{"id":30758,"date":"2019-09-12T19:26:11","date_gmt":"2019-09-13T01:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=371509"},"modified":"2019-09-12T19:26:11","modified_gmt":"2019-09-13T01:26:11","slug":"ahead-of-fridays-salute-to-service-honor-drew-chastain-details-marine-journey-since-summit-high-football-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/local-news\/ahead-of-fridays-salute-to-service-honor-drew-chastain-details-marine-journey-since-summit-high-football-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Ahead of Friday\u2019s \u2018Salute to Service\u2019 honor, Drew Chastain details Marine journey since Summit High football days"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former Summit High School football star Drew Chastain, now a member of the U.S. Marine Corps, poses for a photo in Frisco ahead of Friday night’s Salute to Service ceremony before Summit High football’s home game versus Conifer (Tiger Stadium, 7 p.m.). As part of the pregame ceremony, Chastain will deliver the game ball to midfield.<\/strong>
Antonio Olivero \/ aolivero@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

FRISCO \u2014 After United States Marine Corps service member Drew Chastain surprised his family with a return trip to their home in Summit Cove this past Fourth of July, his mother Melissa broke the news to him. The Summit High football program wanted Chastain, a former Tiger linebacker and 2016 SHS grad, to deliver the game ball at Friday\u2019s annual Salute to Service game at Tiger Stadium in Breckenridge.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Alright,\u2019\u201d Chastain said, \u201cI\u2019ll do it if they can fly me in in a helicopter.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The request was 100% a joke for Chastain. Having grown up watching military members undertake such honors at football games, Chastain would have delivered the ball with pride and gratefulness no matter the situation. Little did he know, though, that his part of Friday evening\u2019s Salute to Service ceremony will actually follow a helicopter handoff of the game ball.<\/p>\n

Before the Summit Tigers (1-1) take on the Conifer Lobos (1-0) at Tiger Stadium in Breckenridge Friday night at 7 p.m., the Tiger program will host its third annual Salute to Service celebration. About a half hour before the game, vehicles representing various service organizations across the county will process around the Tiger Stadium track. Ten minutes later, the Tigers and Lobos will take the field. Then, Chastain will take the handoff from the helicopter and deliver the ball to midfield, a familiar spot, where the coin toss and national anthem will commence.<\/p>\n

Friday night\u2019s honor \u2014 while watching the play of his younger brother and Summit sophomore defensive lineman Evan \u2014 will kick off the weekend of Chastain\u2019s life. The 21-year-old will wed his fiancee and Summit High School sweetheart Autumn Ward on Sunday. For Chastain, it\u2019ll be the exclamation point on a four-year journey since the senior football player decided in the autumn of 2015 that he wanted to join the Marines.<\/p>\n

In doing so, Indiana native Chastain followed in the footsteps of his father Don and Uncle Billy. Shortly before his 18th birthday on Oct. 14, 2015, Chastain was contacted via Facebook by a U.S. Marines recruiter. The beginning of the journey unfolded during the football season when the linebacker and running back was one of Summit\u2019s senior leaders. Reflecting back, he has fond memories of his days in pads for the Tigers, including a sudden game-breaking touchdown run just before half against Grand Junction his senior year.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust before the half the coaches said, \u2018If you go down, stay down. Run the clock out,\u2019\u201d Chastain said. \u201cAnd, I don\u2019t know, by the time I got the ball from behind to in front of the line, I just blacked out. I can\u2019t remember how I got through the line. The next thing I know everyone is behind me and I\u2019m just running down the sideline, and I\u2019m in the endzone.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Drew Chastain, then a senior football player for Summit High School, breaks through the Rifle line on a run in the second quarter of the Tigers home closer on Nov. 6, 2015.<\/strong>
Summit Daily file<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The next phase of Chastain\u2019s life came rather suddenly as well. In July of 2016, weeks after he graduated Summit High, he was off to San Diego for three months of boot camp. Chastain eventually spent six months learning his new trade as a radio operator in his current home, Twentynine Palms, California, before he shipped off to Okinawa, Japan.<\/p>\n

Over his several years on duty in the Pacific based out of Japan, Chastain underwent some familiar and new experiences. In terms of familiarity, he was able to play in a couple of football games dubbed \u201cTurkey Bowls\u201d amid service members in Japan stationed overseas on Thanksgiving. Chastain also took a trip to Pyeongchang, South Korea in February 2018 to watch fellow Summit County resident Red Gerard win the gold medal in slopestyle snowboarding. An avid snowboarder back home in Summit County, Chastain convinced his service friends to take the trip for the thrilling event, knowing they wouldn\u2019t be disappointed.<\/p>\n

In terms of life-changing experiences, Chastain said \u2014 though he never partook in combat \u2014 there were some nerve-wracking moments while he was stationed in South Korea. That included a spell of heightened tensions between North and South Korea, including missile launches.<\/p>\n

Looking back, however, he\u2019s grateful of his time in the service. It\u2019s one centered around the central theme he\u2019ll relay to the Tigers football team during a pregame speech Friday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about brotherhood,\u201d Chastain said. \u201cHow everyone needs to put in their part, how everyone has to do their job to properly work together.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been four years since Chastain strapped in for the Tigers, yet football has been at the core of his globetrotting journey since. Before he moved to Summit as a sophomore in high school from Avon, Indiana, Chastain was a football lifer. As a child, he looked up to beloved players like bruising Indianapolis Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney and tight end Dallas Clark.<\/p>\n

These days, wherever he is with the service, Chastain still channels his inner Freeney when playing flag football or seven-on-seven with the military\u2019s football programs. This fall he\u2019s hopeful he\u2019ll be able to play tackle again. Chastain said he and fellow service members at his base are putting in work to start up a tackle league.<\/p>\n

\u201cFootball,\u201d Chastain said, \u201chas always been the one constant I\u2019ve had.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Drew Chastain of Summit Cove, left, poses for a photo with fellow military members during his time in the service.<\/strong>
Drew Chastain \/ Special to The Daily<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Summit High School football star Drew Chastain, now a member of the U.S. Marine Corps, poses for a photo in Frisco ahead of Friday night’s Salute to Service ceremony before Summit High football’s home game versus Conifer (Tiger Stadium, 7 p.m.). As part of the pregame ceremony, Chastain will deliver the game ball to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-30758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 10:33:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIFT - The LIFT FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30758\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}