Arroyo High football players lend athletic strength to lift fence

SAN LORENZO, Calif. (KGO) -- Despite the strong storm last week, here is some positive news in the midst of the weather-related mayhem. Two Bay Area teenagers took it upon themselves to jump in and help out when their community needed it.

In San Lorenzo there was a neighborhood eyesore left after the storm. Five sections of a steel fence had been knocked over and because it was linked together into one flimsy piece, no one had been able to tilt it back up.

Arroyo High School senior Robert DeVecchi said, "We have this thing on Facebook called the San Lorenzo Community page. I saw that the fence was down."

DeVecchi is an offensive lineman for the Arroyo High Football Team in San Lorenzo and even though he can bench 350 pounds, he had to recruit his teammate and friend, Michael Zerby, who plays defensive end.

"We lifted the whole thing up in one try. We lifted it up from the middle. He pulled, I pushed. One side was starting to fall down so we had to move one of the legs back over," DeVecchi said.

But they didn't stop there. The teens knew another round of rain was coming so they grabbed some tools and began cleaning out the drains along Bockman Road.

"My parents are good about teaching me to do stuff for your community and don't just think about yourselves," Zerby said.

"My parents taught me to respect the community, respect other people's property. That's what I was born and raised to do. Our coaches had a lot to do with it," DeVecchi said.

Apparently, all of those lessons and examples paid off.

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ABC7 News reporters Amy Hollyfield, Nick Smith, Lyanne Melendez, and Sergio Quintana contributed to this report.