TCU Head Football Coach Sonny Dykes picked up a side hustle in the off season.
He's the chair of the 2024 NCAA Readers Become Leaders program hosted by the Fort Worth Sports Commission.
"I get to come to some elementary schools and try to encourage young people to get involved in reading and just to make sure they understand how important it is and what a difference it's gonna make in their lives," Dykes said.
Dykes joined other dignitaries at M.H. Moore Elementary School on Monday to help the kids celebrate their 2023 championship and kick off the 2024 competition.
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More than 37,000 students at 83 FWISD elementary schools will take part this year, making it the largest community outreach program in NCAA history.
"I think the biggest thing when you're young is to find that love for reading, you know, find the sweet spot and read things that you really enjoy reading. And then, as you get older, you really read to learn instead of learning to read," Dykes said. "That's what I would tell these young people is find things that they can connect with and they identify with. Read as much as you can and then you get to see things from a different perspective and learn about that as well."
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After the big kickoff celebration, professional bull riders with the Texas Rattlers Competition Riders and TCU athletes visited classrooms to read to students and help bring home the lesson the reading will help them become leaders.
"I hope that they take away not only just the importance of reading but just the importance that reading actually matters. It means something, it's a skill that you'll carry with you for the rest of your life. And the more and more that you read is also the more and more that you can create because you get to learn from so many different dynamic people," said TCU basketball player Darius Ford.
The Readers Become Leaders competition runs through April 7. Over the past five years of the program, a total of 93,000 students have read more than 100 million minutes.
