Bridgeport High School football Coach Josh Nicewarner has said it many times to his teams. I’ve heard it. The kids have heard and so has anyone else that’s been around the program since he’s took over.

 

Nicewarner lets those on his team know that as much as doing well at football and how much they all want to win, football is a springboard for other things. He wants them to do know there are bigger things in life. At the same time, he lets every single member of the team know that an entire community is watching them and paying close attention and they need to aware of that.

 

All of that is true – particularly true and resonating this week is the last part. People outside are watching and listening. Some, in fact, have been listening for a long time because, for their own reasons, Bridgeport High School football matters to them. In many cases, it matters deeply

 

I bring that up because a week ago this very day, one of the program’s biggest supporters passed away. Robert C. “Bob” Sayers left this world at the age of 88.

 

He wasn’t sitting in reserved seating. He wasn’t swinging a towel, yelling from the stands or ringing a cowbell.

 

Bob Sayers was a long-distance supporter. He has lived for some time now in Youngstown, New York. The distance, coupled with health issues in recent years, didn’t allow for the trips back home. The radio and the voice of Travis Jones and Ryan Nicewarner, however, put him right there in the middle of the action. In fact, his obituary made note that “in his later years he enjoyed sitting by the backyard fire with his family and listening to his high school alma maters football games.”

 

It’s been a few years since I had talked directly with Bob. I have, however, maintained contact with his wife Olive through social media for some time. She had let know, as had their daughter, that Bob’s health was fading.

 

As I knew his time was nearing an end and then when Olive informed me of his passing last week, I couldn’t help but to think back of my very first encounter with Robert and Olive Sayers. And why I’ve loved them ever since.

 

In my last gig in the journalism world, I wrote for The Bridgeport News and the Sayers were subscribers. When I wrote a column about the area needing Krispy Kreme donuts (yes, there was a time when the closest place to get them was in Charleston) I got a rather large package in the mail. This out of state bundle included a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts and a pair of Krispy Kreme boxer shorts courtesy of the Bob and Olive Sayers.

 

The donuts are gone. I still have the boxers.

 

From that point on, I had occasional phone calls with them, email exchanges and when they visited Bridgeport, which was usually tied around a chance to take in a Bridgeport football game, they would stop by my office. 

 

When the visits stopped, the activity and engagement picked up on social media. I so hoped that Bob would get well and they could come home. After all, he was a 1947 graduate of BHS and had family here so it was something I wanted for him. I’m sure it was something his wife of 67 years – the former Olive Layman – wanted as well.

 

They never did make it back once Bob’s health turned a corner from which there was no exit. Yet, he still was connected. He could read stories about Bridgeport on line and he had Travis and Ryan to listen to every Friday night. Bridgeport football was the Sayers’ family’s sanctuary. And it was that way until the day he died.

 

Funeral services were held Thursday for Bob in New York. On Wednesday, Olive sent me a message. She wanted to let me know that the Bridgeport High School football team had sent a flower arrangement. She told me “how proud” Bob would be about that.

 

Their daughter, Karen Sayers Loveland, still lives in Bridgeport posted a photo of the arrangement on social media. In a perfect touch, the flowers were red and white.

 

It’s one of those things Coach Nicewarner, as mentioned above, talks about. Sometimes, what you’re doing is just about football and sometimes what you’re doing on the football field is important to others; many you may not know. This is a case where both hold true and for Coach Nicewarner, and his family and the BHS football family to bring some happiness to another family in a truly sad place is proof that it’s as gratifying to know Josh Nicewarner walks the walks as well as he talks the talks.

 

I thought about all of that Thursday as the Indians opened their season with Lewis County. I thought how sad it was that Bob Sayers wasn’t able to listen to the opener. I was even a little more bummed knowing that he could have actually listened to Travis and Ryan and watched the game live on WVFX’s Web site or the live stream that was available.

 

Then I smiled. I realized he was watching the game. And he had the best seat in the house.

 

Rest in Peace Bob. Thanks for the donuts, thanks for being a friend to your alma mater and the football program – and thanks for being my friend.

 

Click HERE to read the obituary.

 

Editor's Note: Bob and Olive Sayers are shown above in 2013, while the flowers sent to the family by the BHS football program is shown below. Photos courtesy of Sayers family members Facebook pages.