Joey! Joey! Joey!
The chant sprouted up from the boys basketball players sitting in the middle of the bleachers at Franklin’s football stadium on Wednesday evening after senior Joe Admire made an open-field tackle at midfield during the final minutes of the Grizzly Cubs’ Unified flag football contest against Greenwood.
That moment was a nice bookend to a night that began with Admire leading his teammates out of the inflatable tunnel at the north end of the field — one of several first-time perks that Franklin’s Unified team got to enjoy as part of the special “Wednesday Night Lights” game.
The spectacle was the brainchild of Franklin senior Kinley Shoemaker, who has been a member of the team since its inception last fall. An aspiring sideline reporter who fills that role during student-run broadcasts of Franklin’s home football games, she knows what a Friday night feels like — and her flag football experience inspired her to try creating a similar atmosphere for a Unified event.
“They’re my family,” Shoemaker said of her teammates. “This is my family right here. And coach (Mike) Leonard — I call him Grandpa Coach Leonard — but this is my family, and I want them to have a positive experience … and I think this is something that the community needs to come and support. That’s pretty much it — I want to show love to my family, and I want them to love us back.”
Love was in the air Wednesday. A few dozen varsity football players and cheerleaders flanked the tunnel as Admire, flanked by classmates Shoemaker and Janell Johnson, led the Grizzly Cubs onto the field. Franklin boys basketball coach Adrian Moss had his squad turn out to show their support. The bleachers weren’t exactly Friday full, but there was far greater turnout than there had been at most previous Unified games.
“It’s awesome,” said Franklin senior Noah DeArmitt, who is playing with the team for the first time this fall. “Everyone coming out and trying to have the feel of a Friday night lights game … it’s fun.”
That Wednesday’s game happened to be against county rival Greenwood, which is fielding a team of its own for the first time this fall, only enhanced the whole experience.
“It’s hard that first year,” Leonard said. “I learned that lesson last year, and so we’re excited to help them kind of get rolling so they can have the experiences that we’re having here — because for a lot of these players, this is like a little extended family.”
Greenwood’s players have been thoroughly enjoying their first season, and Wednesday’s game at Franklin was like nothing the Woodmen had experienced thus far.
“It was really interesting,” Greenwood junior Ceniyah Talbert said. “I like how we’re all a team and we all let everybody play equally. I feel like it’s a new community and a group for everybody — there should be more people involved.
“I’m definitely going to tell my friends about it.”
Franklin wound up winning the game, 66-34, but the score wasn’t the point. Besides, both teams had their share of highlight-reel moments.
Franklin quarterback Jesse Clemens connected with teammate Joshua Brown on a long throw to the end zone early in the game, and the Woodmen showcased their big-play capability on length-of-the-field TDs by James Holton III and Calveon Dulaney.
Admire brought the crowd to its feet with a run to midfield in the middle of the first half, helping set up a touchdown pass from Clemens to Shoemaker, and the speedy Dulaney broke off another long scoring run on the final play of the first half.
The star of the final minutes was Greenwood senior Angel Peña, who ran a couple of Statue of Liberty plays on his team’s final drive before throwing a late touchdown pass to Khup Thang. Peña then called his own number and darted past a smiling Shoemaker for the two-point conversion.
After the game, the two rivals gathered at the 50-yard line and took a photograph together. Included in the shot were the three game officials, who received postgame cheers of their own — further proof that Unified sports are in a class by themselves.
Leonard used that to make his sales pitch for more officials to come out and work the games.
“For those officials that love officiating and would love to officiate a sportsmanship-like game that only lasts an hour? Come on,” he said. “We include them in the picture, we give them applause after the game. One of the officials last game, he was like, ‘I’ve never been applauded by a group of players leaving the field.’ And that’s the way it should be.”
The extra touches that Shoemaker added as part of her project only further sweetened the evening.
“I wanted to do this because at every game, we kind of just have a lack of fans, a lack of spirit,” she explaine, “so I felt like it would be a really good feeling for us and the community to see us being supported by our community and our school.”
It felt even better to see those desires come to fruition.
DeArmitt, who is used to seeing the stands full as a member of the Grizzly Cubs’ baseball team, enjoyed Wednesday just as much as an afternoon on the diamond.
“It’s refreshing,” he said. “It’s completely different, but it’s awesome in its own way.”
