EAST LANSING - With the Annual MSU Green and White Spring game taking place this past Saturday, a lot of Spartan Alumni came back into town and what better way to wrap up the weekend than by spending their time giving back to the community that gave so much to them.

“It started about seven years ago and Justin Caine along with myself were doing a lot in the community and we wanted to figure out more ways to give back, we came up with this idea to battle cancer on the field, call it the Battlefield Brawl and help raise funds for our organization,’” says Todd “T.J.” Duckett, Battlefield Brawl co-founder.

They wanted to make their charity event unique from the most common events you see around the community to raise money. “I didn’t want to make another golf outing or another 5k, none of that stuff, I wanted to do something unique because of my medical history I couldn’t actually ever play football or really any physical contact kind of sports so flag football was a little bit of an outlet,” says Justin Caine, co-founder Battlefield Brawl.

The Battlefield Brawl involves organizations from around the community, former pro and collegiate athletes and volunteers. “It takes amazing, amazing volunteer group, the only reason this is even capable is because we have an amazing group of about 20 people who made this happen,” says Duckett.

The money raised goes to support two foundations: The Davie’s Project and T.J’s own charity New World Flood. “New World Flood is flooding the world with giving the of service. A single raindrop at a time can create a flood. We believe in one person, one positive action, one way that they can believe in themselves to make a difference in their community,” says Duckett.

Both organizations have played a huge role in the community. The Davie’s Project held a picnic for members and volunteers to get to know each other. They provide rides to medical appointments for children of low income families and have helped to relieve a lot of stress.

“Given the extensive medical history of both me and my kids finding rides have been complicated and going through the insurance company and trying to find money for the bus it got highly stressful and it was to the point where a lot of the appointments were rescheduled or missed. No one understands how special and how great it feels just to get something as simple as a ride,” says Lesean Thompson who has been helped by the Davie’s Project.


For two great causes it was not hard to garner support from the local community. “I volunteered here last year and I just really like New World Flood and just the event in general, it’s a really good way to get the community together and get a lot of people out that normally wouldn’t interact with one another,” says Volunteer Kai Christiansen.

The Battlefield Brawl takes everyday “janes and joes” versus the “X-Factors”, which are the former athletes. “The majority of us all went to Michigan State, so a lot of the teams, the families here, the fans had a chance to watch us grow up, had a chance to cheer for us at Spartan Stadium or the Breslin but never got a chance to interact with us and hangout with us so here you have guys who are lining up across each other and playing against/guarding people they’ve only seen on TV or only had a chance to yell for in Spartan Stadium,” says Duckett.

The X-Factors may have retired their Spartan jerseys but they did not hesitate to suit back up for a good cause. “Well first of all Todd Duckett he’s a Spartan, so when he asked me it was no question I jumped on the ball. It’s a great thing to be apart of the Spartan family, football or basketball, so that was the first thing and like I said with the Davie’s project and all the things he’s got going on it was a no brainer for me to be apart of this,” says Former MSU Basketball Player, Thomas Kelley.

All of the X-Factors felt the exact same way. “Just the cause you know the Davie’s Project is a huge huge initiative here in the area and teaming up with you know a lot of former athletes and local business people coming together for a good cause helping the community out and that’s what we’re all about,” says Former MSU Men’s Basketball 2000 National Champion, David Thomas.

With about sixty more people than last year coming out to the event, there was lots of entertainment provided. “The turnout is awesome, there are just so many people hanging out it’s a beautiful day, just watching games, playing games, and you know we’ve got music, we’ve got food, uh we’ve got a combine for the kids to do,” says Caine.

The combine was a big hit with the kids allowing them to do the 40-yard dash, pro-agility, vertical jump and broad jump, all things test at the actual NFL Combine.

“Today it’s for fun but in terms of doing the actual event it’s very beneficial for the kids because as know as they are they are getting introduced to some things that they should know and so you won't see kids across the country doing things like this at seven-years-old and so these kids get to do these events and they can go home and practice,” says Capital City Combine Founder DeYeya Jones.