MOORHEAD- On the sidelines of every home football game stands Sam Beedy. Continually boosting the team’s spirits, Beedy fulfills the role of ultimate hype for Cobber Football.
“I just like to be the really cool hype man,” Beedy said. “The one thing I love is when everyone is all about having fun.”
During the games, Beedy fills up water bottles and gives out tons of high-fives. After halftime, he walks arm and arm with Terry Horan, Concordia’s head football coach, out of the locker room to start the second half.
“I love to be around all my football guys. They’re awesome people,” Beedy said. “I just love my team.”
Before Concordia, Beedy worked with the Moorhead Spuds and Concordia gave him another chance to continue doing what he loves. The football team has adopted Beedy as one of their own with friendships extending past the turf.
Beedy also helps the baseball and hockey team extending his reach into the winter and spring.
When Beedy is not at practice, he works at Concordia Dining Services where many students will wave and talk to him throughout the day.
“It’s not just the football team, it’s the volleyball team, it’s the soccer team, everybody knows him, everybody loves him,” residential dining supervisor, Pat Dew said.
Dining Services employs six people with disabilities, most of whom can be seen at various sporting events, giving high fives, and cheering the teams on.
“The football team cherishes Sam, it says a lot about the student body,” Dew said. “Their role here is huge, but it’s huge because of what they do to accept them.”
Dew oversees students every day and has worked with Sam for four years. One student Dew finds particularly keen on Sam is junior volleyball player, Jordyn Johnson.
“She just commented just last week that Sam lightens her day up because he’s always smiling,” Dew said.
Johnson is one of many student-athletes who is friends with Sam on campus, but their bond is unique since they see each other at Dining Services instead of at practice.
“I said hi to him one day in DS and ever since we have been besties,” Johnson said.
In high school, Johnson was involved with D.A.P.E, Hero’s Sidekicks and Unified P.E. where she became passionate about helping those with disabilities. Beedy currently competes every year in the ABLE games which is an all-inclusive competition where people of all abilities have an opportunity to compete.
“I just love to exercise a lot,” Beedy said. “Last year I won the Scheels gift card!”
Over the years, Johnson and Sam developed their special bond by talking in DS when they each had a spare minute. One of their favorite conversations between them is when Sam goes over the pre-game talk that he plans to give the football boys for the upcoming games.
“It’s like brotherly love,” Johnson said. “They treat him like a brother, and he treats them the same way.”
