25, 2012, while deployed to Afghanistan, he stepped on an IED. He lost both legs and sustained extensive damage to his right hand. Three months before retiring he met his wife, who, in his words, 'was able to look past his injuries and see him for who he was.' They now have two children. More about Sgt. Smith below.
The event began with the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by a silent moment of reflection for our fallen heroes.
Photos and Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.
Sergeant Smith proudly shows the championship ring for the 2023-2024 Wreckers State Championship which he was surprised with by Wreckers Football.
Above, (l. to r.), Adam Vengrow and Andy Berman from Catch A Lift, Coach Behrends, Jim Adrian and Coach Jacowleff.
Coach Behrends presents the Wreckers Championship Ring to Sergeant Jason Smith. Smith also appeared last last year’s event and received thanks from the team which is hoping that the same inspiration from last year will help them to another state championship this season.
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The team assembles before beginning the extremely challenging Murph Memorial workout.
Coach Matty Jacowleff give instructions to the team on how the workout, which is a competition for the team, will proceed. This workout began with a one mile run, followed by the athletes doing 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 pull-ups, and concluding with yet another one mile run.
The team begins the workout with a warm up to prepare for the grueling task ahead.
Photos and Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.
By the time they got to the pull-up station, team players were “feelin’ the burn” after running a mile and doing the required 100 push-ups and 100 sit-ups, but they fought through the pain to achieve their goal. Assistant coach Matt Bohn (grey shirt & cap) keeps the energy level up, encouraging his players to keep going.
This Is What Warrior Spirit Looks Like
Sergeant Smith shows the Wreckers how it's done at the pull-up station.
Jason Smith returned from Afghanistan quite different from how he arrived. As he explained to the team in his presentation, his injuries left him depressed, uncertain about his future. Rather than give in to fear or feeling sorry for himself, he got to work. The results paid off.
Smith competed at the 2023 Invictus Games in Dusseldorf, Germany and at the Warrior Games winning six gold medals including one for bench pressing more than 400 lbs. The Warrior Games (WarriorGames.com) is an annual adaptive sports competition that celebrates the resiliency and dedication of wounded, ill, and injured active duty and veteran US military service members. The Invictus Games (InvictusGames.org) are focused on using sport as a tool for competitor recovery and rehabilitation and are a steppingstone on the recovery journey for international wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women.
Sergeant Smith’s athletic achievements in not only adaptive sports platforms such as the Invictus Games and Warrior Games but in his day-to-day commitment to fitness is just one reason why he was such an inspiration to the Wreckers Football program.
Sergeant Smith makes it look easy doing pull-ups along with Catch A Lift’s Andy Berman.
Photos and Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.
Above, left, Andy Berman, Catch A Lift, gives some advice on doing push-ups, then joins Vengrow and Sergeant Smith. Jason might take a little longer to get into push-up position but he likely can do more than anyone else on the field that day except perhaps Berman, a personal trainer.
Staples Cheerleaders were on hand to watch the competition and do a little inspiration of their own as the team was put through their paces.
Photos and Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.
About Navy Seal Lt. Michael P. Murphy
From the U.S. Navy website (Navy.mil Medal Of Honor Recipient)
The Murph Memorial workout upon which the workout this day at Staples was based was named after a favorite workout of U.S. Navy Seal, Lt. Michael P. Murphy, who was the first service member to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service in Afghanistan. He was posthumously awarded the medal on October 22, 2007.
On June 28, 2005, deep behind enemy lines east of Asadabad in the Hindu Kush of Afghanistan, a very committed four-man Navy SEAL team was conducting a reconnaissance mission at the unforgiving altitude of approximately 10,000 feet. The SEALs, Lt. Michael Murphy, Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class (SEAL) Danny Dietz, Sonar Technician 2nd Class (SEAL) Matthew Axelson and Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class (SEAL) Marcus Luttrell had a vital task. The four SEALs were scouting Ahmad Shah – a terrorist in his mid-30s who grew up in the adjacent mountains just to the south.
A fierce firefight erupted between the four SEALs and a much larger enemy force of more than 50 anti-coalition militia. The enemy had the SEALs outnumbered. They also had terrain advantage. They launched a well-organized, three-sided attack on the SEALs. The firefight continued relentlessly as the overwhelming militia forced the team deeper into a ravine.
Trying to reach safety, the four men, now each wounded, began bounding down the mountain's steep sides, making leaps of 20 to 30 feet. Approximately 45 minutes into the fight, pinned down by overwhelming forces, Dietz, the communications petty officer, sought open air to place a distress call back to the base. But before he could, he was shot in the hand, the blast shattering his thumb.
Despite the intensity of the firefight and suffering grave gunshot wounds himself, Murphy is credited with risking his own life to save the lives of his teammates. Murphy, intent on making contact with headquarters, but realizing this would be impossible in the extreme terrain where they were fighting, unhesitatingly and with complete disregard for his own life moved into the open, where he could gain a better position to transmit a call to get help for his men.
Moving away from the protective mountain rocks, he knowingly exposed himself to increased enemy gunfire. This deliberate and heroic act deprived him of cover and made him a target for the enemy. While continuing to be fired upon, Murphy made contact with the SOF Quick Reaction Force at Bagram Air Base and requested assistance. He calmly provided his unit’s location and the size of the enemy force while requesting immediate support for his team. At one point he was shot in the back causing him to drop the transmitter. Murphy picked it back up, completed the call and continued firing at the enemy who was closing in. Severely wounded, Lt. Murphy returned to his cover position with his men and continued the battle.
An MH-47 Chinook helicopter, with eight additional SEALs and eight Army Night Stalkers aboard, was sent is as part of an extraction mission to pull out the four embattled SEALs. The MH-47 was escorted by heavily-armored, Army attack helicopters. Entering a hot combat zone, attack helicopters are used initially to neutralize the enemy and make it safer for the lightly-armored, personnel-transport helicopter to insert.
The heavy weight of the attack helicopters slowed the formation’s advance prompting the MH-47 to outrun their armored escort. They knew the tremendous risk going into an active enemy area in daylight, without their attack support, and without the cover of night. Risk would, of course, be minimized if they put the helicopter down in a safe zone. But knowing that their warrior brothers were shot, surrounded and severely wounded, the rescue team opted to directly enter the oncoming battle in hopes of landing on brutally hazardous terrain.
As the Chinook raced to the battle, a rocket-propelled grenade struck the helicopter, killing all 16 men aboard.
On the ground and nearly out of ammunition, the four SEALs, Murphy, Luttrell, Dietz and Axelson, continued the fight. By the end of the two-hour gunfight that careened through the hills and over cliffs, Murphy, Axelson and Dietz had been killed. An estimated 35 Taliban were also dead.