Track

Heroes . . .

The G-town guys, L

to R -- Sharod Graham, Dwyne Hall and Jerome Plant. (We'll also try to get a photo of Kyle Young.)

On 4/19/07,

three shot-putting members of the Germantown HS track team -- Dwyne Hall, Jerome Plant and Sharod Graham , along with fellow

competitor Kyle Young , of West Philadelphia -- saved an elderly woman from a fire

during a track meet at Germantown's stadium. We salute these brave young men and thank them for their heroic

act! Look below for the story that appeared in the 4/20/07 Daily News, and we hope to provide more exposure as time passes. (The story includes a few extra paragraphs that had to be cut from the original story, for space limitations.)

Athletes in fiery rescue

By TED SILARY

This was a track meet with no ordinary

highlight.

The best performance, by far, did

involve running and jumping and teamwork, though. Along

with wonderful bravery.

Three shot-putting members of Germantown High's track

team, along with an opponent from West Philadelphia,

yesterday saved a woman from a house fire that broke out

shortly after 3 p.m. on East Gorgas Lane near Baldwin

Street, across the street from Germantown's

track-football stadium. Fire officials said the

one-alarm blaze, which produced heavy smoke on the

second floor of the home, was brought under control in

about 15 minutes.

Stephany Tate-Yancey, who

coaches the Bears' boys' and girls' teams, said the four

youths - Dwyne Hall, Sharod Graham and Jerome Plant of

Germantown, and Kyle Young of West Philadelphia - were

just beginning competition in the southeast corner of

the stadium when thick, black smoke could be seen

pouring out of the house.

"There was a lot of commotion.

It was really scary," Tate-Yancey said. "These young men

just took off running. They scaled the fence [about 8

feet high] and went right over. No hesitation.

"I'm so proud of them. You hear

so many negative things about Germantown and West

Philly. And here are these kids, risking their lives."

Hall said the woman they helped

was elderly.

Tate-Yancey was under the

impression the woman had a prosthesis.

"I didn't notice that, and I

didn't hear about that," Hall said. "But if so, God

bless her."

Hall said the woman was inside

the house, on the first floor, when he and the others

arrived.

"Her dog had already come out,"

Hall said. "She was getting ready to go back upstairs

because she was trying to find her kittens. We told her

she couldn't worry about her kittens. That she had to come out. Then, we guided her out.

"The woman didn't say much. She

was in shock."

The woman, Hall added, was

wearing only undergarments, as if maybe she'd been

roused from a nap.

"I gave her the sweatpants from

my track suit, and Sherrod gave her his hoodie," he

said.

When asked about his bravery,

Hall said, "I just reacted, that's all. We all did. We

just went . That woman was in trouble and needed

help. The shot-put area was right there. We were the

closest. It was rough over there. Lots of thick, dark

smoke.

"Someone did call 911 when they

first saw that. We didn't know if someone was in the

house. But then we could hear a woman yelling for help."

This was the second act of

fire-related heroism by Public League athletes this

school year. Last September, while walking home from

practice, Overbrook football players Yusuf Bangura,

Calem Bridgette and Markeyse Carter rescued an elderly

woman from a burning house near 56th and Girard.

Once this fire was doused, the

meet resumed. Tate-Yancey said Hall and Graham placed

third and fourth, respectively, in the shot put, while

Young grabbed sixth.

"It was no problem," Hall said,

of continuing to compete. "I was coughing a little, at

first, and I did smell like smoke, but . . . "

Young, Tate-Yancey said, was the

picture of great-young-kid throughout the meet.

"After doing something like that,"

she said, "you'd think he'd want to go sit in the stands

and rest. Later in the meet, we had to get the hurdles

onto the track. He wasn't too far away and he came

running over to help me."

Staff writer David Gambacorta

contributed to this report.