MANLIUS, Ill. — The wins are starting to add up for the Bureau Valley Storm.
"It's pretty awesome to be working this hard for so long and then it finally showing on the field." said senior football player Logan Johnson.
This season, there is more motivation and more meaning behind every snap. In a town of 350 like Manlius, where the high school is, and a community of towns and villages not much bigger, football and family mean everything.
"Pretty much everyone knows everyone around here." said Carter Haney, also a senior on the football team.
That much was clear this summer when Bureau Valley teen Bailey Broers passed away in a car accident.
"We always got along," said Johnson, Broers' step brother. "It was nice to have friends and family around to help with the process." Johnson added.
The memories hit hard for Johnson and for Bailey's friends, too.
"I thought it was something that never really could happen to someone like that. I mean, kid with a big heart. It was really hard." said Cameron Lillie, a junior football player.
"I pretty much broke down in tears. It was hard to hear that," Haney said.
The boys wanted Broers to suit up and put on pads for the Storm this season. But Broers' primary love was farming, and fall means harvest.
"Every so often I'd be like, 'Hey, come out for football,' but he'd rather be in the fields in the fall, that was his big thing," Johnson said.
So instead, the Storm are carrying a piece of Broers with them through every play.
"There are times throughout the huddles where we would be telling each other, 'Hey, let's get this done for Bailey,'" Haney said.
Their helmets are adorned with red stickers with Broers' initials, BB.
"One of his good friends came down for the first game and he was like, 'He was on the field there with you the whole time,' after we won," Johnson said.
Each touchdown and each win is not just for themselves.
"We're definitely playing for Bailey," Haney said.
They're playing for someone else.
"Thank you for being my best friend, Bailey," Lillie said.
Playing, and winning, for Bailey.