Before the Windham Bombers’ football team had their way with Tuscarawas Central Catholic to record a dominating 42-0 victory last Friday evening, the team enjoyed a pre-game dinner with members of the armed forces to celebrate Military Appreciation Night in the high school cafeteria.
“This shows them that there are a lot of people out there doing stuff to protect them and show them how important what they do is,” former junior varsity coach Jeff McCune told The Weekly Villager on Sep. 13 “There is no way we can ever repay them for what they do. This is a way for the kids to see what these guys do day in and day out.”
The dinner was sponsored by the Tim Lally Chevrolet Dealership in Warrensville Heights, which is where McCune works as a car salesman along with two others. Although the dealership is located several counties away from Windham, it has strong ties to the community as McCune, a 1997 graduate and former football player, and two other employees have maintained strong ties to their hometown.
“These people have known me my whole life and drive all of the way from here up to Cleveland to buy their cars from us,” McCune said. “Our dealership stands behind anything that this town needs, we are willing to step up in any way possible so they support us, they drive all of that way to care of us and we are here for them as well.”
The team assembled in the cafeteria to enjoy a buffet-style dinner with several representatives from the armed forces including the Army, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Reserve Officers’ Training Corps and Navy.
Since 1942, Windham has always been first and foremost a military community ever since the United States Government chose Windham as the site of an army camp for the workers of the newly formed Ravenna Arsenal.
Before the dinner officially began, the team received a motivational speech from Dr. Mike Carlson, owner of the Carslon Funeral Home in Garrettsville.
Carlson praised the team for its strong start to the season, owning a 3-0 record prior to the game against TCC and compared the football team to that of a military unit.
“In the military, you have people who give the orders and then the people who do the work,” he said. “You have coaches who give the orders, and you do the work but the work could not be done if the individual either in the military or on the football field did not have an understanding of what their roles were and none of you could be successful without the person next to you.”
Dr. Carlson then spoke of the importance of having pride in one’s work and how it applied to the football team.
“Pride is something that is pretty special, and it does not matter how big you are, small you are, how smart you are, how quick you are or how slow you are,” he added. “You have to have pride in yourself in what you do, and pride is a positive reason for an intense desire to excel.”
Carlson spoke of the importance of how Windham’s success was largely due to the trust that each member of the team needed to have in each other. He said that same trust also applied to being a member of a military unit or operation.
He spoke of the pride that one not only gets from being a member of the armed forces but also how it trickled throughout an entire family.
“I have buried a lot of people who have been in the military who have died far too young but every single family said the same thing, they were proud,” he said. “If you can leave the field tonight and you can say to yourself that you did your best and are proud of what you did, everything else does not matter.”
He concluded his speech by urging each member of the football team, including the graduating class of 2024, that if and when they did leave Windham to not forget where they came from.
Dr. Carlson noted that although the Village was one of the smallest ones throughout Portage County, there was no shortage of community pride.
“You cannot buy that but that is the way it comes from people who care about you and from people you do not even know about who go to the store in the morning on Saturday to get the paper to find out how you did,” he said.
