Two charter buses rolled into Platte City last week full of football players.
The amount of time the Northwest Missouri State players spent was short but the impact will not forgotten by Parker Sampson and his family.
The current kicker for the Bearcats and a Park Hill graduate lost track of how many hugs he got as the team made the way down the line during a memorial service for his half-brother, James ‘Jay’ Sampson.
The 40-year-old died on Sept. 29.
“I think I blacked out in a way,” Sampson said about the memorial service. “My cousin counted 73 players and I was giving a hug to each one of them. It was a blur to me because I was so in the moment. I was at a loss for words. It meant a lot. I called my mom and told her what Coach (Rich) Wright was planning on doing and she started getting emotional. It was just amazing and I’m so thankful they did that. When I committed to Northwest, when people asked why Northwest, I said part of it was like Park Hill. It was a family atmosphere and they were my brothers as well. That is the most important thing … family and you watch Northwest, they came through with that. Realizing the importance of it and they care about people. There is a lot more about football than playing and winning, it is a brotherhood.”
The visitation ceremony was just one part of an emotional rollercoaster for Sampson, which started with the death of his brother. He came home the day after he found out to spend time with his parents.
He talked to Wright and he told him to take care of what he needed to and come back when he could.
One day back in Kansas City was too much for Sampson, who returned to Maryville the next day.
“It was probably the best thing I could do, doing nothing was making it worse and I was wishing I was back helping my teammates,” said the junior kicker.
Six days after his brother died, Sampson played for the Bearcats against Emporia State.
He kicked a career-best four field goals and booted a 53-yarder for a new career long in a 34-23 victory over the Hornets. Two days later he was named the MIAA special teams player of the week.
In the aftermath of the win, he told the Maryville Daily Forum he was thinking of his brother.
“I don’t want to get too emotional, but I think he was with me today,” he said of his brother Jay Sampson. I’ve been going through a lot with my family the last week. The best thing for me was to come back and be with my teammates.”
He made field goals of 27, 35, 41 and 53 yards — the latter which is now tied for second longest in Northwest history with Shawn Geraghty versus William Jewell in 1977. He was one yard behind the school record of 54.
Earlier this season Sampson missed a pair of 51-yard attempts but when Wright called on him for an even longer attempt he succeed.
“I had faith in him,” Wright told the Daily Forum. “He’s been through a lot this week so it was nice just to see him have some success today.”
Sampson said he was surprised he got the chance to attempt a 53-yarder after his misses at 51 the week prior.
The four field goals in the game is second best in the program’s history and one shy of the record.
“It was crazy how it ended up, my best career game,” said Sampson, now seventh all-time in career field goals and fifth in career extra points at Northwest.
Prior to the start of the Emporia State game, Sampson grabbed a sharpie and wrote on his white cleats.
One said ‘Fly high Jay bird’ and the other said 6/18/74 Young King.
The same day he was named the MIAA athlete of the week, the memorial service was held for his brother. A few days later, the Bearcats played at Arrowhead Stadium and made five point after attempts and a field goal in a 38-17 win over Pittsburg State.
“It has been emotionally draining,” he said. “I have just been super tired and it took about a week, after the service, before it hit me. The coaching staff has been so good about it and my teachers have been good, making sure everything is OK.”
That is part of the family culture that was built in Maryville under former football coach Mel Tjeerdsma and then fostered on under Adam Dorrel and now Wright. Many former Northwest players use that same message of family running their programs, like Park Hill’s Josh Hood, Liberty North’s Greg Jones or Truman’s Charlie Pugh to name a few.
Wright, when first asked to address the trip to Platte City, didn’t want to in fearing of making it news.
A few days later, Wright spoke about the trip.
“Parker is part of our family and you know, there was never really a question,” he said. “We found out where it was and we could make it work.”
The team practiced earlier than scheduled at the indoor facility and loaded up two buses, with the players in matching warmups to make the 1-hour plus trip.
“We drove down to support Parker and his parents,” Wright said. “It is really hard deal but … sometimes in coaching we all focus on football but we talk about family all the time. That is what families do. I don’t want our kids to just hear about family, I want them to feel family. When we got off to remember little things. Remember when we walked in the looks in their faces when we rolled 80 people into that visitation. Not much you can say in that scenario, but saying you could support. Everybody could’ve sent Parker a text but to actually physically be there … we weren’t there for very long. We were there for 10 or 15 minutes. To be able to do that and spend personal time with him and his family; hopefully the lessons these guys learn from football are great, but hopefully one or two life lessons go along with it — just how to act as men, father and husbands moving forward.
“It wasn’t about us, it was about being there for Parker.”