MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Looking at the clock wind down in the fourth quarter, West Virginia defensive end Reese Donahue started to get a few butterflies in his stomach.
The score wasn’t the problem, as the Mountaineers held a comfortable double-digit lead against Kansas on Saturday.
But the ring sitting in the pocket of State Trooper Freddie Little was in the front of Donahue’s mind.
“Once the game started to get toward the end, my eyes started to widen and it started to get real,” he said. “I don’t think she had a clue, though, at least I hope she didn’t. It went about as well as I hoped.”
Donahue took the ring from Little and with “Country Roads” blaring over the stadium speakers, he got down on one knee at midfield and proposed to girlfriend, now fiancée, Sarah Moore.
She said yes as thousands of gold-clad fans remaining at Milan Puskar Stadium gave a loud ovation.
“I had all these thoughts about what I was going to say and, of course, none of it came out that way,” Donahue said. “She was crying, she was so happy. She knew that it was coming within the next couple of months but I thought this was the perfect opportunity to do it.”
The couple met three years ago while Donahue was on an unofficial visit to WVU in November 2015 when the Mountaineers hosted Texas. Moore was a member of the WVU gymnastics team and was recognized on the field during a timeout and Donahue took notice.
As an early enrollee in spring 2016, Donahue had a professor who was an athletic trainer for the gymnastics team so he “earned brownie points and extra credit points” for going to meets. Donahue also gave Moore rides home on snowy nights.
A friendship blossomed, which turned into a relationship. Three years later, they’re set to be married.
And the planned proposal wasn’t an easy process. There were many people and gears involved, including getting Moore’s parents to come in from Dallas without her knowing, as well as keeping Donahue’s teammates hushed.
“This has been an ongoing process for like six months,” he said. “All of the guys knew and that was the deal with all of the coaches. Once we got to the hotel on Friday, it was time to lock in and win.”
Donahue made it clear that football was the main focus from Friday night through the game, but once the win looked like it was in hand, he said he started getting sideways glances from everyone.
Donahue trusted Little to hold the ring from Friday night at the team hotel to the end of the game.
“We talk back and forth religiously,” Donahue said.”
A mentor to Donahue, Little partakes in Bible studies with the players and that is a big part of Donahue’s life. Inside of the ring box was a verse, Ephesians: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”
Those words are what Donahue hopes to live by.
“That’s huge to me — that’s something our state troopers help us with and to me, that’s something I hope to mentor to others.
That was for her and something for others to see in hopes it can be something they can do.”