You ask Kirby Childs about when his older brother Mac played football for the Magnolia Bulldogs and the expression on his face says it all.
Kirby, a junior at the school who’s tall with curly hair, wears many expressions on his face.
“Kirby can talk with his facial expressions and not say a single word,” Kirby’s mother Jennifer, a guidance advisor at Magnolia High, said.
But this time when he was asked if he enjoyed being able to watch Mac, Magnolia class of 2022 and currently a student at Texas A&M, Kirby exclaimed, ‘Heck Yeah!’
Kirby remembers his brother’s first touchdown and was emotional at the end of the 2021 season when Mac’s playing career ended. He gets that way every year now when Magnolia’s football players graduate and move on past high school.
“I think he truly loved the game when his brother started to play,” Jennifer said. “Because then there was the emotional attachment to it.”
Although he doesn’t wear a helmet or shoulder pads on Friday nights – instead he opts for his famous ‘Gucci’ t-shirt – Kirby is the emotional leader of the Bulldogs.
As Kirby’s father Wayne is in his seventh year as assistant coach and primarily works with the Bulldog linebackers, Kirby is around the program every day and lives the highs and lows of the team. He is a coach’s kid after all. Results of games are emotional and can linger.
Kirby is known around these parts as the Magnolia ‘Super Fan’, and with good reason.
“He’s very humble and at the end of the day, he just loves his Bulldogs,” Jennifer said. “He wants them to win, he wants them to do their best.”
What does Kirby love the most about Magnolia football?
“Our spirit and just people that I love so much,” he said.
Kirby is as much a member of the team as the senior star running back, Colin Leahey.
“No one cares more than Kirby,” Leahey said. “When we lose, he’s the most upset on the field, and when we win, he’s the most excited on the field. He’s just great for the team atmosphere and gets us excited for the games. He cares alot about the team and the players.”
COACH’S KID
At three weeks old, Jennifer recalls bringing Kirby to his first football game.
A coach’s family has to be a dedicated group and the Childs Family is just that.
During Kirby’s life, the Childs family has been involved with four different high schools, but have settled in Magnolia since the summer of 2018.
To rewind a bit farther though tells the story of Kirby and how he became the Magnolia Super Fan.
“When he was little, we knew he had some delays,” Jennifer said. “He walked late, he talked late. But regardless, he was always a happy kid. He’s never had a discipline problem.”
Kirby experienced stalled delays in his growth in some ways, but not others.
“He’s had educational delays, but he’s never had social delays,” Jennifer said.
Testing done on Kirby at a younger age resulted in even more genetic testing and a lengthy report. A very rare duplicated chromosome was discovered and medical professionals wanted to study Kirby’s condition on a deeper level.
“Everything that the genetic disorder describes is Kirby in a nutshell,” Jennifer said. “When people say, ‘I’ve never met anyone like Kirby’, there’s a reason. There aren’t many people out there like him.”
The family ultimately decided against the extensive medical study on Kirby so that he could enjoy his adolescence.
“It’s kind of like Down Syndrome, but it’s not,” Jennifer explained. “Because he’s fully functional and he doesn’t let his educational delays deter him from doing what everybody else is doing. He always wants to appear like everybody else. He’s not afraid to ask questions. In the classroom, he’s always willing to help others and at the end of the day he loves his Bulldogs.”
Jennifer recalled that when Kirby was in elementary school, he could tell if his second grade teacher was having a bad day even if the teacher didn’t verbally say so. He’s a professional detector of emotions and feelings in not only himself, but others around him.
To this day, teachers around the Magnolia hallways love seeing Kirby and offer a high five when he makes his way through.
Teachers all the time say, “I look forward to seeing Kirby in my hallway each day. I look forward to that each day,” Jennifer explained. “Even if they don’t have him in their class, they know who he is.”
Although athletics are a big part of Kirby’s life, he’s been more of a spectator, supporter and helper.
Kirby played T-ball when he was younger, and loved it. But football was never something Kirby could bring himself too. The way Kirby thinks and feels, he could never live himself if he emotionally or physically injured somebody.
“As much as he might want to win the game, he doesn’t want to hurt others,” Jennifer said.
With Wayne on the coaching staff at Magnolia, Kirby has become such a fixture to the Bulldogs football program.
“There aren’t the right words to describe Kirby Childs,” Magnolia head football coach Craig Martin said. “I think we have a really unique culture in the locker room and our program.”
