Military celebrations take on special meaning for high school football teams

There’s really no point in Derby football coach Brandon Clark conducting a pregame speech on Military Night. The revving of the VFW Riders’ motorcycles outside the locker room creates a goose bump-inducing din that snatches some of the focus – while also making it difficult to hear.

The Panthers, who celebrated Military Night for the fifth year at their season opener last Friday, wear their camouflage uniforms and walk through a line of revving motorcycles and into their green tunnel before charging onto the field.

“Oh, it’s awesome,” said Tony Murphy, a Navy recruiter whose son, Tony Jr., plays for Derby. “It’s just like a whole little city coming together and recognizing the military for what they do. It is just awesome.

“When you’re serving and you know you have that much support, it brings a tear to your eye.”

Bishop Carroll will host a military night on Sept. 18. Cheney will host its Hometown Heroes Night on Oct. 16.

Conway Springs is hosting its second military night on Friday against Medicine Lodge. VFW Riders will form a tunnel for the players.

“I think that’s one of the neatest things for the military people, to show that we really respect what they’ve done,” Conway Springs coach Matt Biehler said.

Collegiate on Friday is hosting its first military night, called a Salute to America.

“When we saw we were playing on 9-11 and we have a home game.… I saw it as an opportunity to do a salute to America in remembrance of 9-11 and a chance to thank local armed forces and first responders and everybody,” Collegiate coach Mike Gehrer said.

He gathered a committee and there will be a parade with color guard, motorcycles and bicycles from each of Collegiate’s school levels, including early childhood.

“It (9-11) shows such a strength of the United States,” Gehrer said. “It’s a signal of how we responded to that, how painful it was, but how everyone bonded together.

“It was one of those events where the sporting events seemed to draw the community all together. It’s up to us to not ever forget what a tragic event that it was.”

Dodge City, which will play host to Southeast on Friday, will showcase an American flag that is 300 feet long, 100 feet wide and needs 185 people to hold it. The flag costs $65,000, but Dodge City athletic director Jay Gifford said community sponsors paid $5,000 to rent it.

The flag, held by 115 faculty members, first responders and the Dodge City cheerleaders and drill team, will be unfurled prior to the national anthem. There will be fireworks before the game and at halftime after the singing of “God Bless America.”

While the special night honors the military, it’s also a chance for Dodge City to showcase three Air Force generals who are alumni: Brigadier Gen. Scott Kindsvater, Brigadier Gen. Fred Stoss III and Major Gen. Frank Scoggins.

“We can’t find a whole lot of places that have more than one general from their school,” Gifford said. “The fact that we had three, we decided, ‘Let’s showcase it, put it in front of our kids.’”

For Derby, the military night is an obvious choice because it is a military town, as its school district includes McConnell Air Force base housing.

“I consider Derby a military town,” Clark said. “We have a ton of Air Force because of the Air Force base, but we have a lot of other branches in the community.… We decided to use one of the Friday nights as a platform to honor them.”

All retired or active members of the military get in and eat for free.

At Thursday dinners, the Panthers have a guest speaker. Last week it was Marine Cpl. Matt Liston.

The winners of the Joe Herndon scholarship — former players Dalton Denton and Caleb Gash — were honored at the game. Herndon, a former Derby player and graduate, died in 2004 while serving as a U.S. soldier in Iraq.

Jess Hammond, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005 and served with Herndon, is the president of the VFW Riders in Derby and one of nearly 60 riders who were at the Panthers’ season opener.

For the riders, the military night is just as special.

“Even though we’re not over there with our brothers and sisters, we’re showing the support,” Hammond said.

Friday, when he’s part of the contingent of riders at Conway Springs, he’ll have his usual hope as he looks at the fans from the seat of his motorcycle.

“I want them looking at the flags and the veterans out there who are so fortunate to be at home,” said Hammond, 33. “… I look through the crowd and I hear the roar of the bikes — it’s a symbol of freedom.”

This story was originally published September 11, 2015 at 1:13 PM with the headline "Military celebrations take on special meaning for high school football teams."