BATON ROUGE — Members of several LSU athletics teams visited an injured south Louisiana high school football player in the intensive care unit at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center as part of the Shaquille O’Neal CHAMPS/Life Skills program.
A total of 18 student-athletes from the baseball, gymnastics and men’s tennis teams visited Bryce McKinney in the hospital last Friday. McKinney, a member of the Ponchatoula High School junior varsity football team, suffered a serious spinal column injury in a Sept. 19 contest against Slidell-Northshore. He has already undergone one surgery and may have to have surgery again in the future and his family is holding out hope for a positive prognosis.
The LSU student-athletes were there to visit with Bryce and deliver t-shirts, posters and media guides while attempting to encourage the 17-year-old athlete and brighten his day. A bank account at First Guaranty Bank in Ponchatoula has been set up for fans to make donations that will assist the McKinney family. Donations can be mailed to First Guaranty Bank, Bryce McKinney Fund, P.O. Box 398, Ponchatoula, LA 70454, Attention: Vickie Jenkins. Phone numbers are (985) 386-2000 or toll free (888) 375-3093.
The hospital visit was sponsored by the Shaquille O’Neal CHAMPS/Life Skills program. The CHAMPS (Challenging Athletes Minds for Personal Success)/Life Skills Program was designed by the NCAA to help student-athletes realize higher academic achievement, increase likelihood of graduation and enter a chosen profession with a higher level of vision, knowledge, motivation, self-responsibility and greater overall success. In Spring 2003, the CHAMPS/ Life Skills Program at LSU honored one of the Tigers’ most memorable graduates, Shaquille O’Neal, by naming the program after him.