This week marks a milestone for this guy. I mentioned several weeks ago near the beginning of football season I would not consider myself a sports writer until I had completed a year in sports. Well, it’s official, give or take a few days.
I met so many great people within the last year I can’t possibly remember them all. Being on the sidelines or in the dugout of a close game or even a championship game is something not many folks will ever get to experience.
My inaugural year started off with a Pioneer win in the freezing cold versus Cumberland County on Halloween night 2014. I’m glad I took my wife’s advice and put on a few extra layers once the snow started to fall. I will never forget that first night.
Another night I will never forget also involves Warren County football. It was Oct. 23 and we were playing the 0-8 Siegel Stars. It was not going very well for us and as the clock wound down Rickie King scored with around 10 seconds to play.
I look over while the Pioneers celebrate and notice an ambulance pulling up to the Siegel sidelines. I didn’t see anyone helped off the field so I went over to see what was going on. I asked a stranger what happened and his reply was simple, “I dunno.”
So I watched as trainers and medical personnel attended to a young man named Baylor Bramble in a Siegel uniform. They worked quickly to treat this fallen player as his parent’s stood waiting anxiously for word on his condition.
From three or four feet away, I was taken back by his condition. I compared what I saw to someone turning the lights on and off. Medical personnel asked him to squeeze their hands and he did, but then nothing.
After he had been loaded into the ambulance I ask again about what happened, this time to someone from Siegel. He had the same response, “I dunno.”
Saturday I woke up and found an update on the Siegel player. I was stunned. Later that day I went to the high school and stood with the others who had gathered to pray for this young man and I realized at that moment there are still good people left in the world, people who are still willing to meet and pray on a stranger’s behalf.
This young man’s life has probably touched thousands over the course of a week, via local news networks, Facebook, and Twitter.
I have watched for updates all week and it seems his condition remains the same. This is something else I will never forget. Deep down we are all on the same team, #Pray4Baylor. Right on.