MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — With spring football taken away for every college team in the nation due to COVID-19, many had a void that needed to be filled. For WVU safety Alonzo Addae, he tried to pay it forward by beginning his way of helping others through a difficult time.
Head coach Neal Brown has tried to help his players get involved to build their own brand with the new name, image and likeness rules set forth by the NCAA. Addae took the opportunity and molded it into “Daily Deposits,” a social media nonprofit organization that “aims at motivating others to reach their goals.”
When the pandemic began in March, Addae wanted to continue the community service the coaches ask of their players. Because COVID-19 forced mass shut downs and many were quarantined, Addae’s idea was to keep people motivated and staying physically active.
“With Daily Deposits, I started posting small videos of me working out every day, which I would normally do,” Addae said. “It was getting my deposit in, which was me depositing time into my craft. I received a lot of feedback from my immediate community. My teammates also supported me a lot with it. It grew from there into what it is now, where I have an Instagram page (_dailydeposits), and people back home working with me on it and staying involved in the community and get everybody involved.
“Especially during the pandemic when everybody was inside, nobody liked to go out, and still being able to be active and deposit time toward their health and fitness.”
Addae, a senior, doesn’t know what the future holds for Daily Deposits, but he hopes it continues to grow moving forward. However, he said his biggest focus right now is with football, and for good reason.
According to Pro Football Focus College, Addae has the second highest grade of all Power 5 safeties at 83.3. Grade criteria includes every play for a specific player, and for safeties, includes tackles, pass breakups, interceptions, correct reads and correct assignments on a scale of 0-100.
It’s been an impressive start through five games for Addae, who wasn’t even a safety heading into the season. After Kerry Martin Jr. announced he was sitting out the season due to concerns over COVID-19, Addae was moved from cornerback to free safety.
He set out all of 2019 after transferring from New Hampshire, but his work on the scout team prepared him for what he’s seen in 2020.
“My mentality coming here when I found out that I had to sit was to take advantage of those things I didn’t take advantage of in my redshirt year at New Hampshire,” Addae said. “I really just try to lock in on my game. They put me in the developmental program, so I was heavy into the weights, heavy into the positional skill drills. I was able to compete against the 1s every day on scout team. I was able to compete against Jarret (Doege) and those guys on a daily basis, which was good and definitely helped my game.”
Addae has 19 tackles, two interceptions and two passes defended this season.
Tweet @SeanManning_1
