You are probably aware about what a remarkable man Jeffrey Coprich is after he received the the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team trophy.
Cal's Director of Player Development Kevin Parker opened the ceremony by talking to Coprich's teammates about the Watts native and his dedication to the community. Parker then introduced a video played on the stadium's scoreboard featuring Coprich's community service before Bay Area Allstate insurance agent Harold Lorber presented Coprich with his trophy.
"I want to change kids' futures on a better path because mine did," Coprich said.
Coprich, who is one of the Cal football program's most active community service participants, visited 116th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles last Friday in his most recent outing. He spoke to a gathering of fourth and fifth graders in the school's auditorium before later reading to a group of younger students in the Essence K. Coprich Library named in honor of his late sister, who was killed at the age of seven in a 1996 car accident that Jeffrey survived.
Now in this short film, you can see him in action in his home community of Watts helping young children learn how to read.
This #CollectiveProject student is giving children in Watts, Los Angeles a chance to read and dream. The Essence K. Coprich Library at the 116th Street School is helping children build self-confidence through literacy. See how a community is coming together to change lives through the power of #IGiveABook. http://off365.ms/Ai7y58
You can learn more about the project by clicking here. Learn more about Coprich's story from this Daily Cal feature.
It starts with a question.
Where you from, cuz?
As a friend of gangbangers — people who participate in gang-related activities — and as a resident of Inglewood, Calif., this isn’t Jeffrey Coprich Jr.’s first time hearing this. By now, he knows how to answer.
We don’t bang.
But the hothead in him talks back. This doesn’t sit well with the men in the car who posed the question. They snatch his phone. A fight breaks out.
"I know they had guns in the car," Coprich Jr. says. "They easily could have pulled it out on me and my friends. I’ve just been lucky enough."