Month: November 2024

Once a Brave, always a Brave

These 2024 Braves are a special bunch who are carrying the hopes of a school, an entire county and all those who have gone before them.

Writing is a funny thing. One can never be certain what will resonate with folks.

            In some ways, it’s akin to coming across a rain-filled ditch. You may have a good idea of what awaits, but you never really know if that first step is going to be free and easy to the other side or leave you underwater, gasping and spitting as you try to climb to the surface. 

            When I first started to put down the words Friday morning to the “Ghosts of Baker Field,” the work was fed by the very stark realization that it’s now 40 years since I played my final game of football. And as I’ve gotten older, the memories are more and more persistent, often tapping on my brain in the early hours just before dawn.

            I was quite surprised with the response. More than 1,200 visitors read the story and hundreds more liked and shared the article via Facebook with many offering kind comments that were most appreciated.

Former players from far and near, old and young, shared their memories of their final games and their lifelong bonds with their teammates. Family members told of how they were unsure of what to answer when their son, defeated and dejected after a season-ending loss, sprawled out on a patch of torn turf in some faraway town, looked up at them and asked, “What am I supposed to do now, Momma?”

            But the highest praise came from Union County head football coach Derek Johns who said he read the column right before the team took the “Brave Walk” down the hill at Baker Field Friday night, where later they would celebrate a dominant, mistake-free 43-21 win over Belfry that sends them on to the state championship game.

That comment really hit home.

            In a way, Johns allowed the ghosts of Baker Field into that locker room one more time when he shared those words. The Thin Twenty from 1972. The 1976 and 2008 teams that had stood exactly where they were only to come up just short. And the 5-6 team from 1984 of which I was a part of.

            “Once a Brave, always a Brave.” I heard that from so many.

            These 2024 Braves are a special bunch who are carrying the hopes of a school, an entire county and all those who have gone before them. They’re now 12-2 and will play for the Class 3A state title when they take on Christian Academy of Louisville next Saturday at the University of Kentucky’s Kroeger Field. 

This band of Braves has gone where no other Union County football team has ever gone before. They’ve already established their place in local lore. What awaits is a place in the state record books.

            But, perhaps most prominent in their minds, is the guarantee that they get the chance to lace up the cleats and put on the pads. They’ll pound their fists upon their teammate’s shoulder as they huddle at midfield, eyes locked, breath heavy. And, at the end, when the final horn has sounded, they’ll form a circle, take a knee and come together as a brotherhood one more time.

            You see: It’s just one more game.

            One more game.

Editor’s Note: Michael Banks was a member of the 1982, 1983 and 1984 varsity football teams at Union County High School. He is once a Brave, always a Brave.

Ghosts of Baker Field

Ask a former football player what’s their one wish and often the answer is: One more game. Just give me one more game.

Forty years ago, on a cold November night, I played my final snap of high school football.

            The Bermuda grass at Owensboro’s Rash Stadium had turned a muddy brown and it was a meaningless football game between two .500 teams. There was really nothing memorable for the scattering of fans – mostly family and friends — spread out along the metal bleachers. The game was one of those “three handoffs and a punt” and the final score was 7-0.

            But the memories of that game, and others before it, remain all these years later.

            Tonight, on a cold November night, my alma mater will try to do something that’s never been done in the school’s 60 years of existence: advance to a state championship football game. Not just win a state crown, but to actually make an appearance in the title game.

            That’s pretty heady stuff for a Western Kentucky community of 16,000 mostly made up of farmers and coal miners. Good country folk, you see.

            From afar, I’ve followed the fortunes of the 2024 Union County High School football team as they’ve marched to an 11-2 record and an appearance in the Class 3A state semifinals. Many could argue tonight’s home game at Baker Field vs. 11-2 Belfry is the biggest in school history. You can view and see the game live via local radio station WMSK’s Facebook page.

Baker Field is prepped and ready for the Class 3A state semifinal game between Union County and Belfry high schools on Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (Photo from Facebook page of UCHS head football coach Derek Johns)

            You ask a former football player what’s their one wish and most will answer quickly: One more game.

            Just give me one more game.

            There’s something about football that sticks with you. Something that makes those hot August practices, that cleat drug across your shin, a dislocated finger, all worth it. Maybe it’s that smell of fresh-cut grass, that rhythmic drum beat from the marching band, the feel of the leather football on a crisp fall night.

            It’s pure adrenaline. The Calloway Special. A pancake block and a hole wide enough to drive a tractor through and 45 open yards to the endzone. It’s an airborne opponent reaching for an errant pass and you poised and ready to deliver the hit.

            It’s a feeling many of us will chase long after we’ve played that final snap.

            Any one of us former players would love to be in that locker room tonight. Fingers and feet tapping in anticipation, stomach in a knot. Forty years later and I can still see my own teammates, waiting, ready. Frenchy. Big Tim. Duck. Barry. Word. Burgoo. Danny. PeeLo. Jarrod. Omaha.

            You see. It’s not just yourself you’re playing for. But it’s also for a community, a school, your teammates and all those ghosts of Baker Field who put on the pads and walked the turf you walk tonight.

            Go, Braves, go!

The author is shown at Union County High School’s Baker Field in the summer of 2015. The school is located midway between Morganfield and Sturgis, Ky.

Editor’s Note: Michael Banks was a member of the 1982, 1983 and 1984 varsity football teams at Union County High School. None of those teams advanced to the state playoffs, but he made some lifelong friends along the way.