Red Dirt Diaries: Streaking in Maysville

The small town of Maysville is celebrating a very big fan of its high school football team.

"It's all about the kids and not about the wins," says Roger Perrin, who can be seen at every Maysville Warrior football game.

Perrin is such a fan of the Warriors, he was given the name "Big Redder" after the school's colors by a local sportswriter years ago.

"They are just special," says Perrin about the players he watches.

"He's a fixture," says Warriors head football coach Lee Bluejacket. "Sickness, cold, heat, sun, snow. No matter what it is, he's there."

"Sometimes it's just parents, cheerleaders, and the band because you weren't winning," adds Perrin, who started going to games while President Jimmy Carter was in the White House.

Last Friday, Perrin went to his 400th consecutive Maysville High School football game. Perrin says the goal every year for the Warriors is to win districts, which it last did in 1957.

"He sits in with us," says Bluejacket, "sits in on our meetings." Bluejacket even calls him a "team scout" due to his knowledge of rival 8-man high school teams.

The 68-year-old Perrin has watched generations of players in his 38 years of going to games.

"I say they're my boys and their moms and dads are my mom and dads."

Since 2008, he's traveled to games on the team bus. Before that, Perrin hitched rides from parents because he doesn't drive.

"I'm going to try to get 500 games," says Big Redder about his streak, which began in 1979. "I'll go as long as I can, unless I'm deathly sick."