After winning a field goal contest, teen donates prize to rival coach battling cancer
After a making a perfect 30-yard field goal and winning a year's worth of free food, a California teenager instantly donated her prize to her rival high school's football coach, who was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
John Langilotti is the coach at Bonita High School in La Verne, while Tiffany Gomez is a junior at Glendora High School in Glendora. On Friday, the schools met for their annual football game, and during halftime, Gomez participated in a field goal contest. She told NBC 4 Los Angeles she was worried she would be the only one who wouldn't make a goal, but instead, she was the only one who could. Her prize was free food for a year from a local Chick-fil-A.
Word had spread that Langilotti has pancreatic cancer, and both sides cheered him on when he arrived at the game on Friday, just a few hours after being released from the hospital. Gomez had never met Langilotti, but since her grandmother has cancer, she knows how hard it can hit every member of a family. Gomez chose to give Langilotti her prize, thinking "he could use it more than I would," she told NBC 4. The gesture moved the coach. "For a young lady like her to come out and want to provide this generosity for a family in need just brought tears to my eyes and I was ever so grateful," he said.
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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