'We Had To'

We Had To

By BRENDAN BURNETT-KURIE

“It is such a secret place, the land of tears.”

– The Little Prince

For a moment, the tears didn’t fall from Pierre Etchemendy’s eyes.

Under the humming light of the jaundiced back gym, his lower eyelids held strong, damming up the reservoirs of salty tears that collected in the running back’s brown, red-rimmed eyes.

Then, the levees broke. The tears rolled, rushing down his cheeks, across smeared blue face paint and sweat residue. They reached his chin and dripped like a clogged gutter onto his jersey.

Pierre stands 6 feet tall and carries 175 pounds of pure muscle; mostly in his shoulders and bulging biceps. From the sidelines, you can hear his screams from middle linebacker as he motions players around the field.

As he cries, he is quiet. Finally, he speaks, but it’s more of a lengthy, soothing, exhale that the tongue roughly forms into words as a last effort.

“We’ve lost many close people this week,” he pauses. His hand touches his chin, he feels the tears. His eyes drift to the floor and then back up. Just minutes before, he had walked off the field at Bearcat Stadium as the new record holder for touchdowns in a single game.

With 6:17 left in Douglas’ 76-14 win over Rawlins, sophomore running back Baylor Sieg purposely ran out of bounds at the two-yard line so Etchemendy could return to the game for his sixth touchdown, breaking a three-way tie with Scott Boner (2007) and Payden McIntyre (2006).

“At halftime, coach asked me if I wanted it,” he says in a shaky murmur. “I told him I didn’t want it for me. I wanted it for them. We dedicated that last one to them.”

Them was Levi Sober and Skye Hiser, two Douglas High School students – one a junior, one a senior – who died tragically in the last week, leading Etchemendy and fellow seniors Colter McNare and Trae Seebaum to have Douglas Sign Company make up stickers – black crosses with red hearts that read “In memory of,”  above the interlocking initials SLH and LJS – that each player wore behind the ear of his helmet.

“Every play, I thought about them,” Etchemendy said. “It was a hard football game. It was a rough halftime, to go back out and finish, but we had to.”

In the end, Douglas finished a dominating win over Rawlins at home Oct. 9, earning Etchemendy a spot in the record books along the way.

But he never would have gotten there without the altruistic act of a sophomore third-stringer.

Etchemendy had five scores before halftime, but the Douglas offense didn’t get the ball until the last minute of the third quarter, due to two interceptions returned for touchdowns, a botched punt return and a mercy rule that kept the clock running. Already holding a 70-6 lead, the Bearcats sent their JV team onto the field to finish out the game.

But Sieg burst loose on a 42-yard run midway through the fourth quarter, then unexpectedly stopped at the two-yard line and sprinted out of bounds.

“I broke away and I had two options, I decided we’re a team, we’re brothers,” Sieg said. “(Pierre) is one of the best people in the world and he really deserves it. I just ran it out.”

Etchemendy was honored by his backup’s thoughtfulness.

“Baylor told me what he was going to do if he got down there, but he didn’t have to do it,” Etchemendy said. “Baylor did a totally unselfish act. I can’t say enough about him running out of bounds like that. The coaches weren’t making him, it was all him. I can’t thank him enough for that.”

“Baylor Sieg is a special young man,” Rhoades said, his eyes moistening. “That was very unselfish, very un-centered. Instead of being self-centered, he’s un-centered. To give Etchemendy the shot at the record, which Etchemendy made sure he pointed out to everybody when we talked about getting it at halftime, that was not for him. That was for his teammates. That was for the families who lost people this week.”

“I’m kind of at a loss of words for kids like Pierre Etchemendy and Baylor Sieg,” defensive coordinator Wes Gamble said. “He gives his touchdown – he doesn’t get many at the varsity level – to Pierre. That shows what kind of team we have. Very unselfish. Very emotional. You won’t find a group of kids tighter than this group. They’re special.”

But it was junior backup running back Dylan Klava – the man who sits between Etchemendy and Sieg on the depth chart and rushed for 76 yards and scored three touchdowns himself – who perhaps put it best.

“That’s class right there,” he said. “That doesn’t happen very often. People don’t do that.”

“I actually started crying,” junior quarterback Hayden Barker said.

For the juniors and seniors on the team it wasn’t just an emotional win; it meant more than a 62-point blowout on a 16-degree night on an inch of powdery snow ever should. But it also brought a sense of normalcy, a return to the routine that they all needed so desperately.

“I know it helped get our minds off what’s happened,” Sieg said.

“It was a bittersweet win because of everything that’s going on, but we went out and played football and I think it helped a lot of us,” Etchemendy said.

Earlier that Friday morning, after hearing the news of Hiser’s death the day before, Rhoades and his staff gathered the team and asked them one question:

“We’re going to make this decision as a team, do you want to play tonight?”

“Every senior we had who was close to Skye Hiser and every junior who was close to Levi Sober wanted to play tonight,” Rhoades said. “I don’t think there is one of those kids who had the strength on their own to go out and play tonight. When you put them all together, the strength of that team and the bond they have is pretty incredible.”

“You coach these kids throughout your lifetime and you have all these groups,” Gamble said. “Then you have that one, special group. These guys are it. They are a band of brothers.”

In the locker room before the game, Etchemendy described the atmosphere as somber, but intense.

“It was quiet, more focused,” he said. “There wasn’t a lot of hooting and hollering. We knew what it was about, and we went out and played football for them.”

Rhoades had a slightly different take on the motivation his team felt as it took the snow-covered field.

“I don’t think they played it for them,” he said. “They played it to honor them and to honor our team. The Bearcat football team gives the Hiser and Sober families all our love and thoughts and prayers.”

On his final play, nearly 18 minutes after his last rushing attempt, Etchemendy lined up in the backfield, bent at the seven-yard line, then took a toss around the left end untouched to shatter the record. As he crossed the goal-line, he had one thought.

“I was at peace,” he said. “There’s nothing better.”