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McKinney North baseball team presented with soldier's boots
Photo courtesy of Kellie Anfosso – U.S. Army Sgt. Clinton Lennox presents a soldier’s boots to McKinney North seniors Anthony Herrera and Trey Segui before the first pitch of the Bulldogs’ baseball game Tuesday night. The boots and a pregame speech from Clinton were intended to remind team members about young U.S. soldiers fighting overseas.
By Chris Beattie, cbeattie@starlocalnews.com
Some are still well aware of the military's continued presence in the Middle East, the roughly 40,000 troops still fighting to protect America's freedom.
But others, by this time, may not think about it, particularly high schoolers in the midst of mostly care-free years. That likely changed Tuesday night for the McKinney North High School baseball team.
Before Bulldog players took the field on their way to a 6-0 victory over Wylie, they were reminded of men and women who "go to bat" for a much bigger team.
Lennox, a 2002 McKinney High School graduate, now recruits out of the same McKinney office where he was recruited into the U.S. Army several years ago. He completed two tours in Iraq before being put on recruiting duty, for which he spent the first few months in Philadelphia.
When his mother passed away, he received a compassion reassignment to McKinney, where he's worked since. "It's a small world," Lennox said.
His message to the Bulldogs, though, was about young soldiers who've fought and "paid the ultimate sacrifice" in the line of duty. Lennox spoke of three recent Allen graduates who enlisted into the military and could soon be deployed overseas, barely several months older than the North players.
"We don't really think about that," said Jim Gatewood, North head coach. "There are so many people who do so much for us to give us a chance to do what we do, and I think sometimes we take it for granted."
Sgt. Lennox presented the team with another soldier's boots at home plate shortly before the game. The soldier, a fellow recruiter, had been deployed to Iraq multiple times. "He brought home dirt on them three times, so they're something special...[Soldiers] get attached to them, so you're taking a little piece of him and all of our brothers and sisters who fight," Lennox told the team.
The Bulldogs' "playing for the boots" tribute holds more significance at North than it may at other schools because of 2009 North graduate Cody Board, an Army Airborne Ranger killed at age 19 in fall 2010 in Afghanistan.
Likely not a single Bulldog player personally knew Board, but they can be better aware of his story and of others like him. Gatewood said the team would keep the boots in the dugout for Tuesday's game and would give his team the option for how to retain their presence the rest of the season.
"It gives us something to think about," he said, "every time we come to the park."
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