GREENVILLE — Preparing a meal for the Greenville High School football team takes plenty of food, homemade desserts, and teamwork.

At Beamsville Christian Church, it also comes with a tradition of community support that Green Wave players anticipate well before the final week of the regular season.

The church, located six miles north of Greenville on U.S. Route 127, hosted the team for its annual Week 10 pregame meal, prepared by women of the congregation.

For Diane Wills and her fellow volunteers, the gathering is an opportunity to show the players their community cares about them.

“It’s a community event that we do for the community,” Wills said. “We love the football boys.”

Wills said the tradition began when former Greenville head football coach Aaron Shaffer was leading the program. Since then, the meal has become a shared effort among church members, with volunteers helping prepare enough food to satisfy a football team.

This year’s menu required 22 pounds of pasta, about 18 pounds of meatballs, about 20 pounds of chicken and 128 slices of Texas toast.

Dessert brought another contribution from the congregation.

“The ladies all bring the desserts in, and they’re all homemade desserts,” Wills said.

When asked whether the players could put away plenty of food, Wills answered quickly.

“They can put the food away. Yes,” she said.

Whether the sizable spread would be enough prompted a more lighthearted response.

“I don’t know,” Wills said.

For Greenville head coach Steve Channell, the meal has quickly become a memorable part of the program’s season. He said players begin looking forward to the visit weeks before it arrives.

“This is a special meal for the kids,” Channell said. “It’s always in the last week of the season, provided by the church, and the kids look forward to it.”

Channell learned about the tradition when he arrived in Greenville a year ago. This season, he began hearing players discuss it around Week 6 or Week 7.

“Hey, just a couple more weeks before we go out to the church for a meal,” Channell recalled the players saying.

That anticipation reflects how important the gathering is to the team’s experience. Along with a generous meal, the visit gives players and coaches a chance to spend time together and connect with the people supporting them throughout the season.

For Channell, it is another reminder of the community’s investment in Green Wave football.

“This is another example of how much the community supports and provides for our program,” he said. “We just appreciate everyone’s efforts and time.”

Channell said football’s reach extends well beyond the players on the field. A roster of 60, 70 or 80 players brings parents, siblings and other relatives into the program, creating a broad network of people connected through the team.

In Ohio, he said, those connections help make football part of a community’s fabric.

“I think that’s a special bond,” Channell said.

While acknowledging that every athletic program has its own character and supporters, Channell expressed appreciation for the congregation’s willingness to give its time and resources to Greenville’s players.

“We appreciate the church’s efforts and time and generosity,” he said.

Wills said the volunteers also look forward to the annual visit. Preparing the meal is a project shared by the congregation, with each person contributing to the greater effort.

“We enjoy doing this very, very much,” she said.

Like the players they welcome, church members rely on teamwork to make the event happen.

“We all are a church family. We all do things as a team,” Wills said. “It’s not just one person. It’s a whole team.”