Here is a really neat story about a dairy family that is reaching out to the community with sports. Through the fall months, Darreel Heagy and his family open up the field on their farm to play no-rules, no equipment tackle football. In the winter, they lay down black tarps and fill them with ice, so the community can play ice hockey. Church groups, college kids and family friends gather each week to take part in the festivities. What a fun way to bring a family and a community together! This story, Work Hard, Play Harder, Dairy Farmer Hosts Games, was written by Anne Harnish for Lancaster Farming.

On a recent chilly, moonlit November evening, farmer Darrell Heagy quickly finished up with the evening feeding at his family’s 180-cow dairy farm, then headed across the road to a fenced horse pasture. He switched on several giant overhead lights, flooding the grass paddock with luminous light in anticipation of the evening’s football game. Soon, pickup trucks and cars filled the gravel lane around the barn buildings as church friends and cousins arrived to play the game. Wearing hats, sweatpants, layers of shirts and even shorts in the mid-40-degree weather, a group of 37 young men and women, mostly in their 20s, assembled near a small red barn to chat, stretch out and prepare for play.

On this night, a comfortable camaraderie exists between the players as they first pray together, then choose coed teams — they are serious about the game, but good-natured laughter abounds.
The friendly spirit, good sportsmanship and love of the game are obvious at the events. Sometimes the score is kept, but not always. No one ever seems to get mad; though muddied, sweaty and tired-looking, everyone is having a great time.