As I’ve written a few times, my youngest son, Derek, is a pretty good high jumper. Fortunately for me, I’ve been able to help him along his path for the last couple of years and like any father I like to help him with the things that you can only know if you’ve done something yourself. I’ve tried to teach him when to warm up, when to stretch, what height to come in the competition at, how to keep warm between jumps, etc., etc., etc. It’s been fun for us, but I know he rolls his eyes at me a lot (don’t all teenagers?).

When I jumped in both high school and college I was that lone guy wandering around the infield talking to myself (everyone knows high jumpers are flaky…), listening to music with full sweats and a stocking hat on, even if it was 90 degrees out. I had my routine before I jumped, I had my superstitions, I had my music… Bottom line was that I was weird, there’s no denying it. But, in my defense, it worked for me. So, here I am trying to get my son to follow along with some of the things I believe are good, warming up, staying focused, keeping loose, etc. Today, pretty much all my thoughts on what should work for him got thrown out the window and I learned something pretty important, to let the kid be himself and enjoy the ride.

Once again they started the high jump competition as the 4×400 relay was just finishing. If you’ve been to any high school track meet you know that this means that the meet is basically over. Because of this, the entire team was in the infield, standing next to the high jump pit (it was the only thing going on). I was in a semi-panic as his friends were standing right next to him talking to him as he was standing ready to jump. I keep mumbling that someone needed to get them away, let him focus, stop talking to him… As he cleared height after height I could see the interaction between the group get more animated and he seemed more and more relaxed with each jump (I on the other hand got more and more tense). When he cleared 6′, which was a new personal record, he calmly jumped out the of the pit, jogged back to his friends to a mob of high-fives, chest bumps and screams (there were a few girls there too). To see the look on his face and the way his teammates carried on you’d have thought he just won the state meet, but his jumping parter, Sean Lease, cleared 6′2″ to win the competition. Yeah, that 6′ mark is a big one for a high jumper, but as far as I’m concerned it wasn’t the most important thing that came out of that meet. Derek took the next step in his career as a jumper and it was really fun to see his teammates make a big deal out of it for him. Derek’s coach (yeah, that would be me) took an even bigger step as a coach today by learning that we need to let our athletes be themselves and not carbon copies of what we think works. Every athlete is different, every athlete has to find their own style and way of doing things and when it all comes together, big things happen. I’m just glad I was there to see it…

In high school one of the big meets we used to compete in was the Prairie du Chien Invitational. We loved going there because there were a lot of schools and they gave medals for placing. Of course, to this day she rolls her eyes when I talk about it because the medals the boys got were, as we like to say, the size of a garbage can lid and the medals the girls got were the size of a silver dollar. Anyway, the point is, the Prairie Invite was always a highlight of our track season and we small-town farm kids loved our garbage-can lid medals!

When I went off to college I found myself in a similar situation I had in high school, my school wasn’t fortunate enough to have a track. As a high jumper, I found myself working out on the basketball court in high school and when I got to Columbia we had an old gym that we could work out in, but most of the time we hopped into vans and went to Randall Island to jump at Downing Stadium.

Skip to the beginning of track season in 2006. My youngest son decides he wants to go out for track instead of baseball and both my wife and I are thrilled, we are going back to the track! Derek has been very successful in his brief career, but he’s in high school now and the slate’s wiped clean…

Last weekend everything sort of hit me, where we’ve been, were we are and where we’re going. When the schedule came out I looked at it and saw a familar place, Randall Island. Downing Stadium isn’t there anymore, it’s been replaced by Icahn Stadium (”Fast Times, Fast Pace, This IS the Place”, say that 400 times and you’ll know what we went through on Saturday…). We jumped in the car and drove up the Turnpike, over the George Washington Bridge, by Yankee Stadium (both Yankee Stadiums), over the Triborough Bridge and onto Randall Island. As we pulled up I remember going there like it was yesterday and it brought back a lot of really great memories, but as we pulled up I also remember thinking, “We’re Not in Prairie du Chien Anymore Toto…” You see, for us to get to Prairie from Fennimore (yeah, we lived in the sticks, I admit it), you basically drive 30 miles through farm land. On the way you go through two or three towns with no more than 200 people in them and I think Prairie has about 4,000. There are no baseball stadiums, there are no toll booths, there are no skyscrapers in the background. There are cows, there are corn fields and there is the smell of farmland USA (yes, we love Wisconsin…). As we sat 50 rows up in the stadium and looked down at the nine-lane, all-weather track, I couldn’t help but realize how much better our son has it than we did. We didn’t have a track, he’s got one of the nicest in the area at South Brunswick. We didn’t get to wear spikes at meets for the most part because most of the tracks in the early 80s in our area were asphalt, he gets to wear spikes in practice and every meet they go to (and he’s wearing my prize possession, my spikes, with signatures of four Olympic high jumpers on them). We went to Prairie du Chien, he’s jumping on Randall Island were Jessie Owens won the 1936 Olympic Trials in front of President Roosevelt and Pele played his first soccer game in the United States in 1975. I only got to practice in our high school gym and only during track season, he works out at ASA or at a track practically year-round. My dad and high school coach (Coach Vince Lease, best coach I ever had!) used to stand in the exact same area at each meet because of some superstition they had (but didn’t tell me about until I graduated), his dad just video tapes and tries to coach him after every jump, before every jump, when to loosen up, when to start, etc., etc., etc… Come to think of it, I win that one, my dad was way cooler than his dad will ever be…

