Stearns Holds Her Own in Pickup Game
Mary Faith Stearns, 7, the daughter of Potomac (Va.) Athletic Director Bill Stearns, enjoys cleaning the school's football field after games.
(By John Mcdonnell -- The Washington Post)
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Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Bill Stearns can't seem to dodge the question from his 7-year-old daughter, Mary Faith.
"When does football season start?" Mary Faith asks.
"Soon," replies Stearns, the Potomac (Va.) High athletic director. He's been hearing the question all summer. When the date finally arrives -- Sept. 8, at home against Fauquier -- Stearns knows, three quarters into the game, he is likely to hear another question from Mary Faith.
"When is it going to be over?"
"Soon," Stearns will reply.
When the game ends, Mary Faith's season kicks off. At 4 feet 1, Mary Faith is perhaps the smallest and youngest postgame field-maintenance crew member. But what she lacks in height, she makes up for in experience -- this will be her fourth year zigzagging around the football field riding in or running next to a John Deere Gator cart, driven by assistant athletic director Sal Colangelo, picking up cones, chains and field markers.
A job that could go overlooked by many is one that Mary Faith eagerly awaits during her summer break. Stearns said he hasn't seen any other children on the field after games at other schools. That fact, he says, is part of the allure to his daughter.
"For her, it's something she does that nobody else does," Stearns said. "She feels special because she gets to go out on the field in a cart with no one else but Sal."
From the time she gets to the game Mary Faith has her routine down: spend some time playing with other children, order food from the concession stands (two hot dogs and three slices of pizza per game, she said) and roll down "the really big hill" with friends -- but this can only hold her attention for so long.
"She usually finds Sal sitting on the cart during the game around the third quarter and starts asking when it will be over," Stearns said. "It's tough to keep her busy. You tell her it's almost over but the fourth quarter can go on forever sometimes. God forbid the game ever goes into overtime."
When Mary Faith was 4, Colangelo asked her if she wanted to ride with him and help him pick up the cones and markers after a game. Her eyes lit up, and she all but bounced off the cart when the cleanup was done.
"To most people you assign [postgame cleanup] to, it would be tedious and boring, but for her it's the entertainment of the week. She'd prefer 10 home games," Stearns said. "Maybe someday she will be the cart driver and Sal will be running alongside."
