A collegiate athlete who had won a scholarship to Eastern Michigan University to play football gave it all away to his teammate who was struggling to pay tuition bills.
Without a doubt, offensive lineman Brian Dooley would have been extremely proud to have earned a full-ride scholarship to undergraduate and graduate school at EMU, but as much as he saw his dedication to the sport pay off, there was something that always pushed him to work harder.
It was the grind and ethic of his partner on the offensive line, Zack Conti, who made it onto the team as a “walk-on” meaning without a scholarship. Conti paid his $7,000 per semester tuition and associated expenses all on his own, even going as far as selling his blood plasma to make the payments.
“Football is something I really love, so ever since I got to school, I’ve had to do whatever it takes to stay here and stay in a good position with academics and football and everything,” Conti, a senior at Eastern Michigan, said in a video shared by the university with ABC News. “So I work a landscaping job and I rip out carpets and I demo tile floors whenever I’m not working or not doing football or going to school.”
Everyone on the team was aware of the situation, and despite the camaraderie, Conti said it was always difficult to ask for help.
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Dooley wasn’t about to wait around for Conti to ask, though, after he heard that Conti was considering quitting the team as the bills piled up around him.
He walked into coach Chris Creighton’s office and asked if there were any way he could transfer his scholarship to Conti to keep his friend on the team, something he had never heard or seen before from a student.
“The o [offensive]-line brotherhood is something that is hard to break. We have each other’s back. That’s why I wanted to get Conti’s back,” Dooley told Good Morning America. “If Conti wasn’t here, I’d give it to somebody else too. If somebody is working that hard and they deserve a scholarship, I want to give it to them.”
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One day during a team meeting, Coach Creighton began praising Conti’s work ethic, before saying that Brian Dooley wanted to recognize his effort and hand over their scholarship. He asked Brian Dooley to stand up and the two young men shared an embrace that the whole team celebrated.
Their season starts September 1st, and although Dooley will now have to take on his own university expenses, he is currently in his final year of eligibility.
WATCH the coach’s speech and the teammates’ embrace…
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