Last Sunday 20 football players spent half their day doing the backbreaking labor of pulling and “de-barnacling” old PVC stakes from Crescent Beach shellfish beds.

“It was arduous. It was really a lot of work,” said linebacker coach Mark Padbury.

Padbury said the project was “a way to give back to the community.” The team convinced additional volunteers to participate: Milly Vaccarella, Coleen O’Brien, Stella and Sofia Padbury, Sofie Thixton, Huxley Smart and Clarabeth Smith.

The volunteers yanked each stake out of the sand, then painstakingly smashed off the barnacle encrustment using machetes or a device developed by Padbury that allowed them to pound the pipes through a small hole, sloughing off the barnacles in the process.

Coach Dahl commented that the efficient device “saved our bacon.”

After a hard morning’s work, the crew gratefully welcomed a sizzling lunch provided by Fire Smokehouse and Grill chef Everett Brooks.

“They really stepped up and fed the troops,” said Padbury. “It was like the proverbial sandwich in a mirage when we got to eat.”

Padbury said Bill Bawden, owner of Judd Cove Shellfish, the company that once used the stakes, gratefully donated $1,000 to the team as a thank-you for its hard work.