PLEASANT VALLEY, Iowa --Walking around Pleasant Valley High School’s football field brings back a lot of good memories for Mike Morrissey, Wednesday, July 18, and some of his best memories were with his teammate Jake Wood.
“This is where we started I guess. We were teammates after middle school and here at the high school,” says Morrissey.
Wood, a PV alumni went on to play college football for the Wisconsin Badgers, he then joined the Marines after 9-11.
After four years in Iraq and Afghanistan, Wood took on his next mission, becoming co-founder of Team Rubicon.
“If there is a problem, if there is something going on he wants to be the solution to that,” says Morrissey.
Team Rubicon is a nonprofit organization that uses the skills of veterans to rapidly deploy as emergency responders to disasters.
The organization has responded to more than 250 disasters and has more than 80,000 volunteers since it started in 2010.
Morrissey is now the head football coach for Moline High School, but he still in keeps touch with Wood, who went on to win the 2017 Pat Tillman Award on the ESPYs
The Pat Tillman Award was introduced in 2014, it is a service award that honors a person with a strong connection to sports and community service.
“I remember being in middle school and him talking about goals and he said somedays I want to be the President of the United States. And we were like ‘get out of here man,” says Morrissey.
Although Wood may not be the Commander in Chief right now, Morrissey says he is making big waves to serve the community and making his team back home proud.
