TROY, N.Y. – Mechanicville High School football player Daniel Hayner held his own sort of protest with the American Flag last week.

Mechanicville’s Red Raiders were visiting Catholic Central High School for a recent game when Hayner realized the American flag was missing during the National Anthem and decided to do something about it, WTEN reports.

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The American flag has become a controversial symbol recently amid protests during the National Anthem at NFL and high school football games, and efforts by some high school administrators to ban students from bringing Old Glory to games, EAGnews reports.

“All the stuff that’s happening now with the flag and stuff so I didn’t know if it was like that or where it was,” Hayner said.

The Red Raiders carry an American flag wherever they go, Hayner said, so he grabbed the flag and put it to use.

“I went over and stood on the end of our line and he was like, ‘No stand I the middle of the field’ so I went out in the middle of the field and stood there,” he said.

One veteran in the stands was touched by the student’s patriotism and snapped a picture to post to Facebook.

“No flag for the National Anthem on Friday Night at Catholic High. So a young man from Mechanicville Red Raiders took the flag himself to the field and stood there with pride. Thanks Daniel Hainer, Jr,” the veteran and parent of a player wrote in the post.

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“It was just a spontaneous action from a boy from a small town that just had basically a notion that when you come from a community like this and the things that we try to instill upon them that there’s family, there’s the community and our nation, and our country and that really means a lot to him,” Mechanicville High School athletic director Robert Young told the news site.

Catholic High principal Christopher Bott issued a statement about the missing flag.

“The school did not have a flag prepared in a timely manner,” he said, adding that the press box was recently remodeled but the flag had not yet been replaced. “As a principal I take responsibility for that and we apologize if anyone was offended.”

Bott promised to never let it happen again.

Hayner told WTEN he simply wanted to honor the folks who gave him his freedom at a time when others seem to take it for granted. It boils down to respect, he said.

“People die to protect their country and for the flag,” Hayner said. “People disrespecting it all the time. It needs respect and for the people who served the country and respect it.”

Mechanicville toppled Catholic to remain undefeated for the season.

Hayner’s recent act of patriotism follows several attacks this year on the American flag by students and school staff across the country.

In Herber City, Utah, a Wasatch High School student’s American flag was burned as it hung from his truck in the school parking lot, while high school officials in Travelers Rest, South Carolina and Owasso, Oklahoma banned students from bringing the flag into football games, EAGnews reports.

Those incidents occurred just within the last month.

And in August, an elementary school in Cape Coral, Florida sent home a “Pledge of Allegiance Request” that tasked parents with giving permission for their children to say the Pledge.

On a positive side, animosity toward the National Anthem and American flag, as well as attacks on law enforcement across the country, inspired residents in Norton Shores, Michigan to sing “God Bless America” in a pregame “Sailor Salute” to the military, police and emergency responders.