For Cenla quarterback leadership is in the blood
Southern Sports & Travel, By Darron Thomas
High School football on Friday nights in the south is as strong a tradition as family dinner after church on Sundays. While both traditions are generations old and will live on many more, when the mainstay of the family is absent the void left to fill is sometimes difficult to imagine and even more difficult when that mainstay is serving our country in the military in one of the most dangerous locations on the planet, Iraq.
For most high school football players having their fathers in attendance at each practice and game is taken for granted. That first moment alone with a dad after a game to receive encouragement and talk about the game is a highlight and special moment for a son but for Cenla Christian senior Graham Kelly receiving guidance and encouragement from his father came by way of a cell phone connection 7,200 miles away.
Graham’s father, Army Support Battalion Commander Marc Kelly, has been to the likes of Panama, Bosnia and Iraq while serving our country. Marc would place a call to his wife Michele each Friday night during the 2010 season just before the 7:00 pm kickoff. Two hurdles had to be crossed in order for the call to be successful. The first would be achieving the expensive connection and the other was the fact that while it was 7:00 pm in the south it was 4:00 am in Baghdad. Once the connection was secured Marc would listen intently to the entire game and on a few occasions Michele would take the cell phone to Graham during halftime for a few father to son comments.
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