To say that I’m jealous would be and understatement! To say that we are looking forward to the next four years would be a gross understatement…

Again, I know nothing about this sport, I’ve only seen it on TV a few times when they have the High School Nationals on ESPN or wherever they usually broadcast it, but when they started we were all pretty excited about getting this group up and running. The plan was to do a couple of competitions this year, workout over the summer and hit it hard next year. So, the girls started working on their routine, their tumbling, their movements, etc. and week after week they slowly started to come together. The first competition came and the coaches didn’t feel that they were quite ready, so they decided to pull out of that one and focus on the next, which was three weeks out. With a little over a week to go they were pretty worried that the girls were still not quite ready, but they were really close, a few more good workouts and maybe, just maybe, they’d have things down. Then, one evening I get a phone call to tell me that everything mysteriously came together and not only were they ready, they were going to be competitive.

The day of the competition arrives and they come to the gym to do a couple of run throughs before heading down. As they went through I could see that something was different, they were really sharp (or so I thought, what do I know about this stuff!). After the run throughs they got together and discussed directions, found out who needed things done with their hair and basically took over my office to set up the Dragons’ Beauty Shop. Hair straighting here, bow tieing there, etc., etc., etc. Keep in mind, I have two boys and no sisters, this is all very foreign stuff for me and I was feeling a bit closed in by the crowd that was gathering in my not-so-big space.

Kelly and I jumped in the car and drove down so that we could be there for the first competition. My wife has been to these things before, so she was prepared, I was not. This cheerleading competition thing is a whole ‘nother world and I’m not quite sure I’m fully comfortable with it all just yet (but I’m working on it…). Anyway, we got there just as the Dragons’ group was starting so we grabbed seats and watched. The first two teams were OK, but I figured that our girls would be better. Then, the Dragons hit the floor. I’ve watched them do the routine a number of times, I’ve heard them yelling their cheer even more (so has everyone within a two mile radius of the gym!), but I never thought I’d witness them perform as well as they did on Sunday afternoon. It was just amazing to watch and for those two and half minutes we were all on the edges of our seats enjoying what months of hard work can produce. In the end they placed second to a much larger and older squad (it appeared that all their girls were the same age as the Dragon’s oldest girls). There was much talk (and still is) about how we felt we outperformed them, but the bottom line for me is that 1st place or 2nd place doesn’t really matter, what matters is that they came together as a team, had an outstanding performance and they certainly made us proud…

I just need to find a room for them to do their hair in next time!

1). The situation was, with a few seconds on the clock, his team down by one point and two free throws, this kid sinks the second of the two to tie the game. With nearly no time left the other team throws the ball in (deep), a player grabs the ball, pivots and throws up a shot that falls in to win.

2). Another tie game, around 15 seconds left, player takes the in bounds pass and dribbles up the court, holds the ball for the last shot, he drives to the corner and launches a shot just before the buzzer. As the shot goes up, you see the official running towards half court blowing his whistle. He said the kid was fouled and gets two free throws, with no time on the clock. They clear the floor and put this kid on the line for his two free throws. He calmly sinks the first one, the near capacity crowd goes crazy and his teammates mob him on the floor.

Both were equally exciting, both were equally important to the players and fans, but as similar as they sound, they couldn’t have been farther apart in about a million ways… The first game was the ending of the University of Minnesota vs. Indiana game in the Big Ten tournament last weekend. I was watching TV and my wife called me in to see the ending, since I’m from Minnesota she knew I’d like to see it. Obviously it was a big college game in front of a television audience and a few thousand fans and the win sent Minnesota to the semi-final game of the tournament. The second game was the championship game of the St. Barts Rec basketball league in East Brunswick. The league is ages 3rd grade thru 8th grade, the player involved I believe is in 4th grade. It was nothing less than amazing to see this kid check the clock, dribble around, then head to the corner for his last-second shot. Anyone that’s ever played any level of basketball knows that we all do the 5-4-3-2-1 shoot drill with our friends a million times over our “careers” and I could see him doing it in his head. What was really amazing about it though was seeing him step up to the line, block out the crowd (I’d say there were 100+ people in the gym, all screaming) and calmly sink that first free throw. It was sports in it’s purest form…

