PLANTATION, Fla. – Miguel Cotterell is a high school student in Plantation and he practices playing basketball every single day.
"I came out sometime last week and I was just kind of putting up some shots, trying to be great you know? Putting in work," Cotterell said.
Cotterell said he is usually the only one on the court because he plays early, but he was joined last week by a few Plantation police officers who showed up while he was at the Jim Ward Youth Center.
"So we were just patrolling our area, and we came out of the Jim Ward Center and we saw this young man playing basketball, and he had, like, an older basketball, but he was working hard, doing some drills," Officer Makenzy Simeon said.
"When I first saw him dunk, I thought he did it rather easily," Officer Chavez Grant added.
The three of them started shooting around together and Cotterell picked up his cellphone to document the event.
They all eventually went their separate ways, but it wasn't long before their paths crossed again.
"It was the next day, around the same, he was out here, practicing by himself," Simeon said. "He was out here, just putting in the work and effort, so we wanted to do something special for him."
The officers came back with a brand new ball for Cotterell, as well as a few more officers to play with them.
"It's good for us to come out and connect with the community and show the other side -- show a young kid that we're positive and we’re out here to help him any way we can. And even if it's simply just buying him a basketball," Grant said.
Cotterell was thankful for the gesture by the officers.
"They go out every day and they work hard," he said. "To see them come with a basketball for me, it's not like they know me or anything and that's why I'm so grateful for it."
