ASHLAND – When Megan Steffen finally sat down and took a breath at some point Friday night, the emotions must have been a bit overwhelming.
The driving force behind Ashland High School’s first-ever Military Appreciation Night for a football game, she was a few years into helping bring everything together when it culminated at Community Stadium before the Arrows’ kickoff with Linsly High School.
Originally, Steffen felt it would be a unique way to honor local veterans, including her brother, T.J. Houston, and his wife, Ashley Houston – both members of the Army National Guard.
In the lengthy process, Steffen’s son, Ashland senior football player Hayden DiPuccio, had decided to join the National Guard as well.
Somewhere on Friday night – between the shared memories and games of catch among veterans, the camouflage jerseys, the American flags, the laughter of active military members and the emotion of her son’s Oath of Enlistment at midfield – the purpose behind it all steadily flowed out.
“I think there were eight active military that were in uniform tonight and they said this was better than any (Military Appreciation Night) they ever did,” said Steffen, an Ashland resident and 2002 Black River High School graduate.
“It was just like the perfect moment,” she said. “It was really easy to get sponsors, people were really eager to help. It was a good cause and I think people were very appreciative – especially the veterans.”
The delivery of the game ball by a paratrooper had also been planned, but that was nixed due to cloud cover and the steady rain that fell throughout the evening.
Steffen said the night gave her one of the best memories of her life and the emotion wasn’t lost on many inside the stadium.
“I was trying to think of my Top 10 moments at Community Stadium and that just went to the top,” said Ashland City Schools Superintendent Steve Paramore, a 1999 AHS graduate.
“… All of those individuals, including (DiPuccio), sacrifice to the highest level for our freedoms. To have an Ashland High School senior do his oath – I looked around and I’m trying to fight back tears, and I can see some of those local dignitaries welling up a little bit.
“It was super powerful.”
A variety of local and state elected officials were on hand for DiPuccio’s big moment as he stood near two of his grandfathers – veterans Paul DiPuccio and Richard Steffen – and repeated the oath read to him by Captain Ashley Houston.
The Ashland senior football player, who also wrestles for the Arrows, said he plans to use his time with the National Guard to help further his career and education and wants to eventually become a state highway patrolman.
Ashland High School assistant principal and athletic director Jason Goings said Friday night’s events lined up nicely after considerations of doing it last season couldn’t quite come together.
“This was a game where we didn’t already have something planned, so it fit well,” he said. “We got with the Ohio National Guard and kind of strung it together.
“Megan Steffen really was the ringleader and organized a lot of it.”
Steffen, the owner of Whoopsie Daisy Bowtique in downtown Ashland, got the idea after seeing a few other schools host a Military Appreciation Night a few years ago.
She said it was a family effort to add some of the finishing touches on the evening.
Steffen spent $5,000 to purchase 100 large, 3×5 American flags so AHS players could run onto the field with them. Moving forward, she hopes those same flags can be used for downtown, city and county events in some way.
As for the camouflage jerseys sported by the Arrows, they were one of three sets available to football teams in the entire state of Ohio through a loan from the state’s National Guard.
Goings said Ashland originally had been told they would not be available for Friday’s home-opening game, but that they came open last week.
Steffen said TJ and Ashley Houston drove to Dayton on Tuesday to be sure the team had them.
“I feel like our area does really good at recognizing veterans and honoring them,” Steffen said, “and it was so fun to watch the boys hand the veterans a smaller flag to take home.”
Paramore said it was inspirational in recent years to watch the Arrows participate in football Military Appreciation Nights at both Norwayne and Mount Vernon.
Playing a role in bringing it to the Ashland community was something he said he will not forget.
“I really felt compelled to make sure the (local veterans) were a part of this evening; they are not guys who go looking for acknowledgment and they should be,” Paramore said. “(Some of them) are guys that were in the Mekong Delta (in Vietnam) serving this country with their brothers in danger that we’ll never even fathom.”
“Any time we have an opportunity to honor our veterans – at whatever level they served, even if they didn’t serve in a conflict – we should honor them,” he said. “And we want to pass that down to all the kids that we have an opportunity to impact.”
