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USF students get moving-day help from football team

 
USF defensive end Eric Lee moves boxes onto a dolly on move-in day for the campus. USF football players, along with other student-volunteers, helped incoming and returning students bring their stuff into their dorms on Thursday, Aug. 20. [SCOTTY SCHENCK | Times]
USF defensive end Eric Lee moves boxes onto a dolly on move-in day for the campus. USF football players, along with other student-volunteers, helped incoming and returning students bring their stuff into their dorms on Thursday, Aug. 20. [SCOTTY SCHENCK | Times]
Published Aug. 21, 2015

TAMPA

Twin XL sheets. Standup fans. Shower caddies. Plastic storage bins in hues of teal, magenta.

But mostly, mini fridges.

Move-in day at the University of South Florida. Thank goodness for the football team.

"Refrigerators, man," said James Hamilton, a 6-foot-2, 312-pound senior defensive tackle, who tackled his classmates' yearly return to the dormitories Thursday morning. "Lots of refrigerators."

Hamilton and more than 100 Bulls football players were among the 650 students who volunteered to help move 3,500 fellow students — mostly freshmen and new students — into the residence halls, which opened Thursday for the fall semester.

It was part of the university's annual "Bull Haul" push to get new students moved in before classes start Monday. About 5,500 students live on campus, but the dorm veterans often don't show up until the last minute.

It's a decent workout, Hamilton said.

"You're walking around continuously, moving stuff," he said. "But instead of lifting weights, you're lifting appliances."

His teammates crooned as Hamilton hoisted another fridge, the Florida sun beating down on his forearms.

"I see veins popping out, fat deposits going away," chimed in 6-foot-3, 258-pound senior defensive end Eric Lee.

Lexi Perun, a returning biomedical sciences sophomore, wasn't phased by the hunks towing her junk.

"Last year, we had to do this all ourselves," she said, strolling — empty-handed — to her Iota dorm room, while eight football players unloaded her car.

Her mother, Heather Perun, didn't mind either.

"Somehow, she's acquired a lot more stuff over the summer," the mother said.

There's no strategy in this game, the players said. Hamilton and Lee were members of "Team 5" — a loose semblance of players working together to move buckets of shoes and beds-in-a-bag from cars to dorm rooms.

Then a Chrysler Town & Country minivan pulled in as Team 5 took shelter in the shade.

There was moaning.

"We look for the Honda Accords, Civics," said Alex Salvato, a 5-foot-11, 200-pound junior long snapper. "Not the minivans."

He grabbed a small ottoman cube.

A volunteer in a highlighter-yellow T-shirt zeroed in on Lee.

"You look like you can handle a mini fridge," she said.

Moments later, he's got the fridge — with a microwave atop — on a cart.

At the door to the building, bad news: The resident lives on the third floor.

There are no elevators.

Upstairs, after several wrong turns down a winding hallway, there was talk of who manned the fridge. It was senior linebacker C.J. Garye, 6-3, 228 pounds.

The players all agreed: That was impressive.

Contact Anne Steele at asteele@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3400. Follow @annemariesteele.