PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Mayan Ahanotu is one of several Rutgers football players from the Tampa area who is having to focus not just on this weekend’s game at Ohio State but also the events unfolding in his home state.
With Hurricane Ian bearing down on Florida this week, Ahanotu has been actively engaged with family and friends in making sure everyone is safe and healthy. Currently a Category 3 storm, Ian put much of Florida under water.
For Ahanotu, a team captain, it has meant that a week already busy getting ready for No. 3 Ohio State on Saturday afternoon has forced the defensive lineman to also check-in regularly with his family from the Tampa area.
“I mean, I just really pray for my friends and family back home. When I come on the practice field, I just got to put my thoughts in the CHOP box and then practice as hard as I can,” Ahanotu said. “And then when I come back home – get home off the practice field – I got to call up my family members check in and check in with them, make sure they’re doing okay.”
The CHOP box is a red box right near the entrance to the team’s practice fields. When players walk onto the field, they symbolically drop their thoughts into the box so that they can focus on practice.
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The idea is that the events of the day, from class work to family and friends, gets left in the box and the singular focus is on the preparation for the weekend’s game.
When practice is over and players are walking back to the Hale Center, they will pick up their symbolic thoughts from the CHOP box. Ahanotu walked off the field after his Wednesday media availability, putting his left hand in the CHOP box to reclaim his thoughts from they day.
Surely, those thoughts include his family.
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As for Ahanotu and his family, the Rutgers senior said “So far, so good.”
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