Less than 100 days before UAB football's return, the Blazers took timeout to help with a worthy cause. 

More than thirty players and coaches volunteered today at a Habitat for Humanity site in Pleasant Grove. 

"The community is who we are," Blazers' football coach Bill Clark said. " We say this is Birmingham's team.  We want them not just to know that and say that, but we want to really be a part of it and the only way to do that is to get involved." 

Greater Birmingham Habitat for Humanity is celebrating its 30th anniversary by dedicating a five-bedroom house to a family in Pleasant Grove.  UAB's volunteer work at the site is part of a three-day service effort from UAB athletics that also includes members of the Blazers' baseball, volleyball, and men's and women's basketball teams. 

When the football players arrived today at 8:30 a.m., they found the foundation of the house and the exterior walls already built.  That gave the players and coaches the task of covering the exterior walls with oriented strand board. 

The players formed a makeshift assembly line, with a few perched atop ladders to hammer in pieces of the board and others on the ground ready to deliver nails and other supplies to teammates.  Some who were more comfortable with power tools, used nail-guns or cut beams of wood with a saw. 

The Habitat build near the top of a slope on 8th place in Pleasant Grove is in week two of a 6-to-8-week schedule.  Charles Moore, president and CEO of Greater Birmingham Habitat for Humanity, said the new house will replace one destroyed by the April 2011 tornado. 

"Over the next 3-to-4 blocks, most of that was housing and there's nothing," Moore said. " When you drive in, you see driveways with no houses.  That means the house was destroyed." 

UAB junior wideout Chase Long said the 2011 tornadoes also hit his hometown of Athens, and although his family's residence was spared, he saw close friends lose their homes.  He took pride in giving back and helping a family in need. 

"It's a great feeling, you know, making a difference and being a part of something bigger than yourself," Long said. " It's a very uplifting feeling." 

The recipient of the house is Getodia Smiley, a single mother raising six children whose ages range from 5 to 15.  Habitat for Humanity rarely builds five-bedroom houses, but found a way to accommodate the Smiley family. 

"Having six children, people expect you to live in poverty," Smiley said in a press release. " I am thankful I can show my children it's not how you start, but how you finish in life.  We have been praying for this moment and you are helping us fulfill one of our dreams." 

And as the Blazers move closer to the Sept. 2 season opener at Legion Field, the Habitat build gave them a chance to do some good in the local community while bonding as a team. 

"It's a good team bonding thing," defensive back Chase Biles said. " Everybody gets to talk to each other and have fun instead of running around the whole day."