Good Turnout on a Windy Day at Northwest Guilford HS for the Pigskin for Hodgkins football game

Good crowd out at the Northwest Guilford High School for the Pigskin for Hodgkins tag football game today….Very cool and windy afternoon, but that did not hurt the turnout, as there were football fans all over the place at the Roscoe Billings Stadium this afternoon….

2022-03-26 Pigskin Hodgkins

The fans of Pigskin for Hodgkins were watching as former Northwest Guilford HS and Guilford College quarterback Matt Pawlowski led the Purple team, and another former NWG QB, Jacob Leonard, led the White team….

Former Northwest players Tre Turner and Thomas Hennigan were coaching the Purple team, and the White team was coached by James Smith-Williams, a defensive end from the Washington Commanders/Washington Football Team….Tre Turner is headed into the upcoming NFL Draft, with Turner coming out of Virginia Tech, and Thomas Hennigan is also looking forward to the NFL Draft days, after recently completing his college football career at Appalachian State University….Both Tre and Thomas were receivers in college, and both posted near-record setting numbers for their respective universities/colleges…

Tre Turner’s brother P.J. Hairston there watching the game today, and he told me his plan is to be playing professional basketball later on this Spring in Puerto Rico…P.J. was accompanied by his little three year-old son today, and his little daughter, Parker Jaye, just celebrated her fifth birthday, this past week…

Lots of former area players and coaches and fans on hand today for the Pigskin for Hodgkins football game…

Matt Pawlowski was having a very good day passing the ball for the Purple team and Jacob Leonard became more of a running QB for the White team….Purple players that came up with some big plays/receptions/catches included Nick Anderson(Northern Guilford HS), Kenny Eason(Northwest Guilford HS), Chris Ripberger(Northern Guilford HS), Will Dabbs(Morehead HS/N.C. State) and there were others…Players from the White team who were having solid days catching the football were Deandre Melvin(Northern Durham HS), Michael Hunt(Northwest Guilford HS), Trey Bennett(East Forsyth HS) and others too…

Matt Pawlowski might have been the most fluid overall player on the field today, as his game has not seen much of a decline since he finished up his playing days at Guilford College, and he went on to be an assistant coach for the N.C. A&T Aggies…

One of the biggest jobs of the day was turned in by event organizer and #89 for the White Team, Hampton Billips…As far as we know, no relation to Chauncey Billups, but Hampton did play both basketball and football at Northwest Guilford High School, and he went to play college football for the N.C. State Wolfpack….

Hampton Billips, Suzanne Billips, and the entire Billips family and support team have done an incredible job of raising funds for Hodgkins Lymphoma research…In their first three years alone, the Billips family and support group has raised over $25,000 from the proceeds that have come in from the Pigskin for Hodgkins games, and with this being year four of the big event, there is no telling how high the totals are going to go…

The Pigskin for Hodgkins football game, the T-shirt sales, the special games, the prize giveaways, the raffles and the food sales, all go to help make this event a huge success…The NWG community and the Northern Guilford community, and all of the communities have come together to make this an outstanding yearly event…
(Russell Dorrell, the softball coach, and PA announcer from Northern Guilford High School, was the public address announcer for today’s game, there at Northwest Guilford HS)

We saw little kids, some as young as two or three years old catching footballs from Tre Turner, Thomas Hennigan, and Hampton Billips during the halftime break of the game, and Tre even put one pass right square upside some little girl’s head, and she will have the authentic Tre Turner autograph on her forehead, for at least a week….

The little kids catching footballs, older kids like Tanner Ballou and Quincy Bell’s son throwing some footballs on the side fields, and then the moment when Thomas Hennigan, Tre Turner, Hampton Billips, Quincy Bell(coach), Vernon Johnson(coach), Jim Scott(coach), James Linz(coach), and a whole host of former Kernodle Cougars, posed together for a group photo down on the Northwest Guilford football field, those were the type of memories that this day was made for…
(Good to see Joe Hennigan, the dad/father of Thomas Hennigan, there keeping an eye on Coach Hennigan(Thomas) today.)
2022-03-26 Pigskin Hodgkins

As I was leaving out today, with the fourth quarter just getting under way, the score was the Purple Team 30, and the White Team 26….But the score was not the story of today’s event/activity…The true moral of today’s story was about giving back….And that is something that Hampton Billips has learned to excel in….Hampton Billips has learned so much about the importance of giving back, and the Purple and White colors represent Hodgkins Lymphoma, and even though back in high school, Hampton Billips was wearing the Red and White colors of Northwest Guilford High School, now Hampton has found his new calling and colors, and those colors are the Purple and White of Hodgkins Lymphoma…

The winner today was www.pigskinforhodgkins.org, and with the help of all of those that showed up and participated today at Northwest Guilford High School, this cause has just begun to scratch the surface, and with the leadership of Hampton Billips, Hodgkins Lymphoma better look out, the Billips kid from Northwest is taking you on, and Hampton is fighter/battler and he will not be held back….

Hampton Billips, Suzanne Billips and the Billips Family are proven Winners….