A scruffy practice field near Winston Lake seems an unlikely place for a partnership between combat engineers and a minor-league football team to blossom.
The players and coaches for the Carolina Renegades toil in the smallest of the minor leagues. They have jobs and lives. On a good night, they might draw a couple hundred fans, mostly friends and family.
Tracking developments from wars that have faded from public view hardly seems a priority, and any connection between soldiers and a minor-league team seems a long shot — even with all the goofy metaphors comparing football to warfare.
Dig just a little deeper, though, and you'll find Dale Glossenger, the head coach/owner/primary booster whose passion for football knows few limits. He and his wife, Sandy, have two sons in the service (a 23-year-old is in Afghanistan now), so they know well the price asked of the military and those who love them.
That naturally got them to thinking: We've got this platform. Can we use it to help in any way?
Little pieces of home
Sandy Glossenger says she tries not to dwell on what her son, Sean Fitzpatrick, is doing in Afghanistan with other members of his Army unit.
The 55th Mobility Augmentation Company, 5th Engineers — the Misfits — clear explosives, booby traps and unexploded ordnance from treacherous roads in Kandahar, a volatile region in an unstable country. Hardly what most moms envision for their boys while raising their babies.
"If I see him putting comments on his Facebook page or on Skype, then I know he's OK," Sandy Glossenger said. "It's when you don't see anything, when (the Army) puts them on blackout, that makes you feel uneasy."
It was during one of her conversations with Sean on Skype — a video conversation streamed through the Internet — that she began to think of a way to do something for the troops. She was in Walmart shopping and talking to her son when it hit her.
"They can buy things on FOBs (forward operating bases), particularly in Iraq, but not all the things they might want or need," she said. "They feel bad asking for things. He'll say, 'No, Mom, it's not a big deal' when I ask what I can get for him. But it makes me feel better giving him what he wants and what he might not be able to get on a FOB in Afghanistan."
Socks. Books. DVDs. CDs. Toiletries. Beef jerky. Pop-Tarts.
"Care packages are like Christmas for them," Sandy Glossenger said. "Anything that's a little bit of home means the world to them."
Bingo.
Knowing how real it is
As the owner, Dale Glossenger gets to set priorities for his football team. One of the things high on his list has been to blend in some charitable component to it.
"Last season, Coach G helped collect something like 2,600 cans of food for Second Harvest (Food Bank)," said Dan Finkelstein, an assistant coach.
This season — which opens Saturday with a home game at Atkins High and runs through October — the Glossengers decided to collect items for items for care packages at each home game.
The Army has been good for Sean, Dale Glossenger said, so why not give something back?
"He always seemed to find mischief and mischief found him," Dale Glossenger said. "He needed some direction in his life. The Army gave him an opportunity to do something with his life and gave him direction. It turned him into a man."
Since enlisting three years ago, Sean has been deployed to Iraq for a year and has been in Afghanistan since February. Dale Glossenger said Sean has had some close calls, one in particular when something exploded near a minesweeping vehicle he was in while patrolling in Iraq.
"That was kind of a moment for all of us to know how real it was," Dale Glossenger said. "Now in Afghanistan, it's a whole new type of war … they have to clear the roads and 50 meters either side of it. They have to do that on foot."
To alleviate just a little of that gut-eating stress, the Glossengers hope to be able to send a couple hundred care packages to Afghanistan at season's end filled with items gathered at Renegade games.
"Their world is different," Sandy Glossenger said. "It's dangerous. What little safety they have is inside a fence. Anything to put a smile on their face."
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement