LANSING, Mich. — Springport football coach Matt Burger is going the extra mile for his team. He is taking his mistress and heading off on a trip around Lake Michigan. It has a lot of the community talking!
Matt says when he told his wife what he was going to do, she looked at him and said, “have fun with that!”
Don’t worry, Matt’s mistress isn’t his girlfriend. Matt says it’s much more exciting than that, and his wife approves.
“She is a 2007 Harley Davidson Road King Custom. She is the one that is going to get me on that thousand-mile journey around Lake Michigan, across Mackinac Bridge and down.”
Coach Burger’s trip around Lake Michigan is part of a motorcycle-riding competition called the Saddle Sore 1000 held by the Iron Butt Association. He rode in the competition to raise $7500 to buy new uniforms for his football players.
Springport’s High School Principal, Chris Kregel, says Coach Burger cares a lot about the school and community.
“Coach Burger, he comes up with some awesome ideas for our entire program and our entire community.
Coach Burger took the trip around the lake this past Wednesday.
“You ride 1000 miles in under 24 hours. You have to follow all of their certification protocols. You submit your paperwork, and they give you a certification. It’s pretty strict because they absolutely verify that you were where you said you were, and you did the route you said you did. Once you do that, they give you a certification. It’s just kind of a prestigious thing amongst long-distance motorcycle riders.”
Springport’s Athletic Trainer Kelly Lane isn’t surprised by what the coach did.
“Coach Burger is awesome. He does this for the community. Not too many people will do that to help others, especially kids. That’s what he is all about, helping kids.”
Football players like Victor Pennell are proud of their coach.
“I think it's great! He does so much for the program, and everything about it is cool! We have been wanting and needing new uniforms for a long time. The ones we have now are so old. We haven’t had the money to buy them.”
Jamie Lightner, whose son is a Springport football player, agrees.
“My entire family is a big Coach Burger fan. He's an amazing man. My family is all about athletics and sports, but Coach Burger takes it one step further, and it's about the person. He has impressed me from the very start. I love watching his practices with the kids. He is about building honorable, strong men of integrity.”
Coach Burger’s ride around Lake Michigan took exactly 21 hours and a total of one thousand and sixty-eight miles. So far, coach Burger has raised over five thousand dollars.
If you would like to help out Coach Burger with his fundraiser, you can visit his Go Fund Me Page at https://bit.ly/3vRpUsF
For always going above and beyond for the Springport football team and the community, coach Burger is this week’s Good Neighbor.
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