Gift honors cousin, rival
CHICORA — Briggs Buck's passion about weight lifting earned him the nickname, “The Machine” from the head football coach at Karns City High School.
And there's no doubt the rivalry between Karns City and neighboring Moniteau school districts is equally intense on the football field.
But in these two communities, compassion trumps competition.
That was evident Wednesday night when a student from Moniteau gifted $4,775 he raised as his senior project to the Weight Club at Karns City in Briggs' memory.
It was an act so kind that more than one eye needed dried in talking about it. The gift came almost a year to the day Briggs died in an ATV crash in Fairview Township.
“It's been pretty rough,” Charles “Chuck” Buck said of the time between the Feb. 27 death of his 16-year-old son and now. “We tried to come up with ways to try to make something good come out of this. The kids have been just a big support for us.”
The Weightlifting Club, which was Briggs' great love; the football team in which Briggs was a running back and students in general took steps to remember Briggs.
Memorial T-shirts and bracelets were sold. The football players added Briggs' number, “33,” to their helmets. A fund grew for a one-time memorial scholarship. And the Gremlins football team initiated “The Machine Award” at its annual banquet.
“Sometimes he reminded me of a machine,” coach Ed Conto is quoted as having said about Briggs' nickname. “The more I saw him in the weight room he'd just go to work pounding things out; and on the field he'd just go harder and harder and never stop. And when it was over, he was quiet. Not arrogant or getting in anyone's face.”The weight room now is the hub of effort to memorialize Briggs.At his funeral, Briggs' parents asked that in lieu of flowers that donations be made to the weightlifting club. Different mourners and students already have contributed about $4,000.Then this past weekend, Devan Cummins, a cousin to Briggs and a senior at Moniteau High School, made his senior project a fundraiser for the Weight Club at Karns City.“I wanted to honor my cousin's memory by donating to an activity that Briggs loved to do, and that was weight lifting. I hope that his friends and other kids can enjoy the sports and training that Briggs loved to do,” said Cummins of West Sunbury.Cummins organized a trip to the Seneca Allegany casino in New York. Three buses of people paid $45 each to go, and raffles and strip tickets were sold. An additional 20 sponsors contributed door prizes and cash. The group went Sunday.“They're real rivals,” Cummins' sister, April McClanahan, said of the Moniteau/Karns City gridiron showdown. “But this was a tragedy. So people from both of the communities came. Everyone came together.”The Moniteau coalition presented the check to the Karns City club Wednesday night at a meeting in the high school's weight room.Brian Markle, Karns City athletic director, said the donations coupled with the money raised by students earlier could be used to refurbish the existing weight room in the school or help build a new field house on the side of the stadium where the press box is now.“We already bought some new equipment,” he said.A renovation could cost about $10,000. A new field house would be significantly more, Markle said noting that the planning is just in the initial phases.
“This is a tremendous thing. I get choked up even thinking about it,” Markle said. “He (Briggs) was a tremendous person to be around, and he comes from a great family. This was a loss not only to our football team but to our entire community.”Laughing, smiling and loving life is the way his parents and friends want people to remember Briggs.Despite the tragic loss, Kim Bucks' face lights up in recalling the youngest of her three children. How he loved to do silly things in good spirits. How he loved to hunt with his father. And how he gathered with his buddies as often as possible.“There,” she said, pointing to a photograph of Briggs holding a giant cake that said 16. “That was really his first birthday party. We took his friends to a White Sox game.”The party, only six months before his death, also was his last.“We take this day by day,” Chuck Buck said. “Every day is hard. We'll never be the same.”Donations to the weight room can be made to: Karns City High School, Weightlifting Club, c/o Brian Markle, 1446 Kittanning Pike, Karns City, PA 16041.
