EDMONDS — Like the Kamiak High School players and coaches, Chris Scanlon gets fired up for every Friday night football game. He has a job to do, and it is important to the team and its fans — not to mention Scanlon himself — that he does his job well.
Scanlon carries the purple Kamiak flag with the big white K at every football game, home and away. Clad in a purple Kamiak windbreaker and a purple hat, he leads the team onto the field before the opening kickoff and then again when the Knights return after halftime. He holds the flag near the Kamiak bench during the game, and if the Knights score a touchdown he parades in front of the team’s cheering section.
“It’s pretty fun,” he said with a grin. The best part of carrying the flag “is helping the team,” he added. “And I love doing it.”
Though not a Kamiak graduate himself — the 33-year-old Scanlon attended Lynnwood High School, class of 2003 — he is an adopted member of the Knights family. His father, John Scanlon, knew someone whose son played for Kamiak back in 2000 and the boys became friends. It led to Chris Scanlon attending games, getting acquainted with the coaches and players, and then about eight years ago becoming the team’s flag bearer.
Chris Scanlon has a developmental disability, but that matters little to the good people at Kamiak. As head coach Dan Mack explained, “He’s truly a legend in our football program. He comes to our games and to our events. There’s even been times he’s wanted to talk to the team, and at appropriate times I’ve had him give a one- or two-word pep talk.
“He is,” Mack added, “one of those kids you kind of fall in love with. He has a way of stealing your heart.”
In a typical week, Scanlon stays busy with various outside activities. He works as a courtesy clerk at an Edmonds grocery store and also at his father’s shop as a warehouse manager. He participates in Choices and Special Olympics, both programs for individuals with special needs. He volunteers at civic events during the year, including the Edmonds Arts Fair, the Taste of Edmonds and the Wenatchee Youth Circus. He also attends North Sound Christian Church.
But his big thing in the fall is Kamiak football.
“He just loves the Kamiak Fighting Knights,” John Scanlon said. “He’s waiting for the season to start in April.
“I can’t even put into words what that program has meant to him. It’s just been huge. When he got involved in Special Olympics we noticed a big bump in his self-esteem almost immediately, and this is kind of right up there with that. He just feels like he belongs and that he’s part of the Kamiak family.”
Carrying the flag “has given Chris a chance to show the spirit that lives inside him,” said Rose Marie Scanlon, his mother. “He just lives for these games. He talks about it all through the week, about rooting his boys on.”
Still, his contributions come with a cost. Given his level of disability, it is difficult for Chris to run while carrying the flag. A neurologist told the family “that the energy it would take for one of us to run a tightrope, that’s the energy it takes Chris just to walk,” Rose Marie Scanlon said. “So it’s no small thing. (Game nights) take a lot out of him. He’s exhausted for two days.
“But when he’s determined to do something, he gives it his all. And it just shows how much he loves doing this and how much he loves people and that he’s willing to pay that price.”
Indeed, he has fallen at times, suffering scrapes and bruises, and once a sprained ankle. But he always bounces back, much to the approval of the Kamiak players who have awarded him plaques over the years as “The Best Flag Carrier in Wesco.”
For the Scanlons there are other meaningful and sometimes heart-swelling moments. At Marysville Pilchuck a few years ago, and as he waited for the team to emerge from the halftime locker room, Chris pitched in to help some women with the Tomahawk booster club carry items to a storage area.
After that game, John Scanlon said, “a security guard came walking toward me and asked, ‘Is that your son?’ And I’m (thinking), ‘Uh-oh, what’d he do now?’” But the guard explained Chris’ willingness to help and then concluded “by telling me, ‘You have the nicest young man I’ve ever met in my life.’”
Others would no doubt agree. “Chris’ passion,” Mack said, “is inspiring to myself, my coaching staff and my team. It’s infectious in so many ways.
“Our kids just love him,” he went on. “And they need to see him. They need to be around people that have overcome obstacles in their lives. Because this young man has been down a road not many of us have, and it’s important for them to see the resilience he has and the love he displays to so many people and the joy he brings to a stadium or a locker room.
“I can almost get emotional talking about this kid,” Mack said. “He’s been an incredible blessing to me, the staff and the players of our program for so many years. We can lose and we can win, but his perspective is always the same. He’s happy and he’s thankful, and isn’t that what sports is all about? You compete, you do your best, you win with humility and you lose with grace. And in that way Chris is perfect for our program.”
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