BEREA, Ky. (LEX 18) — Cecil Green is a living legend in the eyes of the residents of Berea.
"He's one of a kind," says Derek Shouse, who played on one of Green's teams during his youth. "This ballpark should be named after him. He should have a statue."
A retired Air Force veteran, Cecil spends all his time with youth sports. Back in the day, he coached. But these days? He just watches everything!
Baseball, basketball, football, and soccer. Youth sports, high school kids, and college students, too. Male and female.
It doesn't matter. And when Cecil shows up at your game, it's a big deal.
"I always talk to him, and we always talk to each other. He's the funniest person I've ever met," says 11-year-old Abby Hampton.
There are so many games that Cecil can't keep track of.
"When I retired, I started watching sports, and everybody played ball. Approximately 300-400 games a year, no matter who it is," says Cecil. "Middle school to high school! That keeps me busy, and that's what I had planned on doing when I retired anyway."
I was curious. "Do you ever have a time when you wake up and think, 'Nah, I'm not going to go out there today?'"
"No, I look forward to it. This is what I planned to do – period. There's never a day when I say I'm not going to go to a game. I always gotta go to some kind of game. But there's always a conflict of what game I'm going to go to cause a lot of games are scheduled at the same time.
Surely, he takes a break, right? So I had to ask, "Do you ever take a vacation?"
"My vacation is watching ball games! That's my vacation", Cecil exclaims.
The bonds between this veteran and former coach and this community are evident. When they got word that LEX 18 was coming to town, hundreds showed up to watch him be interviewed!
"Oh my goodness! I've never seen anything like it myself! That's alright, that's alright!" Cecil beamed as the gathered crowd cheered his name.
"There's only one Cecil," says Shouse. "For him to still be doing this, it's awesome."
Awesome for the families of Berea and awesome for Cecil.
"I always tell the kids' always do your best and give it all you got and stay out of trouble, because if you get in trouble, I won't come watch you play!"
