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Stories From Main Street: Tappan Zee High School Teams Stress Character

ORANGEBURG, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- While a New Jersey high school is making headlines for a hazing scandal, a Rockland County school is making character a priority.

Tappan Zee High School football coach Andy DiDomenico cares about more than just touchdowns and tackles.

"A coach's job is to love his players, and the players' job is to love each other," DiDomenico told WCBS 880's Sean Adams.

Stories From Main Street: Tappan Zee High Teams Stress Character

On Tuesdays, the team gathers to talk about character. "Commitment, leadership, selflessness, citizenship," DiDomenico said.

It's part of a district-wide initiative.

"I want to teach all of these kids like they're my own sons and coach them like as if they were my own son," lacrosse coach James Amandola said.

The athletes are getting the message.

"It's not just about the game," said senior lacrosse player Evan George. "It's about who you are as a person after."

Senior football tackle Dylan Thomas recalls one talk about humility.

He was taught that after making a big play, you should "get up and get ready for the next play," he said.

"That's humility," Thomas said.

Senior volleyball player Rachel Maggiore and her teammates do charity work in the fight against breast cancer.

"Every year, we participate in Volley for the Cure, and we get together with our rivals, Pearl River, and raise money for that cause," she said.

Added her coach, Mark Stanford, "To us, it's about character and investing both in yourselves and in your team and in your community."

Recently, real life has provided topics for discussion -- domestic abuse in the NFL, the alleged sexual assaults on the Sayreville War Memorial High School football team in New Jersey.

Jake Hernandez, a senior guard on the Tappan Zee football team, said he applied what he has learned when he witnessed bullying in the school hallway.

"Just told them to stop," he said. "It's not the right thing to do."

Athletic director Liam Frawley said he doesn't want to come across as though the school is perfect.

"Everybody's got something to work on," he said. "But we're going down that right road."

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