MIDDLEPORT — Roy-Hart High School’s football team has lost so many games over the years that the program was due for a win, but who would have thought that the biggest triumph for the Rams in years would come during the baseball season, in John Elway-like fashion, under what seemed to be the most dire of circumstances.

Call it The Drive II. Call it The Miracle in Middleport. You most definitely can call these Rams the community’s team.

The devoted financial support of the Roy-Hart faithful provided the biggest play the program needed last spring to escape the guillotine, as various donations to the Roy-Hart Sports Boosters provided the funds the club used to save the football program for at least one more season.

The Rams open with a fresh slate at 7:30 p. m. Friday at Gowanda in a Section VI Class C North Division contest.

Roy-Hart doesn’t play its first home game until Sept. 17, against Salamanca.

Players and coaches understand that neither of those games, nor last Saturday’s tune-up scrimmage against nearby Barker would have been possible if not for the efforts of others. The Roy-Hart Sports Boosters raised the more than $20,000 required to field a varsity team after district voters approved a school budget that didn’t include funding for various extracurricular activities, including football and modified sports.

“There’s more pressure because if we don’t do well we’re probably not going to have a program next year, junior quarterback Connor Baker said.

“I would say that it’s all unspoken,” said assistant coach Mike Meal on whether the team feels any extra pressure to do well for the fans. “Everybody feels it. Nobody needs to say it.”

The Roy-Hart Sports Boosters also presented District Superintendent Kevin MacDonald a $7,600 check Tuesday to be used to fund fall modified sports for seventh-and eighth-graders.

The donation was officially presented to the School Board on Thursday, with booster club President Rick DeWaters encouraging the district to put the cash toward modified sports (technically the School Board could do whatever it wants with monetary donations).

The boosters’ earlier donation provided the Hail Mary roughly 35 student-athletes needed to have a chance at representing Roy-Hart on the football field instead of scrambling to find a playing opportunity at a school in another district for which they have no emotional attachment.

The donation came after players on the team went through a period of brief disappointment that felt never ending. Baker wasn’t totally convinced football was coming back when word started to get around that the program would be saved weeks after he and his teammates were blindsided by the news that the district – trying to make up for $2.3 million cut in state aid – didn’t include funding for football in its proposed school budget.

“I was doubtful until I heard it from the [school] board,” he said. “I didn’t hear it from any adults.”

As if that wasn’t an eye-opening experience on the ways of the world, the youths have still been forced to mature faster than expected what with the latest life lesson that struck their collective hearts.

A day before the first practice, head coach Don Baker went to the hospital for what he believed to be indigestion. Instead, he learned he needed triple bypass surgery and has been sidelined since undergoing the emergency medical procedure. Meal and assistant Mike Johnston are running practice along with volunteer assistants Chad Jameson and Richard Westcott.

Just when it was safe to think the team had experienced it all, turns out it hadn’t.

The Rams did receive a boost last Monday, when coach Baker — seven days after surgery— made a brief appearance at practice and delivered a little pep talk.

Everyone got a little choked up during the heartfelt moment, especially Connor Baker —Don’s son.

“It was real emotional. . . . I got really teary-eyed,” Connor said.

The coach’s appearance also was an inspirational moment for the team, according to senior co-captain and fullback Brandon Palmieri.

“He just had the surgery. He’s showing us he [how much] he cares [by showing up] and that we have to keep going,” Palmieri said. “It hasn’t been said, but everything we’re doing [from now on] is for coach Baker.”

A program that won just once last year and hasn’t had a winning season since 1993 will still be considered underdogs whenever it takes the field, but it does have one very important trait all football teams need to have in order to experience that winning feeling. These Rams have proved to be quite resilient mentally, and there will be times on the field when that intangible serves them well.

Only time will tell whether that’s enough to help them make a push for a playoff spot, but one thing is certain.

“This team is like a fighter that won’t quit,” Meal said. “They keep getting knocked down but they keep getting back up.”

“We have a lot to play for,” Palmieri said.

mrodriguez@buffnews.comnull