Video: From Preemies to State Champions

The beginning does not always dictate what is going to happen later on in life.

That was what Chris Hull, head coach of the football team said Monday, when he and several members of his winning team stopped by the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at .

But, this was not just some routine volunteer visit. These players–Chris McDonald, Doug Goss, Elijah Gadsden, David Levine and twins Kyle and Kurt Sittmann–were all there long ago, when they were admitted to the NICU in the beginning of their lives.

Sharon McDonald, Chris' mother and a former employee there, had the realization that she had actually cared for an ordinarily large number of the football team members when they did their time in the NICU 17 and 18 years ago. And, she thought, "How neat would it be to see how these babies had a tough start in life, only to grow into successful young men?"

Here are the players, by the numbers (though not the ones you're used to seeing:

• Chris McDonald – 6 lb., 11 oz. (birth weight); 208 lbs. (football weight)
• Doug Goss – 6 lb., 6 oz. (birth weight); 230 lbs. (football weight)
• Elijah Gadsden – 5 lb., 2 oz. (birth weight); 142 lbs. (football weight)
• David Levine – 4 lb., 8 oz. (birth weight); 165 lbs. (football weight)
• Kyle Sittmann – 5 lb., 13 oz. (birth weight); 202 lbs. (football weight)
• Kurt Sittmann – 6 lb., 1 oz. (birth weight); 205 lbs. (football weight)

See the video connected to this story for more about the football players' return to, literally, where it all began.