University of Tennessee Athletics
Lewis Named To SEC Community Service Team
November 30, 2016 | Football
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Tennessee redshirt senior defensive lineman LaTroy Lewis has been named to the SEC Community Service Team for the sport of football, as announced by the Southeastern Conference on Wednesday.
The SEC names a Community Service Team for each of its 21-league sponsored sports, looking to highlight an athlete from each school who gives back to his community through superior service efforts.
The other members of this year's SEC Community Service Team for football include Alabama's O.J. Howard, Arkansas' Brooks Ellis, Auburn's Daniel Carlson, Florida's Jarrad Davis, Georgia's Jeb Blazevich, Kentucky's Courtney Love, LSU's Danny Etling, Ole Miss' Evan Engram, Mississippi State's Brandon Holloway, Missouri's Michael Scherer, South Carolina's Elliott Fry, Texas A&M's Trevor Knight and Vanderbilt's Oren Burks.
Lewis started his own charitable organization -- Project Elevate -- which is a non-profit organization that focuses on mentoring local children and helping them with goal setting and goal achievement. The Akron, Ohio, native organized and ran "Hero Day" on Oct. 22 at Lonsdale Park where he and fellow student-athletes led a special community service event in honor of the late local hero Zaevion Dobson, who died last December while shielding friends from gunfire. The event highlighted the importance of helping others and featured activities like washing cars and picking up trash around the neighborhood for local children to participate in so they could understand the value of giving back to the community. Charitable donations from the event went directly to Lonsdale Elementary School.
In addition to the work he does through Project Elevate, Lewis spends every Wednesday as a mentor for a group of fourth graders at Lonsdale Elementary to discuss their dreams and goals and what they can do to achieve them.
Lewis has played in 11 games this season with four starts (two at left end, two at defensive tackle). He has tied his career high with 29 tackles (17 solo) and also has 1.5 sacks, three tackles for loss, one fumble recovery and two QB hurries.