Martin has always looked out for people like Kirby.
“I come from a background of special needs,” he said. “I have a younger brother who’s special needs, that’s on the autism spectrum in some form or fashion. And I spent 10 years of my career teaching in self-contained life skills classrooms. I have a soft spot for those kids and what they are able to contribute outside of athletic ability.
“Kirby is the emotional leader of our football team when it’s all said and done.”
THE SUPER FAN HIMSELF
When the football team sprints out of the inflatable Bulldog tunnel before games, there’s Kirby flying out there with them in his trademark Gucci shirt.
“I get them hyped,” Kirby said.
He loves the thrill of leading the team in front of the whole town.
“Just be that first one out of the tunnel with so much spirit,” Kirby said. “Just seeing people having fun in the stands.”
Kirby has created bonds with many of the players on the team, and is a joy on campus.
“Kirby’s just a really good friend,” Leahey said. “He has a really kind heart and he’s always just trying to help anyone he can, anytime. He’s always been nice to me and we’ve developed a really good relationship over time.”
With his father coaching the linebackers, the position group is often over for dinner during the week.
“We’re close,” Junior linebacker Tyler Covar said. “He’s definitely the energy of the team. He always hypes everybody up. He’s a good person to be around. He’s always happy and he’s in a good mood.”
Covar and Kirby bond over Dallas Cowboys football, their favorite team.
“He just has a big heart for everybody on the team,” Tanner Covar, Tyler’s twin brother and a safety for the Bulldogs, said. “He’s the only person that I see who never has a frown on his face.”
Kirby can usually be found on the field during pregame warmups. He enjoys assisting the kickers.
During the game, Kirby is responsible for running on the field to retrieve the kicking stand.
“He’s here just as much as the guys are, and he’s just as much a part of our family, our culture and our traditions,” Martin said.
During games, he intently watches the Bulldogs. He occasionally strides over to the fence where the student section is to get them going.
“He’s just Kirby,” Wayne said of his son being a helpful member of the team and their biggest hype man.
Funny enough, during pep rallies, Kirby has the power to get the students to be silent on command, something Jennifer chuckles about everytime it happens.
“I don’t know of any administrator that can do that,” she said. “He just has a way of doing that.”
One can tell by the look on Kirby’s face if the Bulldogs won or lost afterwards.
“You can tell whether we won or lost based on Kirby at the end of the game,” Martin said. “He lives it even though he’s not able to play it.”
GUCCI SHIRT ORIGIN STORY
Okay, so you’re probably wondering….why does Kirby wear a maroon Gucci shirt and not a Magnolia Bulldog shirt if he’s such a big Super Fan?
It’s pretty simple to anyone who’s superstitious.
“I think he just randomly wore it on a Friday night and we won,” Jennifer said. “It just became a thing.”
The origin story of the Gucci shirt is that Kirby once asked for one when he was younger.
Instead of buying one, a talented aunt of Kirby’s made a green for him and gifted it for Christmas.
As most teenagers do, Kirby grew out of the green one. His father Wayne suggested a maroon Gucci shirt and that’s what Kirby wears on game day. This version of the Gucci shirt was created by assistant coach David Allison’s wife.
“The kids expect it and he never does not wear it,” Jennifer said.
Said Kirby, “It’s probably the best good luck shirt.”
Kirby wears it win or lose. As Jennifer stated, the rest of the outfit is in flux. The shorts change at times. But the maroon Gucci shirt is always worn.
“He wears that every game day,” Tyler Covar said. “It’s good luck, I guess.”
And it’s strictly worn on game day. He never wears it for any other occasion. It’s washed and kept in the dresser draw only the next game comes around, usually on a Friday.
“He’s going to wear his Gucci shirt on game day and there’s not changing that,” Martin said.
Kirby is often asked, ‘Wouldn’t a Magnolia Bulldogs shirt work better?’
Members of the team beg to differ with that notion.
“I kind of like the Gucci shirt, to be honest,” Tanner Covar said.
Martin feels strongly that if the rest of the world was as tight-knit and had such a special member of the team like Kirby, it would be a better place.
“If life was more like a football locker room, everybody would be in a much better spot,” Martin said.
Magnolia junior Kirby Childs is the the football team ‘Super Fan’. (Chris Zorzi/SportCast Media)
