MONROEVILLE, Pa. -- There would be one last huddle on this night, Gateway High's players gathering near the north end zone of their home field and drawing together, raising their helmets overhead.
The Gators' coach, Terry Smith, had just finished telling them that they had played like champions, that they had dug deep in withstanding a furious rally by McKeesport to win 31-27 and finish their regular season 9-0. And seeing as this was a rare Thursday night game, he gave them the next three days off from practice, an announcement that was met with approving hoots.
So now they came together and let out a subdued, let's-get-this-over-with "Gators."
All except one player.
Senior Chris Lammie stood a few feet away, barely able to move. He raised his headgear at the appropriate moment, albeit gingerly, doffing it in the direction of the huddle, then turned and slowly began making his way off the field.
He had played every offensive snap at center. He had played nearly every snap on the other side of the ball, too, at defensive end. And on a night when his team, No. 4 in the ESPN RISE FAB 50, had nearly seen a 28-0 lead evaporate, he had been put through the wringer like nobody else. And not just physically, either.
But with McKeesport mounting one last drive in the closing minutes, he had burrowed into the backfield on fourth down and grabbed Ty-Meer Brown, the Tigers' elusive quarterback, by an ankle.
"I wasn't letting go," said Lammie, who is also a wrestler. "I had the death grip on him."
The cavalry, led by linebacker Jeff Parrish, soon arrived. The Gators had held. And when the game ended a little more than two minutes later, Lammie was spent.
In every way.
It was Senior Night at Gateway, which is situated in Monroeville, Pa., just east of Pittsburgh. And at the appropriate moment before the game, Lammie, a 5-foot-10, 245-pounder who sports a mohawk, had taken his place in line with the 17 other seniors on the far side of the field, away from the stadium's massive grandstand. Topped by a three-story press box that would be the envy of many small colleges, the stands are roomy enough to accommodate both schools' fans. (It has to be that way, since a precipitous downslope makes it impossible to build anything on what normally would be the visitors' side.)
The crowd was still filing in. In all, some 10,000 fans would be on hand for a game matching two teams that were not only vying for the Foothills Conference championship and top seeding in the upcoming WPIAL playoffs, but also were among the best in the state in Class AAAA, the largest enrollment category. McKeesport's only loss in eight games had come in its opener, in overtime, to Ohio power Colerain.
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Chris Lammie may be one of the Gators' most unheralded players, but he comes up big when the team needs him most.
Because the seniors would be introduced in order of their uniform numbers, Lammie -- No. 73 -- would go next-to-last. Well after wide receiver/safety Corey Brown and running back/linebacker Dorian Bell, the Gators' Ohio State-bound stars. Also after B.J. Stevens, a defensive end who will join his older brother Jordan at Miami (Ohio), and Brian Williams, the 5-7, 155-pound running back who is the Gators' leading rusher.
By the time Lammie's name was called, only one other player -- Colin Rodkey, an offensive tackle headed for Indiana next year -- remained.
Lammie met his mother, Debra, at midfield and took her by the arm. And as they walked toward the stands, the public-address announcer informed the crowd that Chris wants to play in college next year. That he wants to major in psychology. And that he loves his mother "from the bottom of his heart."
Chris began thinking about his dad, also named Chris, who had died of a drug overdose shortly before a similar ceremony four years ago, when the younger Lammie was moving on from midget ball. How his father (who once played himself, at Steel Valley High) had always made it to his games -- sometimes serving on the chain gang, sometimes working as a water boy, sometimes just watching. But never missing a down.
That hasn't changed, either.
"He's here," Chris said later. "He's always here."
So as he walked with his mom down the 50-yard line, through a phalanx of cheerleaders and toward two pillars of black and gold balloons, his eyes welled up.
Debra, meanwhile, was dry-eyed. The circumstances of her husband's death were "publicly humiliating," she said. But like her son -- who in addition to his success on the field has lectured kids about the dangers of drugs -- she presses on. She works six days a week at two jobs, at a hotel and a restaurant, to make ends meet. She cares for her daughter's two young children.
"I have a hard time every day," she said.
But not this day.
"I was so damn proud," she said. "I couldn't be happier than to be his mother."
