Bizarre, Society

High School Wins Game As Opposing Team Celebrates

Columbia River showed Skyview the cost of hubris on September 14, 2013 with this last minute touchdown.

River was trailing 24-23 when it tried a 32-yard field goal with seven seconds remaining. Skyview blocked the kick and the players and fans went crazy. The problem is that the football never crossed the line of scrimmage and remained a live ball. Coaches screamed to their players that it was a live ball and River senior Reese Keller grabbed it and won the game.

Keller will not doubt finish his year with a play that will make him a legend at every reunion party for the rest of his life.

18 thoughts on “High School Wins Game As Opposing Team Celebrates”

  2. Comments copied from Jamestown N.Y. Post Journal on line:

    Twitter was overflowing with statements of sadness and shock Monday evening with the hashtag #PrayForDamon.

    “Rest peacefully Damon Janes you’ve brought this whole community closer than ever before,” Monica Kahi Simmons posted using the #PrayForDamon hashtag.

    A second tweet by Don Grzebielucha posted Monday night said, “No one’s supposed to go play football & die, but Damon died doing something he loved, he’d want all to keep playing, caring…”

    The news of Janes’ death has garnered national attention, from high-ranking officials within the United States government to members of the national football community.

    “Praying for Damon and the entire Brocton community from DC today,” U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer tweeted.

    “Sad news of the passing of Damon Janes, 16. We have to protect young FB players & it starts with training their necks,” Kevin McCadem, assistant strength coach at West Virginia University, tweeted.

    Brocton School Superintendent John Hertlein said he, as well as the entire Brocton/Westfield community, is “deeply saddened” by the loss of Janes.

    “This is the community’s loss, as well as the school’s loss and we’re deeply sorry for all of that,” he said. “Our prayers are with his family, his classmates, his teammates and so on. We have no particular information on any type of arrangements and counselors will be available for students throughout this entire week.”

    “This is such a tragic event. One that nobody could ever believe would happen in our small community, a close community where we look after and take care of each other,” Brocton School Board member and Chautauqua County legislator Thomas DeJoe said. “I would ask that everyone continues to pray for Damon’s family to give them our support and strength to deal with their tragic and devastating loss; a loss that we all share with them. God bless them.”

    During a Westfield Village Board meeting Monday evening, Mayor Mike Vande Velde asked for a moment of silence for Janes following the Pledge of Allegiance.

    “We offer our condolences to his family on behalf of the village of Westfield,” he said.

    A Facebook page calls for the nation to wear the color pink today in Janes’ memory. Students at Brocton wore their school color, green, on Monday in Janes’ honor. Students at Westfield also wore green, as well as their school color, blue, on the same day. Portville students have also committed to wearing pink today for the Brocton junior.

    According to the New York State Sportswriters Association, in the past two years, other scholastic athletes from New York have died while taking part in fall sports. Sixteen-year-old Ridge Barden of Phoenix, N.Y., collapsed during a football game in 2011 due to bleeding in the brain unleashed by forceful bodily contact. Ronan Guyer, 14, of Southold, N.Y., died last November also at Women & Children’s while in a medically induced coma triggered by cardiac arrest after preparing for a cross country meet in Elma.

    All competitive sporting events this week in both the Brocton and Westfield school districts have been canceled in lieu of Janes’ passing.

    “These events are at the discretion of the coaches and we encourage that because we like to have kids be involved,” Hertlein said.

    Brocton has also canceled, until further notice, all Homecoming activities planned for this week and has postponed its board of education meeting that was scheduled for Wednesday to Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. in the board room.

    Also, Westfield has canceled its open house that was scheduled for Thursday until further notice. This includes a visitation and tour of the Brocton Central School building for high school students. Brocton has canceled its own visitation and tour for middle school students of the Westfield Academy and Central School facility that was also scheduled for Thursday.

    Brocton Mayor Dave Hazelton declined to comment to The Post-Journal out of respect for the family’s wishes for privacy.

    The Morse Funeral Home in Brocton is handling arrangements for Janes’ funeral, which are currently incomplete. A full obituary will be published in Wednesday’s Post-Journal.

    Ann Belcher contributed to this story.

  8. Oops, my mistake on the field goal the ball is live until it crosses the LOS. Good call!

  9. Should have been a penalty on both sides with offsetting fouls. The entire defense was offsides for intrusion in the neutral zone before the snap and the team on offense was not set for one second before the snap.

    Sorry, it’s the coach on me.

  10. I was taught to play until you hear the whistle. That was drilled into us and it paid dividends w/ fumbles, runner not being touched down, etc. My old football coach would be playing this video weekly.

  11. To follow up on Darrel’s comment, I did a quick search, but did not find the story. Do you have a link?

    I played football, but when you are young you don’t think about the possibility of severe injury or death. Same with soccer. Research on repeated mild concussions from heading the ball is scary. A mild concussion may not even result in more than momentary confusion and “seeing stars” but those injuries are cumulative. They have been connected to early onset dementia. And when you are under thirty years old, the last thing on an athlete’s mind is a vision of sitting in a wheelchair drooling on themselves.

  13. Of considerably more, and really heartbreaking interest to me is the aftermath of a 16 year old Brocton N.Y. high school ball carrier being hit last Friday(9/13/2013) in such a way as to render him unconscious and subsequently dying yesterday.(9/16/2013) Totally bewildering to me???

  14. We are engaged in a battle and competition with the Chinese over Math and Science. This video is about rocket science and math.

  16. A lesson that should be learned by many in other fields of endeavor including but limited to our government!

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