For Liberty’s first home football game, senior Connor Pisczek decided to help start the game with a bang, or more accurately, a chop.

The first football game held at Liberty this school year was on Friday, Sept. 1st, against St. Dominic. Pisczek, the athletic trainer’s assistant, arranged to have a helicopter arrive to Liberty before the game.

“A lot of schools will bring a game ball in some special way, like Warrenton, they brought the game ball in on a camel,” Pisczek said. “And I was like ‘Hey that’d be cool if we could get a helicopter.’”

To see if the idea was possible, Pisczek talked to activities director Mr. Eldredge.

“Eldredge said, ‘Sure if you can make it happen. I’ll talk to central office about it to see if it approved.’ And we got it approved,” Pisczek said.

Rumors spread quickly across Liberty about a helicopter coming to the football game.

“It started out as a surprise,” Pisczek said. “I put it on my Snapchat story because people kept asking me, they were like ‘What are you doing? I heard a rumor that there’s a helicopter coming.’”

Although the helicopter was meant to be a surprise, Pisczek doesn’t mind that a lot of people found out. The rumors added to the excitement for the first home game.

“I was doing it mainly for our senior year,” Pisczek said. “Since I worked with the athletes a lot, and football is my favorite one to work with, I figured I’d get it for them.”

Eric Mason

Pisczek has worked closely with several athletic trainers at Liberty, although the most influential was Nadia Melton.

“She’s the one that really inspired me to go this direction,” Piscek said. “I was injured and I went to her one day and I was like, ‘Woah this seems kind of cool, can I shadow you?’ and she said yes.”

Doing sports himself gave Pisczek a better connection with the athletes. He did track and field during eighth grade, freshman and sophomore year. Pisczek also played tennis during his junior year.

Aside from working with the athletic trainer, Pisczek volunteers as a medic and helps with the fire department. After high school, while he’s not sure which college he is going to attend, Pisczek knows that he wants to be a physical therapist that specializes in sports.

Originally, Pisczek was set on going into the Air Force, but recently decided against the idea.

“I was going to go into the Air Force for physical therapy,” he said. “That’s always been one of my dreams, to go into the military.”

Working on the field with the football players is what changed his mind, Pisczek learned that he has a passion for working with athletes.