Luke Mager, a junior at Hudson High School, is the leading flagboy for the student section. According to many people surrounding Mager, he is hilarious, outgoing, super energetic and an all-around hard worker. Mager is also a pitcher for the Hudson Boys Baseball team and is a star slugger. Mager is also a loving brother; he has an older sister, Gianna, an older brother, Tommy and a younger sister, all of whom he loves and cares for. He also enjoys hanging out with his friends, playing basketball and having as much fun as possible.
Mager isn’t exactly sure about how he became the flagboy. “I don’t really know honestly. I’m pretty sure I was sitting on my couch at home when one of the seniors asked me if I wanted to do it.” Mager is now a part of the Super Fan group, along with many of his senior friends and his sister Gianna.
Mager says that one thing about being the flagboy he enjoys is that he can hype people up and have as much fun with the student section as possible. Mager not only loves getting the fans pumped up for the game, but the players too. “When we start chants for some of the players on the field, it makes them feel hyped, and helps them feel better about how they are playing.”
Mager wants everyone to feel the joy of being a part of something, so when he is celebrating, he makes sure everyone is celebrating, even the freshman.
The temperature starts to drop when the football team does well and it gets later into the season, going into late October, and even sometimes November. The Super Fans never wear any shirts to the games, and Mager wasn’t an exception. “I wouldn’t be able to have a shirt. It’s a tradition for the guy Super Fans to go shirtless, so even if it’s snowing, there’s nothing I can do except deal with it.”
Mager is a resilient individual, no matter what happens. He is always trying to find a way to persevere when faced with a problem, and while doing so, he also brings up the others around him.
Some of the other rules for Super Fans are that they have to paint a player’s name and number on your back, you have to do as many push-ups as there are points on the scoreboard and the flag boy has to run in front of the stands waving the flag every time the team scores a touchdown.
The players that Luke Mager have had on his back are Nathaniel Coates, Jackson Babitsky, Nick Innamorato, Izaac Zarges and Tommy Ricard. He also shared that the most push-ups he has ever attempted for a game were 171 from the football game against the Stow Munroe Falls Bulldogs. He said that he could only complete around 100. “It’s just that our offense kept scoring and our defense kept getting stops, by the end of the game we started cheering when Stow scored because we were beating them so badly.”
Another one of Mager’s hobbies is baseball. Mager plays baseball for Hudson and his travel team, Midwest Stars. He plays pitcher but is also a formidable opponent in the batter’s box. Mager has a batting cage at home, so he can get as much practice in as he has time.
Mager would like to play collegiate baseball, but if that doesn’t work out, he would like to study business. Regarding the Explorer’s upcoming baseball season, “I think we should be able to be pretty good this year. We have a lot of the senior guys leaving, but we got a lot of guys who can step up and fill those spots.” Mager practices baseball in the off-season by playing for his summer baseball team and attends training.
Luke Mager is an all-around great kid who brings up the people around him, works hard for what he wants and has as much fun with everyone around him.
