School parking lot attendant by day and an advanced leather tailor by night, Alan Gallagher stands as a well-known figure on campus.

Gallagher’s involvement with the school began five years ago when he found employment as CPHS’s school resource officer (SRO) who wore the badge to protect the campus. After two and a half years serving on campus, Gallagher retired from law enforcement but decided to stay on staff as the school’s parking lot attendant and has been serving for the last two and a half years.

Having retired from the badge, Gallagher picked up the hobby of working with leather, creating beautiful bound art upon request from his friends and family. He has been perfecting his artwork ever since, and with the knowledge of his craftsmanship, defensive varsity coach, Steve Battles, personally asked Gallagher to create the defensive belt. 

“The coaches approached me and so I did some research on it and was willing to accept the challenge,” Gallagher said.

 Leather belts have been used for defensive celebratory moments for college football games since 2015 when Alabama’s college team created the Ball Out Belt, given to the defender who caused the last takeaway. Explained in an article for TDA by reporter Jacob Silberman published in 2018. Cedar Park’s defensive coaches wanted a symbol for the boy’s success during the games, so they turned to Gallagher for the job. 

“When a defensive player causes a turnover or recovers a turnover, like a fumble or interception, they get the turnover belt for a period of time after the play,” Gallagher said.

He worked for a total of 10-15 hours and stamped, stitched and dyed the belt all by hand.

“In making the belt, I got vegetable-tan leather and wet it to stamp pictures onto it and carved the words into the belt,” Gallagher said. “Afterward, the leather dye goes on it and it sits to dry. The three pictures on the belt stand for the three different defensive positions on the field, the linemen, linebackers, and the backfield or safety, each represented by a different animal.”

After completion, the belt was gifted to the defensive players on the varsity football team to stand as a symbol at the Friday night games. Students in the student fan section at the games hold the belt up to the crown when the players make a great defensive play and gift the belt to the player who gets the credit for the play.

“The belt fires everyone up in the student section,” senior student section leader Mathew Minor said. “It allows the students to interact with their favorite athletes they normally only see from far away. The players get to see first hand the recognition from their fans and both sides get super energized.”