Covington Charger football lift-a-thon raises record $11,300

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Although the high school football season is five months away, the Covington Chargers are never too far off the minds of their fans.

There was evidence of that Thursday night when the program’s annual lift-a-thon raised $11,300, which head coach J.R. Kirby said he believes is a record.

“The goal was to raise $8,000 and we crushed that,” Kirby said. “There are lot of people in this community who love football and our program. This was kind of a sneak peak of what the 2021 team is going to look like. We like to get people thinking about football in the offseason.”

Several players set personal records during the event, but the highlight was probably when Christian Barbee power cleaned 305 as all his teammates cheered him on.

Covington players put on their jerseys and went out in the community on Wednesday to get donations and hand out schedules and some helped Walmart customers carry their groceries to their cars.

There was no lift-a-thon last spring because of covid restrictions. About 300 peopled attended Thursday’s event with many covid restrictions lifted.

“It felt very un-covid and normal, finally,” Kirby said.

The lift-a-thon is one of the program’s biggest fundraisers. Another big one is coming up April 30 when the program will host a golf scramble at 1 p.m. at the Covington Country Club.

Kirby said a lot of people were handing him checks and cash at the event and estimated as many as 500 people and businesses donated.

“We have a great community and I want to thank everybody for their support,” Kirby said.