8th grade football player from East Moline helps injured opponent walk off field

DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) - The stakes may not seem high for a middle school football coach

“You’re not really playing for playoffs, you’re not playing for a State Championship and that sort of thing you’re playing to build toward something as you get older” said Glenview head coach Matt Trouten.

The future of the 8th graders playing is being shaped and stakes like that don’t get any bigger.

“Getting them prepared for life, you know I mean football’s a great sport to do that, I mean there’s difficult days that you gotta get through and football I know it helped me like molded the character I am now today” said John Deere head coach Brandon Hollenback.

“At this age you’re learning life lessons and sportsmanship is a huge thing not even just in the game but in life” said Trouten.

In the first game of the season, Glenview and John Deere went down to the wire.

“It was the heat of the battle. There was only four or five minutes left in the game and the game ended up going to overtime” said Hollenback.

Kyle Hines was on defense when Glenview made a big play late in the game.

“It was just the sweep to my side or whatever and I had rolled my ankle previously in the game” said Hines.

Kyle sprained his ankle and fell to the ground.

“I’m just like oh my God I’m not gonna be able to play the rest of the game like there’s no way, it hurts too bad and after that one of the UT players came over and helped me up and helped me walk to the sideline.”

That player was Tyrian Walls, one of Glenview’s Captains

“I looked back, I seen someboady hurt, my first thing was to think about how he got hurt and help him get up so he could get off the sideline” said Walls.

“With what was going on in the game, that was impressive with just being an intense battle late in the game, for him to come out here and do that and help our guy out I mean that just shows that there’s still athletes out here that do it right” said Hollenback.

A simple gesture that’s far too rare.

“He’s a person just like I am I would want to be helped off the field if I was hurt too” said Walls.

“I just hadn’t seen that really in any other team. Very thoughtful and helpful for me because I couldn’t walk really” said Hines.

Some of these 8th graders may never play football again.

“We always want to make sure we’re respecting our opponents and doing the right thing in game” said Trouten.

But the lesson they learned from such a kind act of sportsmanship will last a lifetime.

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