Coach Brendon Aleski's favorite story to tell his Montour High School volleyball team is about what Patrick Kutschbach did in 2000. He led his team to a district title and to the state finals while playing with a broken thumb.
Aleski told the story Thursday night to the Montour community, with about 20 members of the Kutschbach family standing in the first row of bleachers. Almost 200 people filled the high school gym in Robinson, where Kutschbach once led championship volleyball teams, to honor him for his military service in Afghanistan where he died in combat in November.
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Montour athletic director Mitchell Galiyas organized the event after Rep. Tim Murphy offered to honor the family with a U.S. flag that had been flown in Washington. Kutschbach graduated from Montour in 2000 and spent two years as an assistant coach on Aleski's staff.
Kutschbach enlisted in the Army in October 2003 and earned his Green Beret. He was a staff sergeant in the 10th Special Forces Group. He died Nov. 10 when enemy fighters hit his Humvee with a rocket-propelled grenade and small-arms fire, according to military officials. He was 25.
