DANVILLE — A full week before the first regular-season football game kicks off, the parking lot around Danville’s Tough Street Football Stadium was packed. The temperature hovered in the mid-80s, and the crowd could have mistaken the game for a trip to the sauna.
Then there was a familiar voice. “Get him!”
Wait! The voice sounded like Mike Blanchard, but the script was wrong. Every Devils defensive play for at least the last four years, home or away, has been accompanied by Blanchard and his “Let’s Go Defense” cheer.
What happened?
“I have to save my voice for the regular season,” Blanchard said with a wry smile.
So why “Let’s go defense” as his catchphrase?
“It is just something I came up with.”
The movie “Cast Away” made one word famous. Tom Hanks said that no matter where he is in the world, people will yell “Wilson!” the name Hanks gave his volleyball while marooned on a desert island.
Not necessarily worldwide but locally, the “something” has made Blanchard a bit of a celebrity in the newly renovated Blue Devil Stadium: “People will come by and say, ‘Let’s go, defense,’ ” Blanchard said.
The 1975 Danville graduate began his cheerleading just four years ago.
“After I retired, I started coming to all of the games,” Blanchard said.
That means junior high, junior varsity, and even an occasional volleyball game. Earlier this year, standing at the end of the bleachers at a Blue Devils game, Blanchard said in a tone that sounded almost like a confession, “It (volleyball) is not my favorite, but I’m here to watch my granddaughter.”
Making a living interfered with Mike’s passion, watching football. He worked in the oil fields, an egg farm, and then 38 years with Smalls Sand and Gravel. “I was in charge of the concrete plant for 20 years,” he said with a sense of accomplishment.
“I tried to make all of the varsity games, even when I was working, but games like Monroeville (just over 6o miles north of Danville), were just too far for me to make them,” Blanchard remembered.
The dedication to his beloved Blue Devils does exact a toll.
“I am hoarse for about the first half of the season, but by the middle of the season, my voice is used to screaming every Friday night.”
What is it that draws the Danville alum to defensive football and not volleyball, softball, basketball, or the myriad of other athletic endeavors offered by the school?
“I just love the excitement of the game,” he said.
So why defense and not offense, or special teams?
“I think a part of it is trying to outsmart the other team, being where you are supposed to be,” Blanchard said, while leaning on the railing in the stands and never taking his eyes off of the action on the field.
Blanchard saw his time on the gridiron cut short.
“I played my sophomore and junior years, then I had knee surgery after my junior year, so I did not play my senior year,” he remembered ruefully.
Blue Devil football is not the only game in town for the superfan.
“I follow Ohio State and watch all of the high school games I can,” Blanchard said.
Taking his place next to Blanchard on that steamy Friday night was Zac Kick.
“Everyone loves Mike. Even down at the other end of the stadium, we will hear ‘let’s go defense’ and say, ‘that’s Mike.’”
Kick believes that Blanchard is more than a fan with great vocal cords.
“Mike and Bob Blubaugh are the heart and soul of this team,” Kick said.
Even above the din of a football stadium, the sound of “Let’s go defense!” can be heard on the field.
“I know who he is, and I think he and others, like the rest of the crowd, our band, and cheerleaders, add tremendous energy to the game,” Band Director Andrew Koziel said.
Few things in life are predictable, but one: on a Friday night in eastern Knox County, a crystal ball is not needed to know one voice will be heard over all of the other noise of high school football, “Let’s go Defense!”