www.habitatgsf.org

Part One: The 49ers, Habitat Greater SF and a football analogy

February 1, 2013  |  2 Comments

If you’ve been paying attention to our Twitter and Facebook feeds you’ve probably seen how excited we are for this Sunday. With the San Francisco 49ers facing off the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XLVII, we’ve proudly donned the red and gold all week long, practiced our “No-BODY!” cheer (complete with foam footballs!), and conjured a friendly wager between our affiliate and Habitat Chesapeake.

Here at Habitat Greater San Francisco, we identify a lot with football. Our organization is a team made up of individual players all working towards the goal posts: homeownership. In this post, and two more following it we’ve put together an offensive depth chart to give you an idea of how our own team works in order to provide safe, decent and affordable housing in San Francisco, Marin and the Peninsula.

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Playing the role of Quarterback is our Director of Construction, Ed Lehmer. Between Smith, Kaepernick or Lehmer–you can’t really ask for a stronger leader on the field. Ed is no rookie when it comes to managing the construction side of our organization. Ed plays a key role in our site management, directing the players at the line of scrimmage, and getting the ball moving forward towards the goal of a finished home.

Equally important, but often overlooked is the Center position. While gathering on the line of scrimmage, the 49ers center Jonathan Goodwin’s initial job is to survey the field and identify threats to the quarterback before snapping the ball to him. This on-the-field and in-the-moment finesse is what makes the center position one of the most important combinations of physical and intellectual ingenuity. Stepping into the role of center is our Construction Department. The working arm of Ed Lehmer, they establish a direct line of communication between the quarterback and the offensive line, providing on-site leadership in order to keep the ball moving forward.

Working with the quarterback and the center is the Tight End. Our Construction Liaison, Joe Mattox gets a special shout out here. Joe, like 49ers tight end Vernon Davis, effectively serves as a connection between our office activities and what’s going on out on site. With this, Joe effectively blocks any opposition coming towards Ed, ensuring that our construction teams are given the resources they need to keep building. Additionally, as a former construction AmeriCorps, Joe may become an outlet receiver from time to time, stepping into construction duties in the event that the quarterback needs to make a quick pass.

The Running Back of Habitat Greater San Francisco manifests in our dedicated volunteers. Did you know that 90 percent of our work is completed by volunteers? When a running back is in play, he is given the ball, finds a hole in the defense and attempts to run through it, making steady progress towards the end zone.  In the NFC Championship against the Atlanta Falcons, 49ers running back Frank Gore rushed (ran) 21 times for a total of 90 yards, scoring two touchdowns to help the 49ers advance to the Super Bowl.  Our volunteers are the Frank Gores of our team—a steady driving force that move each of our homes to completion, working day by day with that goal in mind.

Along with the running back is its counterpart, the Fullback. Essentially, the fullback blocks for the running back so they can move forward with the ball, or protects from any defensive measure preventing the quarterback from passing to the running back. Our Volunteer Services team serves this purpose, as they ensure an open passing lane for the task of building to move from construction, to our volunteers.

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Check back tomorrow for part two of three of our depth chart!

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