by, Braden Berg (for Ozarks Sports Zone)
WARSAW, Mo — In Warsaw, a retired custodian is still hard at work for the school district making sure everything’s ready for each Friday night football game.
Pete Crabtree works full time at the Benton County courthouse, and on Fridays he clocks out there and immediately heads to the field for Friday night football.
“You don’t want it to touch the ground,” Crabtree says as he attaches the American Flag to the football field’s flagpole. “You never want it to touch the ground.”
Crabtree was a custodian with the Warsaw school district for 30 years. But he still comes back for the big game.
“It is that atmosphere,” Crabtree said, “the football game is getting ready to start, the kids are excited, it is just great.”
“There aren’t many people that understand how much work goes into a Friday night,” Warsaw coach Ryan Boyer said. “It is not just one thing off of our plate, it is probably 10 or 15 different things off of our plate.”
“He is everywhere,” Warsaw senior Lerran Yoder said. “Oh my goodness, you can’t even keep track of him. He is on the gator, moving stuff for people, he is helping pick up trash, you can’t pinpoint him.”
“I know that there are very few times that I think that he ever gets to stop and watch the game,” coach Boyer said.
“I’ll watch some of it,” Crabtree answers. “Yeah, I get to see some of it, if I get time.”
But Pete says he loves what he does.
“I like it because of the kids. I was a custodian for 30 years. I have seen a lot of these kids grow up.”
Coach Boyer says Pete gets to the field at 5 pm — and usually doesn’t leave until midnight.
“If he is not there that is everybody sticking around for a few hours cleaning all of those things up,” coach Boyer said.
“It has got to be done,” Crabtree said. “Somebody has to do it.”
“It really shows that he cares about the community and our school,” Yoder said, “he wants to help make it better”
So if you ever catch a game in Warsaw, there is one man that made sure everything was ready to go.
