The goal of a football coach is not only to teach a player how to play football, but also to teach the team life lessons that they will be able to use many years after their playing days are over.

That’s exactly what assistant football coach Bryan Yancy specializes in. Since joining the team in 2007, Yancy has been teaching players these life lessons without realizing it.

Yancy is at practice everyday helping the other coaches set up drills, talking with players, and helping clean up after practice. Yancy also helps out on game days, retrieving kick off tees and doing anything that is asked of him, always with a smile on his face.

If you talk to him now, Yancy will tell you how much he loves Central football, and you begin to realize how important this program is to him and how important he is to the program. In order to understand Yancy’s full story, you first have to realize where he has come from.

Cyndi Loveland, Yancy’s mother, welcomed him to the family when he was just five years old in 1993. State Child Protective Services rescued Yancy from a horrific, borderline unbelievable living situation.

Yancy spent the first five years of his life living in a cardboard box under a table.

“He was not trained to use the toilet and was still in diapers. He was unable to walk, he never had his hair cut, didn’t speak and had been neglected so terribly that he had essentially completely shut down emotionally,” Loveland said. “He didn’t wear clothes, had sores covering his body, his teeth had rotted, he drank from a bottle, and had his food served to him in a bowl on the ground like a dog. I thought he might be deaf and blind.”

Yancy was born with autism, but was not diagnosed until Loveland took him in and he saw a doctor for the first time. When he joined the Loveland family, sports immediately began to have an impact on his life.

Loveland’s other son, Brian Loveland, was a baseball player who traveled regularly for games and tournaments around the state, and Yancy would travel with his brother. “Baseball” was one of Yancy’s first words.

As he grew older and was in a healthy living situation, Yancy began to come out of his shell and develop basic communication skills. He could tell you basic things such as he was hungry, or wanted to play, but was unable to make full sentences. Flash-forward to today and he is willing to talk to you about anything, especially if it involves football.

Yancy’s first job in sports was helping out with the Ellensburg High School boys’ basketball team, a suggestion made by Eric Davis, Yancy’s case manager and former EHS athletic director, who was the boys’ head coach at the time.

Being able to talk with the players and coaches gave Yancy a social opportunity he had never experienced before, and it helped his development and built his character more than anyone could have imaged.

Once he completed high school, Yancy wanted to go to college. After mulling over different colleges and universities in state, Yancy and Loveland decided on Central because of its close proximity.

“For him to continue school and go to college was really important,” Loveland said. “We really wanted him to have the real college experience.”

Yancy eventually joined Central’s football team as an assistant coach to keep him busy during the basketball off season and to continue his social development. The team ended up enjoying his presence, and he loved the team, so he decided to make football his full time commitment.

When former football head coach Blaine Bennett was hired at Central, Loveland was worried that Yancy’s position on the team would be in jeopardy. When she approached Central football coach Joe Lorig about having Yancy join the team, Loveland was unsure of what his answer would be.

“As I told him Bryan’s story, you could see his face begin to soften and his attitude change, and he told us, ‘Let me go talk to Coach Bennett,’” Loveland said. “He pulled Bennett out of a meeting and introduced us. We all shook hands and the next day Bryan was part of the team.”

Yancy worked with the team for the entire year, helping out with anything anyone needed, whether it was setting up cones for a drill, organizing jerseys or just making a player or coach laugh on the sidelines.

After 12 years of speech therapy, Yancy scored a three out of 10 on a communication test. After just one season being around the team, he scored a seven.

The team has helped his communication development more than anyone could have ever expected, and he is just as big of a part of the team as any individual member.

Many years have passed since Yancy was first introduced to Central’s football team, as he has now become a staple to the program. Every Monday night, Loveland and Yancy host the entire football team at their home for a team dinner.

Loveland feeds the team and makes sure they have enough to take home as leftovers as well, playing the role of team-mom.

Every practice and every game, Yancy is there visibly and audibly, on the sidelines cheering on his Wildcats through every snap. Yancy and his mother make baked goods that they sell during the summer at the local farmers market to ensure that they will have enough money to go to every away game, so Yancy doesn’t miss a single snap of his Wildcats.

“Bryan continues to learn and grow every day, whether that be on the field or off of it,” said Yancy’s best friend, aid, and former Central football player Josef Kistler.

Kistler is with Yancy every day, going to class, working in the SURC, working out, having lunch, everything. There’s rarely a moment when Yancy is without Kistler.

“It’s impossible to have a bad day with Bryan,” Kistler said. “He always has a smile on his face and it’s contagious to everyone he is around.”

Yancy has grown immensely since joining the Central family eight years ago, but he impacts each player, coach and individual he comes in contact.

“He went from not talking, to making speeches and handing out awards in front of 200 people at the football award ceremonies that happen at the end of each year,” Loveland said.

Yancy’s “Friendship Awards” have become the most sought after awards at the end of the season ceremony.

The football team is family to Yancy.

“I have 99 brothers,” Yancy said. “I’m just the little brother.”

It would be hard to envision a day for the Central football team without their most important member on the sidelines, and that’s exactly the way Yancy wants it.

When asked when he will step down from the program, Yancy gave the best answer Central could have hoped for: “Never.”