PREP FOOTBALL

HAMMOND | It seemed like any other day in north Hammond. A customary yawn seemed to rise with the sun that Friday morning.

It was Aug. 10. The Clark Pioneers were getting ready for a football season filled with high hopes. Practice was just a few hours away.

Stan Makarowski Jr. went into his father's room to wake him up before leaving for practice.

His dad, Stan Sr., was dead.

"I just couldn't stop crying," said Makarowski, a senior center and defensive lineman. "It was so hard. He always pushed me to be better. He was at every game I ever played. I always played center. When I was a kid we'd be in the yard and he'd have me snapping the shotgun. He loved football."

There was a nervous silence hanging over Clark's practice that day. With 16 senior teammates grieving for their friend, everything became a mixture of confused sadness. But the Pioneers responded large. To support Stan, his mother Laura, and sister Stephanie, they went to the Makarowski home.

And they didn't leave.

"I couldn't have gotten through it without them," Makarowski said. "They're my family. I remember them coming to the wake. I turned around and there they all were, taking up four pews."

Clark coach Dave Verta and every name on the roster went to the funeral on Aug. 17. The luncheon ended at 3 p.m., one hour before the Pioneers had to be at the field for their season opener. The loss was extreme.

He was always there. Cooking Polish sausages, hamburgers and hot dogs. Stan remembers, and will always remember, him standing by the fence where the Pioneers ran on and off the field. With a ton of pain brooding, "Junior" had to decide whether to play or not. That decision lasted a millisecond.

"No, never, not once," Verta said when asked if Stan thought of sitting out. "I told him to go out and honor his father. I told him to show the heart and pride that his father saw in him. And that's what he did."

Stan Sr. always dreamed of seeing his son score a touchdown. But being a lineman, that goal seemed impossible. But Verta put No. 50 into the backfield, and gave him the ball deep in Troopers territory. The 5-foot-11, 230-pounder put his head down and scored.

That's when the tears all over Robertsdale began to fall. Laura was in the stands, while Stephanie was on the sidelines. Crying, but with a sense of joy.

"His dad saw him do that," teammate Jordan Harris said. "It was like he was helping him. I had a tear after he scored."

Stan Sr. went to Clark, but never got to play any games. He had to work to support his family, which he did as a carpenter until Aug. 10. So his joy came through his son, who made it to semistate as a 215-pounder in wrestling. And now he leads Clark into Morton for tonight's Hammond Athletic Conference opener.

And everyone associated with Fort Pioneer believes that Mr. Makarowski is there. Watching. Loving. Giving his son the patented "Thumbs up" at halftime.

"Things come up unexpectedly in life," Makarowski said. "You've got to value what you've got while you've got it. And when it's gone, you never know how many people will be there for you. I found that out, and I'm so thankful for them."