SOUTH ABINGTON TOWNSHIP, PA — The Gallaudet University football team were the guests for a pep rally at the Scranton School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
The university in Washington D.C. welcomes students who are deaf or hard of hearing.
School officials thought it would be a great opportunity for the students and the team.
"Our dean of students, Doug Boersma, he had heard that they were playing against Keystone College. So we had an opportunity to coordinate with their coach and invited them to come on campus and see what we do here and have those interactions with the kids," said school director Dean Pettinato.
"It's great for our kids to give back to the community to make sure they show that they represent our community the right way," said Gallaudet University football coach Chuck Goldstein.
Students were excited to meet the players and have someone else to look up to.
"That probably, we can build our confidence in what we can do because we can see that they're doing things that we think we couldn't do," said Julianna Poulos.
Jaylen Johnson says he's honored to represent the deaf community and inspire others.
"They can play at the high level of a D3 school with the hearing world, the deaf world; we can show them that there's an opportunity for anyone to come out and play for guidance and see what they can offer," Johnson said.
As the students left school for the day, the players sent them off in a tunnel of high fives, and are hoping to see them cheering from the stands.
"Sometimes we have away games, and we'll head over there, and there's no fans, but there's always fans that come out and support from far or close. And that is important because we need all the encouragement we can, to have all the love we can have from the deaf community," said Johnson.
The Bison will take on the Giants at Keystone College on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.
Check out WNEP’s YouTube channel.