(David Miles Photo)
In the spring of 2014 the WUHS faithful were drifting in for a quarterfinal baseball playoff game up at Lamoille. But the first question everybody posed to one another was not “How do you think the boys will do today?” or something of that nature.
Instead, the first query heard from most fans as they arrived was, “Where’s Floyd?” They quizzed one another throughout the pre-game warm-ups.
Floyd was not an outfielder or a player they expected to see on the diamond for Woodstock. No, Floyd was Floyd Westover, a 1972 graduate of Woodstock Union High School and arguably the biggest sports fan that the Wasps have, regardless of the sport.
During his high school years, Westover was the student manager for both the football team and the boys’ basketball team. It became a family tradition as his daughter, Megan served as manager for the boys’ basketball and lacrosse teams in the early 2000s.
Westover started attending Woodstock sport events as a fan immediately after he graduated from high school. Other than when he lived in Florida for
four years in the early 1980s, he has never stopped.
Westover estimates conservatively that he averages attending at least 7-8 football games a year. This year was an anomaly in that he missed three regular season games, all long road trips. The previous five seasons he may not have missed any game, home or away.
And if it is a playoff game, Westover is certainly there. In 1996 when the Wasps won their first state championship, upsetting Lyndon 17-14, Westover did not go.
“I didn’t think we had much of a chance. So I decided not to go and listened to it on the radio instead,” recalled Westover. “After we won, I told myself, I’m never missing another playoff game ever. You never know what can happen.”
As much as Westover likes football, he may like basketball even more. He often sees about 18 of the 20 regular season boys’ games every year. And, unlike the majority of fans, Westover sees every second of the junior varsity games too, when usually only the parents and a small handful of students are present.
“If I’m going to spend the money, I may as well see both games,” says Westover. “I’m going to get my money’s worth.”
Arrive at a basketball game and look up at the back row of the bleachers on the Woodstock side. Scan about two-thirds of the way down and you will find Westover perched there. You may hear him occasionally voicing his displeasure with a referee’s call now and then too.
Other sports? He usually gets to about 5-6 baseball games a year, especially those under the lights. “I love the night games,” he says. And he gets to a similar number of boys’ soccer, hockey, and lacrosse games most seasons as well. He’ll drop in on the girls’ basketball team now and then too. He’s been to field hockey play-off games even though he readily admits that he does not understand all the rules of the sport.
Do the math. That all adds up to over 60 games during the school year. Multiply that by over 40 years of watching WUHS student-athletes and you are looking at a figure approaching 2,500 Woodstock high school sporting events that Westover has attended.
With that many games under his belt, it must be difficult to sort them out, but Westover was up to the task His most memorable football game? That would be the 2000 state title game when Woodstock defeated Poultney
34-28 at Windsor and Jeremy Kendall clinched the victory with a late-game interception. Since that was the second crown for WUHS, four years after the game that Westover chose to not attend, it was the first time he saw his alma mater win a football championship in person.
This year’s gridiron squad also was memorable for Westover. “After all those seniors that we lost last year, this team was a whole lot better than I thought they would be,” he stated.
In basketball Westover best recalls the night in 2007 when Ryan Kempson scorched the nets for 45 points at Mill River. That was a down year for the Wasps, with only one win, but that night it all came together for the senior.
Of course Westover has seen a number of coaches in his years too. He has good memories of Wayne Ramey and Jeff Thomas in basketball and Jim McLaughlin in football.
And then there was Bob Dailey, who coached while Westover was the manager. “He was just a wonderful man. He was so understanding, yet he always got what he needed out of his players,” Westover said.
“And in basketball he loved scoring, to have his teams play run and gun. But he never wanted them to score over 100 points. Think about that now when teams struggle to score 60 points a night. I sometimes wonder how many points Mike Gyra would have scored if there was a three-point line back then too.”
By the way, Woodstock won that baseball play-off game at Lamoille in 2014, 6-5, even though Westover was not there. But a couple of days later when the Wasps lost a 3-2 heartbreaker at top-seeded Harwood, Westover was there, cheering the diamond squad on.
And with the basketball (and the hockey) season right around the corner, you will know where to find Westover on many a winter night once again. Either sitting in Dailey Gymnasium or following his beloved Wasps on the road.
“I just love it all,” concluded Westover.
This article first appeared in the November 30, 2017 edition of the Vermont Standard.