Cole Snyder’s white 2004 GMC Yukon had nearly 100,000 miles on it, but every morning, he started the engine and drove through the Southwestern High School district in Chautauqua County.

The fuel gauge on the sport utility vehicle wasn’t accurate, so Snyder had no idea if he actually had enough gas in the tank to make it to football practice from his family home in Lakewood. Regardless, Snyder hit the road by 5:30 most mornings, and he wound through the back roads west of Jamestown and picked up at least five of his teammates at Southwestern to make sure they got to practice.

“My coach told me, ‘If these guys aren’t here, it’s your responsibility,’ ” said Snyder, now a quarterback for the University at Buffalo football team. “The coaches don’t play anything down during the season, so I know how important all the offseason work is that we do. If guys don’t have a ride, or if guys didn’t wake up, I was going to go knock on the door and make sure they're there. That was a big reason why we were successful. And I've taken that with me throughout college.”

Those trips weren’t always smooth, though.

“His car ran out of gas a few times,” said Alex Card, a former high school teammate of Snyder’s who is now a graduate student at SUNY Brockport. “My cousin had to get gas for him, he called me a few times to let me know what was happening. Or he’d call our coach and say, ‘I’m out of gas!’

“But he was still on time for practice. He was always one of the first ones there.”

Snyder wouldn’t take money, a breakfast sandwich or even a cup of coffee in return for the transportation.

“I guess the trade was that they came to practice, and we got better,” Snyder said. “And I knew that every day, I had someone to throw to.”

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