“Is this the
first time you've been to our little town?
...I don't like
to brag but we're kinda proud of that Ragged Old Flag.”
--Johnny Cash
The flag the Anderson County football team rallies around is not yet
ragged. It might never be tattered or threadbare.
But the same message it waved in the winds near one of the world's
hot spots is the one the Bearcats want to shout every time they take
the field for the battle of a football game.
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| The Anderson County Bearcats take the field with the American Flag. |
Anderson County is a place where people like to wave the red, white
and blue. Just sit along one of the main highways that mark the
county and chances are it won't be long until you see the Stars and
Stripes flying from the back end of a pickup.
It's just who Anderson County is.
Just as Kirby Alexander's flag being carried by one of the Bearcats
for Friday Night Lights is now part of the fabric of the community.
Service was 'something to do'
An Army veteran, Kirby Alexander was just trying to become a part of
his new community when he started attending high school football
games six years ago.
He'd been a pretty good player at Montgomery County High School in
the early 1970s, but joined the Army after graduation. He saw much of
the world before leaving the service and eventually coming to
Lawrenceburg.
“I
just started going to the (Anderson County) football games,”
Alexander says.
He became a regular, regardless of the location.
“I
first met Kirby at Marion County,” remembers Steve Carmichael, who
had two sons line up as quarterback and lead the Bearcats to district
and regional championships. “I thought he was a bus driver, but he
was at the game and we just started talking.
“I
tell him I thought he looked like he was part of the Duck Dynasty
crew.”
It was in 2008, not long after Kirby started calling Anderson County
home.
Instead, Kirby became part of the field painting crew charged with
getting Bearcats' home turf ready for Friday nights. “He was very
dependable,” remembers Carmichael, who was also on the crew.
“I
just enjoy it. It gives me something to do,” says Alexander, now 58
and retired.
Little did anyone know the guy who just showed up at games because he
wanted to be a part of his new community would grow into a fixture.
Band of Brothers carry flag to battle
About
the same time, Anderson football coach Mark Peach, an avowed history
buff, had been reading Stephen Ambrose's classic, “Band of
Brothers.” Fascinated with the incredible stories of Easy Company
of the 101st
Airborne in World War II, Peach believed he could apply some of those
lessons to the football field and teach his team about sacrifice and
service in the real world at the same time.
 |
| The Anderson County team gathers under the flag before a game. |
“This
flag” is not just any red, white and blue fabric, though.
Alexander,
at one time a paratrooper, was assigned to the 2nd
Infantry Division at Camp Casey, South Korea, located near the
Demilitarized Zone. The base is manned to deter aggression from North
Korea and to provide defense, if necessary.
When he returned to the United States, Alexander brought a flag home
with him.
That same flag which flew in sight of Kim Jong-il's Communist regime
would teach some lasting lessons.
“I
put the flag on a 10-foot pole and drove up there,” he says of a
trip to the 2011 regional championship game at Conner High School.
“Nobody knew what I was going to do. … I told Coach Peach and he
said, 'Let's go ask the kids. I have no problem.'”
Not a good luck charm
It would be wrong to think that the Anderson football team sees the
flag as a good luck charm. Nor is the Band of Brothers military theme
a careless use of military terminology to get high school athletes to
play a game with raw emotion.
What
Kirby's flag represents is much, much deeper and meaningful.
“You
have to be chosen by the rest of the team to carry it,” says
current Anderson senior Nathan McGregor, one of the team captains.
“It is an honor.”
Carmichael, an Air Force veteran, liked what he saw in the Band of
Brothers theme and what Alexander's flag had made it hit close to
home.
“The
kids had bought into the Band of Brothers theme,” he says. “They
gained an appreciation for people who serve and the representation of
that flag and the freedoms we have because of that flag. It means
something for these kids to be able to take it on the field.”
Peach has used the Band of Brothers theme to talk about sacrifice and
teamwork, but is quick to remind any who listen that a game is
nothing compared to war.
“It's
not even close,” says Peach. “But we can honor people who have
served when we do sacrifice.”
Getting the message right
Alexander says his adopted hometown and team are getting it right.
“A
lot of people don't really understand what a soldier has to do,” he
says. “No soldier can do it alone. You have to have a team. You
have to have cohesion, leadership, dedication and sacrifice. And you
have to use your intelligence to get things done.
“I
have no problem with (using the military theme). I wish more schools
would take the concept.”
Over the years, the Bearcats have become more than a football team as
they engage in various community service projects such as Challenger
League baseball for special needs children and cleaning up around The
Healing Field, a collection of flags remembering every Kentuckian
killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Alexander says he salutes the field every time he drives past it on
Broadway in Lawrenceburg.
“Over
the past five or six years, I have seen the football team with very
much integrity,” Alexander says. “I can't explain the word for
it. I see them go to The Healing Field at the Legion, clean it up and
not say a word.
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| Younger children want to help Kirby Alexander with his flag. |
“I
have seen two of the boys in Alton Station drive by in a pickup
truck. They didn't know I was behind them. They stopped and helped a
lady who was mowing her yard with a push mower. They ended up mowing
the yard for her. They got in their truck and drove off without
taking any money.”
And sometimes that service goes beyond doing something in the
community.
Several players have chosen some form of military service when they
finish high school. “I had nothing to do with their decisions,”
Alexander says, “but I think the military is a good career.”
The Anderson County flag tradition was borne on a cold November night
at Conner High School. The Bearcats drove for the winning touchdown
with 44 seconds to play.
The young man who caught Seth Carmichael's fourth-down pass, Matt
Sprague, had already decided what he wanted to do with his life.
He'll graduate from the United States Air Force Academy next spring.
So we raise her
up every morning, we take her down every night.
We don't let her
touch the ground and we fold her up right.
On second
thought, I'd like to brag
'Cause I'm
mighty proud of the Ragged Old Flag.
--Johnny Cash
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