Eagles thankful to have ‘Signal Queen’
At first the incoming text merely illuminated the screen of her cellphone. But after processing the message, the words she was reading lit up Grace Hammond’s entire face.
Grace, a special needs student at Signal Mountain and arguably the most passionate fan of its football team, had been advised against attending last week’s season opener at East Hamilton by school administrators. The fear was that because a limited number of tickets were being sold to allow fans to maintain social distance, Grace, who is considered at risk for the coronavirus, would have to stand in a crowded line to buy her pass.
“Grace had worried all summer that football season wouldn’t happen, so when they were finally getting ready to play, she was getting really excited,” said Grace’s mother Jennifer. “They were worried that it would be hard for her to social distance herself and told her she should probably just wait until they had a home game the next week.
“She didn’t say any bad words, but she was definitely disappointed and wasn’t happy at all about having to miss the first game.”
After reluctantly accepting the advice to skip the season opener, Grace was sitting in a waiting room for a doctor’s appointment last Friday when her phone began to ring with a message alert.
What she didn’t know was that the night before the game, the family of Eagles senior lineman Nate Menzel had bought an extra ticket to give to her so she could bypass the line and walk right into the stadium.
The first text, from a Signal Mountain teacher, came over Grace’s phone, with a follow-up text sent to her mom’s phone, notifying them a ticket with Grace’s name on it was waiting to be picked up at the school.
“As soon as she read the message, she got this really big smile and then she just broke down in tears,” Jennifer said. “I had to tell everyone that she was OK, nothing was wrong and those were happy tears.
“Her life pretty much revolves around sports, especially the school’s football team. I adore her school spirit. Grace just wants to be a part of things so much, but sometimes it’s hard for special needs kids. We decided that so long as she wore a mask and kept her distance that the reward outweighed the risk, and we let her go.”
Wearing her mask, carrying her red-and-black pompoms, and with some extra money in
her pocket for snacks, Grace proudly handed over her ticket at the gate and found her spot near the Eagles’ sideline, where she could interact with the players and cheer on her school’s team.
“The team is like family,” Grace said. “I know they care about me and they support me. They let me know they’ve got my back, and I want to let them know they can count on me to have their back and cheer for them.
“I was very excited and wanted to let them know how happy I was that I got to be there for them.”
Those who argue against allowing sports to return amid the pandemic seem not to understand and appreciate the electric smile that overtakes the faces of those with such an emotional connection to the atmosphere and sense of community surrounding Friday nights and how much that is needed for their mental health and overall well being.
Search the stands and they’re easy to spot. Most every program has a Grace Hammond — someone who doesn’t play the game but is every bit as much a part of what makes high school football special as those who do.
Even as a teenager, Menzel understands that better than most. Wanting to make sure his team’s No. 1 fan could again bypass the ticket line and safely cheer for the Eagles, he walked into Grace’s classroom on Thursday morning and personally presented her with a ticket for tonight’s game at Hixson.
“Me and her are pretty good friends, and I know that she’s a really big fan of going to our games to root for us,” Menzel said. “After talking to her, I knew she was sad about not getting to go to our first game, so we just wanted to make sure she could go.
“Everyone calls her the Signal Queen because, other than our parents, she’s the one person who is at every single game cheering for us and just being really positive no matter what happens.
“We were coming off the field one time, and I asked her if she was having a good time. You could tell she was. It was awesome for us just to see and hear her there.”