Sports : Viking gridders pitch in for storm clean-up

Viking senior Elijah Kalous helping out a neighbor.

VINTON - They're already working hard every morning at practice, but members of the Vinton-Shellsburg football team have been pulling double-duty as many Viking players and coaches have been out in the area helping residents clean-up after Monday's derecho storm.

"We have a lot of kids who have been busting their tails after practice helping our community," said V-S head coach Jim Womochil.

This afternoon, we caught up with a crew of Viking grinders, along with assistant coach Dave Berends, were at Dave and Carmi Behrens' place on 59th Street, cleaning up a batch of trees that fell in the storm.

"We lost (over 100) trees in 2011, and it cost us $21,000 to get it all cleaned up," Carmi said. "Having this kind of help this time has been great."

"There's been a lot of teams that have not been able to practice this week, and they've been out there helping people" said Viking senior Elijah Kalous. "We've been practicing, but we're still out here too; people need help."

See pictures here