Casey and Keegan Clontz died in the Plum borough house explosion on Saturday, Aug. 12. Submitted photo

For the past week, all 11 teams in the Allegheny Youth Football League have put their rivalries on pause, coming together to pay tribute to one of their own players, Keegan Clontz, 12.

He lost his life last week in Plum along with his father, Casey, and four others, when the house he was in exploded.

Both Keegan and Casey will be laid to rest on Saturday, with visitation taking place Thursday and Friday Burket-Truby Funeral Home in Oakmont. As a show of support, representatives from all 11 teams in the league canceled their activities to attend the visitation on Thursday evening, including the Saxonburg Spartans.

“The league has canceled all practices and asked for support from all the organizations in the league to send some representatives down,” said Saxonburg Spartans president Dave Drane. “We’re going to show our support for the family and the Plum football organization.”

This year marks their first season for the Saxonburg Spartans as a member of the AYFL, although the team has been in existence since 1974. The Spartans have not played Plum yet and will not do so until Saturday, Sept. 2.

Nevertheless, multiple Spartans players and their parents attended the visitation on Thursday evening, Aug. 24 to pay their respects to a fellow competitor that few, if any, of them had ever met.

“The football community is like one big family. We just all try to help each other out and all try to be there for each other. That’s all there is to it,” said Barry Steele, whose son, Jackson Dunnigan-Steele, plays for the Spartans.

On the day of the disaster, Clontz was set to take the field for the first game of the season with the Plum Little Mustangs 12U team, as they were scheduled to take on Ford City. As devastation swept through the Rustic Ridge neighborhood, the game was postponed.

By the time Plum took the field the following week for their game at West Mifflin, reminders of Keegan’s absence were everywhere. The Little Mustangs donned stickers on their helmets with Keegan’s number 40, and will do so for the remainder of the 2023 season. Before the game, both teams held a moment of silence in memory of Keegan.

When the game was over, Plum emerged as 40-7 winners over West Mifflin.

At Plum’s football stadium, Keegan’s initials “K.C.” have been painted at the 40-yard-line.

In addition, teams at all games that weekend began collecting donations to help the Clontz family after the tragedy. All teams’ donations will be funneled to the Plum Midget Football Association, who will, in turn, present them to the Clontz family.

“Right now I think we’re close to $5,000, but we’ve got a couple more weeks,” said AYFL president Shawn Mele. “We’re going to do it this Saturday and next Saturday because there are some teams that don’t host until next Saturday.”

The Plum youth football squad is also accepting donations on the Clontzes’ behalf through Venmo, at @PlumMidget-FootballAssoc.