Entertainment

Teen football team hailed as heroes after freeing crash victims by lifting car

The team had just won a championship match and were on their way home when they came across the crash site.
The team had just won a championship match and were on their way home when they came across the crash site. The team had just won a championship match and were on their way home when they came across the crash site.

A young football team has been hailed as heroes after using their combined strength to free victims of a car crash by lifting an overturned vehicle.

The Boise Black Knights, who had just won a championship match in California, were returning to Idaho when they came across the scene of an accident.

A car had left the Oregon highway and was overturned at the side of the road.

Inside were husband and wife Alan and Margaret Hardman, both 65, of Winnemucca, Nevada, who suffered some broken bones, cuts and scrapes, but are expected to recover, reported the Idaho Statesman.

The American football team pulled Alan free and worked to release Margaret by lifting the car.

“I’ll tell you what — I don’t know how we would have done it without them,” Alan Hardman told the Statesman. “They didn’t even hesitate.”

Team member Regan Magill posted a video of the whole incident, which took place on a major road in Oregon, on Facebook.

Initially, an adult travelling with the team checked the scene, then called on the young footballers – all 13 years old or younger – to help lift the vehicle with their brute force.

Coach Rudy Jackson of Boise, Idaho, told Good Morning America: “We were all driving, they came around the corner and seen an accident with a car rolled over, and the two vans pulled over.

“Me right now talking about it, I’m getting emotional. Because I’ve watched these boys grow. And they came a long way. They’re amazing young men.”

Magill told the show: “(Jackson) taught us to play selfless football and not selfish – just help others out before yourself.”