The game was over. Morgantown High School in West Virginia had just won the 2004 AAA state football title. The players doused their coaches with water, took a team photograph, received trophies and prayed as a team.
After the championship team prayed and a few players were interviewed, two people remained on the field in prayer - Morgantown's three-time first-team all-state place kicker and punter Patrick Shadle and the team pastor, the Rev. Kevin Cain.
Before each game during the entire 2004 season, the team prayed. And afterward Cain and Shadle prayed together. Cain always led.
But, that would change.
After the state title game, Shadle led the prayer for the first time.
Shadle, who holds the West Virginia record for points kicking and will play football at Syracuse next season, had a unique tradition with Cain.
Shadle approached Cain prior to the start of the state championship game against Martinsburg. He told Cain that after Morgantown wins the state championship that he wants to tell him something. When the game ended, Shadle asked Cain to walk with him to the end-zone and pray one last time. They knelt down on the field, and as Cain began to pray, Shadle asked to lead.
"I wanted to give him back a little something in appreciation for him helping me become a better person," Shadle said.
Morgantown's head coach John Bowers hired Cain, his brother-in-law, in 2003. Before Cain's hiring, Morgantown had no team pastor.
Cain helped establish the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at Morgantown and many of the team members, especially Shadle, started taking an active role. Throughout the season, the groups, which consist of mostly football players, met each Thursday evening at Cain's house for dinner and Bible study. When the football team is out of season, the group meets every other week.
The group also conducted hospital visits to injured football players and the members helped raise money for underprivileged children during Christmas time.
"For whatever reason, Patrick just caught on to what we were doing here and he's been a vital part of the group," Cain said.
Cain said he believes Shadle came to a point in his life where he needed and wanted additional guidance in making wise decisions.
At the beginning of the season, Cain gave Patrick a book called "How Good Is Good Enough," written by Andy Stanley. Cain said the book teaches that no good is enough without a relationship with Jesus Christ.
"I think that when I gave him that book that's when he started to really realize that this wasn't just some sort of club membership," Cain said. "I was asking him to have a personal relationship with the living Lord."
"He's just an inspiration to pretty much everyone on the football team," said Shadle, who also plays forward for the soccer team and has about a 3.9 grade point average. "He can give advice in almost every aspect of life. He's just a good guy to be around."
Shadle's parents, Marcy and Larry, are both pleased with their son's growing interest in his Roman Catholic faith, and with Cain for guiding him.
"I think it's made him more patient with himself and more able to go through and deal with adversity whereas before he would blow up and tend to have a temper tantrum," Larry said. "He would let his anger get the best of him. And now he controls his emotions a lot better."
"He's the most mature young man that I've been around," Bowers said. "He's very well spoken, very articulate, and very intelligent. He's a fantastic young man, and I think his character is strong."
In addition to Syracuse, West Virginia, Bowling Green and Penn State recruited Shadle, but Syracuse was the only Division I program to make an offer. Come next fall, he'll be wearing orange and competing for a place kicking position.
Said Shadle: "I'm excited to death."
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