A perfect proposal for WVU defensive lineman Donahue

SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest in Mountaineer sports and recruiting.

As time ticked off the clock, the magnitude of the moment to come started to set in for Reese Donahue.

Months of planning was about to be set in motion, as the junior defensive lineman watched the clock rapidly approach zeros with something outside of football at the forefront of his mind.

That thing? The engagement ring he had purchased for his girlfriend of almost three years Sarah Moore that was safely tucked away in the pocket of mentor and state trooper Freddie Little.

As the Mountaineers celebrated the 38-22 win over Kansas, Donahue headed to the stands in order to take Moore by the hand and bring her onto the field. Little then handed Donahue the ring and he fell to one knee and proposed to Moore at midfield as Country Roads blared from the stadium speakers.

“I kind of froze up and I had to take a minute,” Donahue said.

But once he had, he asked the question. The 22-year old said yes.

“I thought what I was going to say all week long -- for months I thought about what I was going to say. It didn’t come out anything like I planned,” he said. “She took my breath away.”

Donahue first laid eyes on Moore at Mountaineer Field when she was recognized as a member of the gymnastics team while he was on the recruiting visit in the fall of 2015. As a January enrollee a few months later, fate would put the two in the same class, one that had nothing to do with eithers majors.

“I recognized her, sat beside her and we became good friends,” he said.

Donahue had a professor who was an athletic trainer for the gymnastics team so he also earned brownie points for going to meets which didn’t hurt things. Then after he gave her a ride home during the snowstorm in mid-January in 2016 things, pardon the pun, would only snowball from there.

The relationship started small but blossomed into something special.

The proposal was an idea that Donahue first put into motion in May when the 20-year old reached out to Moore’s mother. He knew he was ready to take the next step.

But in August, he, along with Moore, visited her home just north of Dallas, Texas, and he privately spoke to her father, mother and all her siblings asking for their blessing.

“Once he said yes, I had my family help me with the arrangements,” he said.

Donahue, unknown to Moore, with the help of both families organized the surprise announcement and made arrangements for all of them to be in the stands. They flew into Pittsburgh and he had to ensure that they wouldn’t run into Moore during the game to perhaps tip her off to the proposal.

He then spoke with several of his teammates as well as the coaching staff to let them know of his intentions. It was motivation.

"We were ready for it, we were hyped up," junior linebacker David Long said.

But word quickly spread, and Donahue was taken back when a classmate in his exercise physiology class asked him if he was going to pop the question.

“Word travels fast but I’m just glad it didn’t travel fast enough,” he said.

The final step was the responsibility of holding the ring and Donahue couldn’t think of anybody else to bare that responsibility than Little who had become close to him.

So Donahue informed him earlier in the week and gave him the ring Friday night and while he was admittedly nervous with the task, he executed his end as well.

And all of this was with the backdrop of football game but Donahue admittedly had no plan B.

“I don’t think she had a clue, I hope not,” he said.

Donahue said he believes that the two will wait until graduation to marry but the moment is one that neither will forget.

“She’s an amazing woman,” he said.

Enter the contest by clicking on the following link and choosing to subscribe to the channel: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=VideoGlide