A high school football player in the state of Alabama received quite a heartwarming surprise before a recent game.

On Oct. 18, 9th-grader Fred Grooms and his Helena High School teammates took the field for a pregame coin toss. Grooms’ father had been deployed with the U.S. Army in Kuwait for a year.

What Grooms didn’t know was that his father had returned home and was not only at the game, but disguised as one of the referees on the field. It made for an emotional reunion for both father and son.

You can take a look at the video below, which was posted to the high school’s Twitter account: