Football team lifts tornado-battered town’s spirits

WASHINGTON, Ill. — One week after a twister ripped through this tiny town, the team standing in the way of Washington High School’s undefeated football team and its chance to return to the state finals for the first time in 28 years is Sacred Heart-Griffin.

The Sacred Heart-Griffin Cyclones.

“The Cyclones,” said Mike Brownfield, a tight end for the 1985 state champion Panthers and father of senior lineman Brogan Brownfield, as he stood in front of a pile of splintered lumber and toppled brickwork that had been his home. “I don’t know what you call that. You can’t make this up.”

In fact, this was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Panthers. But nobody in this town of 15,000 could have imagined how much coach Darrell Crouch’s scrappy team would be rebuilding a community’s spirits.

“Win, lose or draw, they ought to have the biggest parade in the world for them,” said lifelong Washington resident Mike Caldwell, 67, as he sat among friends at Hardee’s a few blocks from the school. “But I sure hope they win.”

The 2013 Panthers team started the season without 17 starters who had graduated — and expectations were modest.

“I think because they didn’t have a lot of players back from last year and they didn’t really know who was going to play quarterback … people had their doubts,” said Matt Moehle, captain of the 1996 Panthers and now president of Washington Community Bank. “But they’re a special group of kids.”

Coach Crouch had done more with less, but the collection of Panthers that started the 2013 season in August was a little smallish — starting offensive lineman Nick Sievers was smaller than quarterback Colton Marshall — and the rest of the seniors had mostly been backups the year before.

“One Town, One Team” was the slogan the captains picked out in the offseason, and while folks in Washington surely love their Panthers, the old timers at Kep’s Sports Bar were worried when star running back Austin Strong went down for the season in the second game.

But the Panthers won that game, and kept on winning, and Washington started to believe. Lanky senior receiver Casey Danley, known mostly as a rifle-armed infielder for the baseball team, replaced Strong at running back and proceeded to set just about every rushing and scoring record at the school.

It isn’t unusual to find more than 3,000 fans at Babcook Stadium for a Panthers game, standing 10-deep along the track around the field, with families lining the hills that overlook the field because there’s not a seat to be had in the bleachers.

The 12th Man Club — the football boosters — sell tickets for special patio seats in the “PantherPlex” overlooking the end zone. Voters gave Panther sports a boost this year when they approved a $2.8 million bond issue to pay for new grandstands for football.

“It really is a ‘Friday Night Lights’ kind of town,” said Valeri Brod as she munched on a biscuit sandwich at Hardee’s Wednesday morning, sitting beside her husband and two elementary school-age children. After breakfast, her husband, Doug, was headed back to their house to pick through the wreckage.

“We go to most of the games. Everyone does,” said Valeri Brod. “They’d be beside themselves excited regardless. This is just something else.”

Last Saturday was the highlight of the season thus far. More than 4,000 fans ringed a soggy field and roared as Danley gashed University High-Normal for three touchdowns and 243 yards, setting a new single-season rushing record, en route to a 41-7 win.

The win over U-High punched the Panthers’ ticket for the state semi-finals for the first time since 1985. But the euphoria didn’t last long.

A tornado touched down on the west side of town shortly after 11 a.m. Sunday, while quarterback Colton Marshall was at work at Tractor Supply Co, about a mile from his house.

“Everybody’s cell phones went off at once, and the (tornado) sirens were blowing,” said assistant manager Jill Weaver, who herded Colton and her employees into a breakroom.

“I went to lock the doors and I could see the debris cloud coming.”

As the power went out, the windowless breakroom went pitch black, then came the roar of the storm pounding the roof. When the employees emerged, the rain was pouring down in sheets over the parking lot, and a nearby auto parts store had been reduced to a pile of cinder blocks.

From the parking lot, the tornado’s path stretched a half-mile wide over rolling fields toward Marshall’s house. Marshall hitched a ride to the edge of his subdivision and ran through the winding streets to his house.

“The only thing left was the floor,” he said.

Coach Crouch and his assistants went from house to house Monday, checking in with each player. Big problems came with smaller ones: When a player’s house was leveled, sometimes a uniform was trapped in a basement laundry room.

In fact, not all the uniforms were recovered, and the team has received permission from the state athletic association to allow players to use jerseys that differ from their number on the official roster.

Then there was practice. The high school was virtually untouched, but across from the practice fields, a steady stream of emergency vehicles cycled in and out of the town’s fire station, and forlorn residents filed into a town complex next door to get clothing and supplies.

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Tuesday morning, the team ate breakfast donated by athletic departments from their rival Mid-Illini Conference teams, at folding tables surrounded by piles of donated clothing.

Tuesday and Wednesday, they boarded buses for a 45-minute trip to Normal to start practicing for the Sacred Heart game on the Illinois State University field.

“It’s about a sense of normalcy,” said Washington athletic director Herb Knoblauch. “Our fields were fine. We had power. We didn’t want them looking at the destruction 100 yards away from them. We didn’t want them watching the fire trucks come and go across the street.”

Thursday, classes resumed and the Panthers walked out of the locker room and practiced as they have before each of the last 12 magical games, and that has provided a sense of calm after the storm, said Marshall.

“It helps me get my mind off it,” he said. “But when we get back, it’s back to reality.”

Saturday, Panther fans will board buses donated by Sacred Heart-Griffin, and head to Springfield for the 1 p.m game. Both teams are 12-0.

Among them will be Maura O’Brien, who graduated from Washington High two years ago.

As of Thursday, for O’Brien and many of her neighbors, the tornado recovery effort had moved into the slow process of rebuilding. The 19-year-old had already picked through the remains of her destroyed house across the street from the Marshalls’. Her missing cat, Licorice, was found hiding under the basement stairs the day before.

“There’s not much you can be doing anymore,” she said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do for the next few days, or the next few weeks. But I’m going to the game.”