Mechanicville High School Red Raiders football team always travels to games with their own American flag. They never knew what great use would come of it until they arrived at the Catholic Central High School football stadium where they realized the stadium didn’t have an American flag for the National Anthem.
Daniel Hayner, a lineman for the Red Raiders, was shocked that they didn’t have a flag and thought it was disrespectful.
This is when he realized it was time to put the flag they traveled with to good use.
“All the stuff that’s happening now with the flag and stuff…I didn’t know if it was like that or where it was.” Hayner explained. “I went over and stood at the end of our line (with the flag) and they were like, ‘No, stand in the middle of the field.’ so I went out in the middle of the field and stood there.”
The Catholic Central High School had just had some work done on their press box and forgot to hang the flag back up for the game. The principal of the school released this statement.
“The school did not have a flag prepared in a timely manner. As a principal I take full responsibility for that and we apologize if anyone was offended.”
The athletic director for the Red Raiders, Robert Young, said this about Hayner: “It was just a spontaneous action from a boy from a small town that just had basically a notion that when you come from a community like this and the things that we try to instill upon them that there’s family, there’s community and our nation, and our country, and that really means a lot to him.”
“People die to protect their country and for the flag,” Hayner said “People are disrespecting it all the time. It needs respect for the people who served the country and respect it.”
With so much happening regarding saluting our flag and people upset with the disrespect of the flag, Hayner has been seen as hope for the next generation.
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