Near the end of the summer, the Madison Cubs football team was the focus of a widely publicized story put out by The New York Times. From that article, which focused heavily on drug abuse in the area, one positive effect has come to light.

The NFL chose four players, Coach Patrick Morrison, and Athletic Director Joe Bronkella to attend the NFL Draft in Dallas with all expenses paid.

“What we were told was that (NFL Commissioner) Roger Goodell read the article in The New York Times and there was some type of conversation that caused him to want to provide four of our football players and some administrators (a trip to to the draft),” said MCHS Principal Michael Gasaway.

Gasaway and Bronkella came together and decided that attendees would be chosen based off of behavior, attendance, work ethic, leadership, and disciplinary action history.

“With only being able to take four on a team of 70, there’s no way to do that (make selections) to make everybody happy,”

One final criteria, unfortunately for some, was that the student could not be active in a spring sport.

“If they were in a spring sport, we didn’t want to make them have to choose,” Gasaway said. “If I was a coach, I wouldn’t want to lose (a player).”

The four lucky attendees are Noah Caswell, Carson Livingston, Nathan Moore, and Nolan Willhite.

“You know it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity for those four boys, but they are representing more than just themselves. They represent Madison High School. They should feel quite honored because when you have the opportunity to step up and represent the school it’s a great thing,” Gasaway said. “Hopefully, they’ll come back and they’ll share their experience with other kids. I know a lot of people will be interested in what happened.”

The Madisonian will continue coverage of their full trip upon their return.