U.S. Soldiers Cheer Iowa High School Football Team

RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

In Iowa City tonight, the state football championship game features the City High Little Hawks and the Marshall Town High Bobcats. Some of the biggest fans of the Little Hawks will be cheering from 7,000 miles away. Alex Heuer of Iowa Public Radio reports on how one soldier's email to a high school football coach started an unusual long-distance relationship.

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ALEX HEUER: It's a chilly, drizzly evening under bright stadium lights at City High's football field. The Little Hawks in white and red practice jerseys are running through plays for tonight's championship game. Head coach Dan Sabers is working with the defense.

Mr. DAN SABERS (Coach, City High School): You've got to explode up and get back. All right?

HEUER: It was at a practice about a month ago when Coach Sabers read an email to his team from someone who attended City High nearly 30 years ago. That email was from Command Sergeant Major Breck Zaiser, who's now serving with the 7th Special Forces Group stationed at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. The Army solider told how the team's success boosted his morale. Starting center Matt Tweed says that email surprised him.

Mr. MATT TWEED (Student, City High School): It's inspirational to us just to hear how much someone over in Afghanistan just cares and just wants us to do well and succeed.

HEUER: But it's not just Zaiser who wants the Little Hawks to win. Dozens of troops at Bagram at Air Base are rooting for the team. Zaiser attributes their interest to his enthusiasm for high school football.

Sergeant Major BRECK ZAISER (United States Army): Everybody I work with either played high school football or was somehow associated with a high school sport. So it made it pretty easy conversation that everybody could identify with, you know, other than, you know, it's something we all had in common besides being soldiers.

HEUER: Zaiser says talking about high school sports often leads to discussions about hometowns and family. And in a dangerous, high stress environment such as Afghanistan, he says those conversations are important. Zaiser says one of last year's biggest military missions in Afghanistan was dubbed Operation Little Hawk to honor the team.

Little Hawk players and coaches are trying to reciprocate the attention. At a recent practice, the players gathered for a group photo and held up jersey number seven, which stands for the 7th Special Forces Group. That photo, along with the Iowa high school playoff bracket, hangs right outside the operations center at the base. The City High Little Hawks are 13-0 and will square off against the undefeated Marshalltown Bobcats. Little Hawk offensive lineman Brandon Kidwell says he's motivated by all the attention.

Mr. BRANDON KIDWELL (Student, City High School): I think it's just crazy and amazing, the fact that someone who's saving our freedom, who I really look up to would actually look up to us for inspiration when we're just doing what we love to do.

HEUER: Coach Dan Sabers agrees.

Mr. SABERS: When you look at what they do compared to we do, yeah, it just doesn't seem to be that they should be getting some motivation from us. But, you know, we certainly take that as an honor.

HEUER: Command Sergeant Major Zaiser says while the Bobcats are a good team, he's predicting a double digit Little Hawk victory tonight.

Sergeant Major ZAISER: 28-14, City High.

Mr. SABERS: Let's go. Good. All right. Over there.

HEUER: Back on the practice field, Coach Sabers says he wants to be able to send a new photo to Zaiser and his troops. This one would show the team holding a sign that reads mission accomplished, cementing a special relationship between those on the football field and those on the battlefield.

For NPR News, I'm Alex Heuer.

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MONTAGNE: This is NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.