TodayLocal Football: Piranha will honor Gilliam
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Article RatingRon Kerr sat at his friend Rick Gilliam's funeral service in February wondering what he could do to help Gilliam's family.
Maybe most importantly, he thought about Gilliam's daughter Mya, who wasn't even a year old when former Big Spring High School standout athlete, and West Virginia University football star, passed away at 29.
And then it hit him.
Going into his second year as the owner of the Central Penn Piranha minor league football team, Kerr decided to put what he knew to use.
What he came up with was to honor Gilliam and raise money in his name using the Piranha.
The result from his vision has transformed to a June 30, 7 p.m. game, at Big Spring High School's Bulldog Stadium. On that night, the Piranha will take on the York Silver Bullets in what is being labeled the Rick Gilliam Bowl.
“We actually just got the final OK to go ahead with it (Tuesday),” said Mike Mitchell, the Piranhas' marketing director. “We had to work it out with Big Spring, and they agreed on it.”
Kerr, who also doubles as head coach, said most of the proceeds from the Gilliam Bowl will be given to the Gilliam family.
“I was sitting at the funeral service and it just popped in my head,” said Kerr. “I was thinking about what I could do. Rick was a coworker of mine at the sheriff's office. I've known him for years, so it hit home when he died. We were pretty tight at work.
“This is something I thought of as something to maybe make things a little easier for his family. I mean, his daughter isn't even a year old, she has a long way to go. However they want to use the proceeds it alright with me.
“Hopefully it blows up and that's more we can give. At the same time, maybe we will get some new fans. It could be a win-win situation.”
The first thing Kerr had to do was make sure the Gilliam family would be OK with his idea.
“I talked with one of Rick's cousins that I knew because I wanted to see what his family though, and he went and talked with the rest of the family. We also had to work it out with Big Spring High School. They donated the field for us, which is big. Normally we play on City Island and the cost just to play there isn't cheap. By Big Spring donating the field to play on, that's more money we can save from the event.”
Gilliam, who was 6-foot-6-inch, 340-pound as an offensive lineman for the Mountaineers, was someone Kerr often encouraged to come play for the Piranha and even had Gilliam sign a contract as joke one night while out for drinks.
“He was probably 50-50 about coming out,” Kerr added. “We always talked about it, but he had other obligations. But we have our tryouts coming up and I think he was about 50 percent about playing. If he would have, he would have dominated.”
The Central Penn Piranha will actually be holding open tryouts April 11 at the Twin Ponds West in Mechanicsburg at 8 p.m.
For more information, log on to the Piranha website at www.piranhafootball.net.
