Basketball plays a big role in the life of Westminster Christian School senior Charles William (Wills) Flynn. He is on the varsity basketball team, which means practice almost every day, and he participates in area basketball leagues when the high school season is over.
“We’re pretty good,” Flynn says of this year’s Westminster team. “This is the best team I’ve been on. There are four or five seniors and four or five juniors.”
Even some of Flynn’s community service has involved basketball. He earned about 130 hours volunteering at different basketball camps at Westminster over three summers. The Warrior Basketball Camps were run by the head coach. The assistant coaches and the girls’ team head coach were also involved. The varsity players would help out.
“I was an instructor,” he says. “I would tell them about the rules. I would ref their afternoon games.”
He worked with all age groups, but spent more time with the younger kids five to eight years old.
“I loved it. I love play basketball, so helping kids try to get better was great for me,” he says. “It’s helped me become more of a leader on the court and patient with the younger players.”
Flynn also garnered service hours by participating in a club called Students Offering Support. Last year he was the club’s volunteer coordinator.
“We do a lot of stuff at Deering,” he says. “We would help out with tours.” The group also volunteered at the Deering Estate for the Youth Arts Day festival. That day, Flynn worked the concession stand.
SOS members meet once a month. He’s been on the organization’s board and, while he didn’t participate as often during basketball season, he did a lot of work in the spring for CHARLEE House.
“We raised a lot of money for CHARLEE House,” he says.
The club worked one of the annual CHARLEE House events called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
“There was a kids’ area; we ran the kids area so the parents didn’t have to watch over the kids,” he says. “There was a lot of candy. There were the really big lollipops, and different games and a carnival.”
Flynn enjoys working with SOS and likes the fact that everyone involved wants to help the community. SOS is similar to community service clubs such as Twenty Little Working Girls, except that it’s coed.
This year, Westminster has started the Fellowship of Christian Athletes organization and Flynn is a member of the start-up club. He has also joined the Westminster Community Service Club.
In his freshman year, he was active in the Patriots Outreach program. The group collected sporting equipment that was sent to needy children in the Dominican Republic.
“They really don’t have sports equipment,” he says. “Even a little bit of equipment helps them out.”
As a senior, Flynn has college on his mind. He’s considering a number of colleges, including Florida State, the University of Central Florida, American University, Catholic University in Washington D.C. and Boston University.
“I’m looking into finance,” he says. “My dad’s a lawyer and it’s between those two; a lawyer and business and finance.”
Whether becoming a lawyer and working with his dad is in his future is still uncertain, but it is something that Flynn does consider.
“I love working with my dad around the house, so maybe,” he says.
