- April 25, 2024
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Veteran coaches A.J. Guarino, Gary Johnston, Tony Owen, Steve Brandt, Nathan Leggs, Ronald Stark, Percy Lassiter, Kourtney Poole, Marcos Figueroa, Esteban Soto, Scott Jackson (Tremaine Jeffers and Rachel Johnston are not pictured)
See DID YOU KNOW for the backwards flag history.
Jamari Nelson throws a perfect over-the-shoulder pass during the Warriors' practice.
Jakob Miller, Gary and Rachel Johnston, Cheryl and Steve Brandt, and Meghan Hetzler Photos by Jeff Dawsey
A conversation between Flagler Sheriff’s Commander Steve Brandt and military veteran Gary Johnston on his back porch last year has blossomed into a unique football program run predominantly by military veterans.
“There are two groups of people we’re trying to help out here,” said Brandt, the Flagler Warriors president. “We’re trying to give combat veterans who suffer from PTSD a new mission, and we’re trying to mentor kids.”
“When I got out of the military,” said Johnston, the Warriors’ football director, “I lost myself for a long time. But, I found that coaching football was an outlet for me, a mission. It’s become therapy for me, because it teaches patience, and it has also taught me how to deal with adversity again.”
While serving in Iraq, Johnston’s convoy was hit by a roadside bomb, causing him to suffer vision and hearing loss, a traumatic brain injury, among other serious damages.
Like Johnston, many of the coaching veterans have suffered from war wounds that have forced them out of the military.
Now armed with a new mission, which includes not only coaching the kids, but teaching them the 5 Pillars of Warrior Football (honor, discipline, courage, respect and service), the veterans have refocused their minds and are preparing to take their own teams into battle.
““Before I started doing this, I served in the infantry and went to Iraq at 19 years old,” Marcos Figueroa said. “I left kind of messed up, and it was last year that Johnston told me to come out here and coach football. It’s been a good experience instilling the values I learned over the course of my military years.
It also takes my mind off of all the negatives and horrors, and it allows me to remember that there are better things in life – like teaching kids. It gives me a sense of purpose.”
The Flagler Warriors – a part of American Youth Football – will kick off their season with a jamboree at 9 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 27, at Flagler Palm Coast High School. During the season, they will play split four home games between the two high schools. They will also be accompanied by cheerleaders, led by Theresa Vedder.
“I think it’s such a great opportunity for our kids to be involved in something like this,” she said.
Off the field, the Warriors will attend two leadership classes in the Sheriff’s Office training room and write four essays on the pillars throughout the season.
“Yes, we want to win, but it’s more about teaching kids and developing the groundwork for them to become productive human beings,” Brandt said. “Football is just a catalyst to help these veterans and kids; there’s a lot more going on out here. And, who better to mold these kids than a bunch of veterans?”
Email [email protected] for more information.
Say what? “We’re trying to help two groups of people out here. We’re trying to give combat veterans who struggle with PTSD a new mission, and we’re trying to mentor kids.”
STEVE BRANDT, Flagler Warriors president and Flagler County Sheriff’s commander
DID YOU KNOW? Have you ever noticed a military soldier or veteran wearing a backward American flag? Well, according to Army Regulation 670-1, “The American flag patch is to be worn, right or left shoulder, so that ‘the star field faces forward.’” The “backward” flag woven into the sleeves of our nation’s soldiers ensures that when our military men and women are charging forward, our flag will always appear to be charging forward with them, never retreating.