As they parted -- Debra in the direction of the stands, Chris in the direction of the locker room -- she had a message for him: "Put away the tears and go kick some ass."
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Dorian Bell is one of two Gateways stars who have committed to Ohio State.
A few minutes later, he found himself amid the bedlam of the team's digs. Rap music was blaring at an ear-splitting level. Players were standing, dancing, singing. Lammie was right in the middle of it, as he usually is.
At the other end of the room, Bell sat in his cubicle, head down, eyes closed. Smith, who is in his seventh year as the head man, often has said Bell is the best player he has ever coached -- better, even, than Smith's own stepson, Justin King, who starred as a cornerback at Penn State (where Smith also played) and now is a rookie with the Rams.
But while King is outstanding at his position, Smith said, Bell could play anywhere and be a star. And certainly Bell does not lack for confidence.
The public-address announcer made it known during introductions that it is Bell's ambition not only to play for the Buckeyes next year, but to start.
"A lot of their linebackers are leaving," Bell said after the game. "Three spots [are] open, and I'm going to get one of them, I promise you that."
But for just a moment, Bell was quiet. He finally rose and joined many of his teammates in singing "Swagga Like Us" by T.I. and Jay-Z, featuring Kanye West and Lil' Wayne:
No one on the corner have swagger like us, Swagger like us, swagger swagger like us.
"They say they have their own swagger," Bell said later. "Nobody has their swagger. Nobody has Gateway swagger."
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Junior QB Robert Kalkstein has three years of starting experience under his belt.
So the Gators swaggered onto the field, taking that 28-0 lead with the help of some McKeesport special-teams blunders. Brown caught a pair of touchdown passes from quarterback Rob Kalkstein, who despite being a junior is in his third year as a starter and seems so much older, so much more mature. The Gators' other TDs came on a Williams run and a gadget play, which saw Parrish, a lefty, throw to fellow wide receiver Josh Vermeulen.
Thomas finally got the Tigers' flexbone offense rolling late in the half, scoring on a 3-yard run.
"Stay focused," Kalkstein yelled in the locker room.
It was one of the few times he said anything amid the din. Mostly, he sat off to the side and kept to himself.
"I can't get too hyped up on the game," he said, "because as soon as kickoff [comes], it's all mental for me."
Then Smith walked in. He is 39 and was the quarterback of Gateway's last WPIAL championship team, in 1986. He went on to play wide receiver for Joe Paterno at Penn State, then in the CFL for two years (in, of all places, Shreveport, La.), then in arena ball. At this particular moment, he was miffed about some chippy play, as well as an out-of-bounds call that deprived the Gators of a touchdown.
"We're pouring it on," he told his players. "We are pouring it on."
Only they didn't. McKeesport scored on its first drive of the second half, on a fourth-down blast by fullback Nico Price, then again, on another run by Thomas, after a Gateway field goal. It was 31-21, Gators, with a whole quarter left to play.
Early in the final period, Bell fumbled and linebacker Ed Gooden recovered, and for an instant, it looked like he had nothing but open field in front of him. But Kalkstein, who carries 165 pounds on a 5-10 frame and never seems to make the wrong play, made the right one yet again, bringing down the 235-pound Gooden with a textbook tackle.
Asked after the game when he had last made a stop, Kalkstein thought a moment.
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Terry Smith guided Gateway to a tougher-than-expected win with the playoffs looming.
"Last year, probably, when I threw an interception," he said.
It only delayed the inevitable. Thomas, who ran for more than 100 yards, slithered 10 for his third touchdown with 7:44 left in the game. And while the two-point conversion attempt failed, the score was 31-27.
Gateway lost the ball on downs with 5:58 remaining, and McKeesport mounted another drive, this one from its own 30. But after advancing to the Gators' 31, the Tigers drew a false-start penalty, then a personal foul.
Thomas scrambled for 10 yards. Price plowed ahead for 4. It was fourth-and-13 at the 34. Fans from both sides were on their feet, screaming. Pleading, really.
And then Lammie found his way into the backfield and to Thomas' ankle.
"You've got to do it," Lammie said, "for your team, for me, for him."
For Dad, he meant.
Because he's always there.
Gordie Jones is a freelance writer in Pennsylvania.
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