Unfortunately, too many local communities know what it is like to lose a bright young son, daughter, friend or sibling whose life ends when it has really just begun. In the Loyd Star community that person is Peyton Flowers, a talented, amiable senior athlete who died suddenly last fall.

His younger brother Parker Flowers, now star quarterback for the Loyd Star Hornets, led his team against the Bassfield Yellow Jackets Friday night, but perhaps the most admirable performance happened before the first snap.

When Peyton collapsed on the sidelines during Loyd Star’s 2014 homecoming game and was airlifted to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson where he later died, the loss was felt beyond Lincoln County. The Bassfield Yellow Jackets responded by wearing Peyton’s number, 42, on their helmets, making Peyton an honorary member of their team and inviting Parker and their father David Flowers to the State Championship game where they named Parker a team captain. David Flowers said Bassfield players call him by name, and the support and sympathy shown by the entire Bassfield community has been extraordinary.

Before the game Friday night, Bassfield coach Lance Mancuso presented Parker with Peyton’s State Championship ring, and the Loyd Star Touchdown Club presented Mancuso and his Yellow Jackets with a plaque for the exemplary concern, care and love they have shown the Loyd Star and Flowers families.

“Bassfield, Mississippi, the coach, the staff, the players — they are champions on and off the field. They are an extraordinary community,” David Flowers said.

Signs of Peyton can be seen all over the Loyd Star community. The number 42 is painted on the side of the school’s locker room facing Highway 550, and Lincoln County’s state representatives came together during the last legislative session to name the stretch of Highway 550 in front of the school after Peyton.

“His senior class collected money last year and had a granite bench made in memory of him,” Loyd Star Principal Robin Case said. “Between them and the Loyd Star Cross Country team they’ve created a really nice little memorial garden to honor a kid they all loved very much.”

Loyd Star coach Adam Cook said no one will ever wear the number 42 again, the pee-wee football trophy is now the Peyton Flowers Championship Trophy and at the school’s athletic banquet a $500 scholarship, called the Peyton Flowers award, is given to the most outstanding senior football player.

“There’s literally not enough ways that he can be honored, I can’t do enough,” Cook said. “You know you can’t name an award or a retire a jersey number or anything that would live up to his legacy and what he did here while he was alive. There are simply not enough honors you could give to that child for what he did here in his 18 years.”

Peyton had an impact on every person he met, David Flowers said, but especially on Coach Cook.

“He was larger than life,” Cook said. “He lived every moment to the fullest; he never passed on any opportunity to experience anything. He was a tremendous athlete, very talented, very outgoing. He’d go out of his way to include younger kids — he volunteered to coach one of the pee-wee football teams last year. He was so giving with his friends, his family and his teammates. He was a pleasure to know and to coach and he was what you would want your children to grow up to be like.”

His absence, Case said, is still hard to believe a year later.

“I told people that Peyton did more in 18 years than a lot of people do in 80 years of life, and we’re better for knowing him,” Case said. “And unfortunately his death changed us, but at the end of the day I think we’ve been changed in a positive way, and that means his life mattered. It’s still sort of surreal. I keep looking for him to bust open my door and say ‘Hey, Mrs. Case how ya doin’?’”

David Flowers said his son had a magnetism and was known for his kindness as much as his charisma.

“He loved people. He never met a stranger — he liked the little guy,” he said. “I had a lady say when her child, when they first moved to Loyd Star, the student was real withdrawn, real scared and she told her mother ‘Peyton Flowers walked up to me and said “Hey I’m Peyton Flowers, who are you?”’ He loved people he loved life.”

Flowers experiences his son’s impact and legacy all the time he said, from the man who embraced him at a gas station, offering condolences and talking about how Peyton earned his “Superman” title, to the completely unexpected.

“It’s affected the whole state,” he said. “I run into people everyday… I had a lady tell me, she said ‘It was the Wednesday before he passed away, we had a revival a couple counties over, and more young people gave their life to Christ those two nights than all year long. I read the testimony and it has moved kids, touched them.’”

Peyton can be seen, David Flowers said, in the incredible performance by Parker this season — recently second in the state in tackles. No doubt utilizing what his brother instilled, his football future looks brighter than ever.

“The thing about Peyton, he loved football. He left here doing what he loved to do,” David Flowers said. “He left this world doing what he loved and not many of us are going to be that lucky.”