Supporters of Kaden Robert flock to Kelly football game

BENTON, Mo. -- A bundle of maroon and gold balloons meandered skyward, passing over filling bleachers at the Kelly High School football field before the Hawks' first-ever varsity home football game Friday evening.

Loosed from a center field line that bore a giant painted 14, the tribute was a nod to the Hawks' absent running back and defensive back, Kaden Robert.

The crowd was filled with tributes bearing Robert's jersey number; Men and women matched their children in memorial "Ro-Ro" jerseys. Packs of smartphone-wielding teen girls dressed in shirts that bore the hashtag Team Kaden. There were nearly about as many fans in Robert garb as were in Hawks apparel.

Robert was fatally injured in June when a handgun accidentally discharged in the high school parking lot after a pickup basketball game with friends.

The night's game against Crystal City represented something of a new beginning: varsity football on Kelly's Lambert Field. The return of high school sports gave respite to a community still reeling from the accidental death of the sophomore athlete.

Robert's friend, Seth Klipfel, watched the home team troop two-by-two onto the field, bearing before them Robert's jersey as they had before their last game at East Prairie, Missouri, the first game of the season.

The Southeast Missouri State University Redhawks football team had done the same the night before in its home season-opener.

Klipfel said the school still is struggling with the loss, but at the same time he's impressed with how they've been able to honor Robert's memory.

"We grew up together," he said. "We went to the same schools. It's been real hard, but we kind of just came together as a group. We've all had to work through it the best we can."

It was especially hard for Klipfel.

"I was there," he said.

Klipfel wasn't wearing a Robert jersey. Instead, he pointed to the first responder's crest on his shirt.

"I was with the N.B.C.-F.P.D."

He remembers being called to the Kelly parking lot; the parking lot now packed with "In Memory: 14" stickers.

"I don't even know how I did it. I still don't know. That was the one thing I said when I joined," he said, explaining how he helped other first responders at the shooting scene. "I didn't ever want to work on a buddy."

He also grew up with two of the boys who were with Robert when the accident occurred -- two friends who are no longer classmates at Kelly.

"They got kicked out this year, but they'll be back."

He said it's upsetting, but the entire situation is tragic.

"I guess the school felt like they had to do something," he said.

He brightens at the mention of how Kaden would have been pleased to see the varsity gridiron, his name on the roster and the slogan on the programs that reads, "Once a Hawk ... Always a Hawk!"

Robert's passing didn't just affect the Hawks. Jordan Powell, a Cape Girardeau eighth-grader, and Miranda Hines, a freshman at Cape Central, said Robert's popularity was widespread.

"He knew people everywhere," Powel said.

"Girls from everywhere," teased Hines.

The two admitted they found Kaden charming.

"Oh my God, yes," Powell blushed. She said she and Robert dated at one point.

"We met at the bowling alley," She said dreamily. "He was with his grandma, and I was there with mine."

She explained the shock of Robert's death broke down social barriers, as friends and rivals united to support each other.

"If you didn't like someone, it really didn't matter anymore," she said. "We were all heartbroken. It brought a lot of people together."

By the concession stand, two older men shake their heads, uncomfortable discussing the tragedy. They concede "everyone's heartbroken," but don't go any further.

Kristi Goetz, president of the Kelly Youth Activities Organization, guessed it might have do do with older people being parents themselves.

"I actually graduated Kelly with Kaden's mother," she said. "It's scary. You sometimes wonder, 'What if that was my child?'"

A Kelly touchdown distracted her from that anxiety, and she began to jump up and down, cheering with the rest of the crowd.

"Kaden wouldn't want us to be sad," she said with a smile.

If the enthusiasm of the crowd was any indication, most people weren't.

Crystal City stopped a late fourth-quarter Hawks rally with a 24-yard touchdown pass with two seconds remaining. The Hawks lost their first home football game.

The evening perhaps was bittersweet, but ultimately not without a sense of pride, resolve and hope.

tgraef@semissourian.com