After that game came the championship game we came to see, the girls 3rd - 8th grade championship. I love going to this particular gym, it’s small, but cozy and it’s named after my wife. OK, no, it’s not named after my wife, but the gym and my wife have the same name and I like that. Anyway, the girls warm up and they call both teams to the center of the floor, they all take a knee and the say a prayer (it’s a Catholic school, it’s what they do!), then they start the game. What I love about this league is they play six minute quarters and regardless of what’s happening on the floor they switch players after three minutes. I’ve watched two games there now and in both games there were fast breaks that were stopped because of the three-minute horn. The game was close, as all good championship games should be, but in the end our buddy Katie’s team came out on top. It was a wonderful afternoon away from the gym and there was some really great basketball from a bunch of young kids played. The winners of the tournament got a really cool sweatshirt that they’ll be able to wear proudly to school or anywhere else. If I’m not mistaken, both teams climbed into cars and went out for pizza together. You can’t beat that deal…

So, I’ve had a few conversations today about kids and what’s important to them, how they think, what they like and then I read this article:

Connecticut Boy Applies for WVU Football Job

You have to read the article to appreciate what this kid did. It’s really amazing and I hope I can keep track of him to see where he ends up coaching. That’s a young man with a future…

Hats off to the Mike Garrison, President at West Virginia University, for responding to him. It was a simple gesture, but that one simple gesture made a kid that was already a fan, a fan for life. Nice work Mr. Garrison, for a University President to take those couple of minutes to respond to Joshua was a really amazing thing.

Don’t you just love stories like this? Sure beats steroids, robberies, forged birth certificates, parents fighting officials and coaches and teams spying on other teams doesn’t it?

We enjoyed the journey, enjoyed watching games, enjoyed the travel, enjoyed the friends we made and enjoyed the joy throwing a baseball brought our son. There were plenty of bumps in the road on that journey, but those are distant memories and we have moved forward and are excited about the prospects of Matthew playing for Rutgers-Newark. He has a new love for the game, he’s excited about the season (he got his number back finally) and he has great respect for his new coaches. For us, we are happy to see him smiling and happy about playing baseball again.

Today marked a new chapter in Matt’s baseball career as he boarded a plane and headed to San Antonio, Texas for a three-game series with Trinity University. It’s killing us to not be there, especially since we found out he’s scheduled as a reliever in Sunday’s game. Fortunately, Trinity will be broadcasting the game over the Internet so we’ll get to see it… (hey dad, that big monitor is certainly going to come in handy now! <g>).

Anyway, parents, enjoy the games you can and cherish every one of them because soon they are going to be done playing or are flying off to areas that you can’t get to and you’re going to be sitting by your phone waiting for the call to tell you how they did. I know Sunday is going to be tough on us and I know Matt’s going to do what he always does, look for us sitting someplace. We’ll be watching, but he won’t see us. It was only a matter of time and it’s hitting me pretty hard today…

The bigger problem was this weekend though. My wife, son and I drove down to Toms River to watch one of our jumpers jump. We were told that the Group III girls would jump first, then Group IV, so we figured we’d get there around 4pm and be in plenty of time. Then we were told they were jumping the guys first. All of a sudden the meet directors decided to jump the girls first and put both groups together. We pulled into the parking lot as she jumped her last attempt… We knew we’d be close, but we figured we’d at least get to see a jump or two and more importantly we would be there to support her, unfortunately the decisions of someone not thinking about how it would affect others cost us seeing anything. The problem with track meets is they are all day affairs and if your son or daughter (or friend or athlete) is doing an event, you want to have an idea when you should be there. When they change things up, it screws up everything…

OK, I feel better…

Anyway, this weekend we had another one of our jumpers move up the ranks as Brooke Sassman (South Brunswick freshman) finished tied for second place in the Central Group IV Sectional in Toms River. Brooke has worked with us now for almost a year and I can’t even begin to express the transformation this young woman has had as a jumper in that short period of time. By finishing second in the Sectional meet she qualified for the Group IV State meet this weekend, again in Toms River, and I think she’s got a great shot at finishing in the top six there which would send her to the Meet of Champions.

As I told Brooke yesterday, the months of hard work will all be worthwhile when she steps on the track on Saturday to compete. So was seeing her name on the Jumbotron at the Bennett Center!

Speaking of the Bennett Center, if you have any interest in track, you have to see this place. Toms River Regional Schools built a bubbled track complex between and Elementary School and a Middle School that is just unbelievable. I’m trying to comprehend how and why they built it since it doesn’t look like they’ll be able to use it for winter workouts for baseball, softball, etc., but I could be wrong (I’m not guessing they are going to let baseballs fly around in there with that Jumbotron positioned where it is…). It had to have cost a small fortune to build it and to keep the bubble up and heat the place can’t be cheap. It’s amazing and I’m glad they have it, I just hope it’s successful.

I know a lot of sports fans and a lot of sports fanatics and my wife is right up there with them. When it comes to anything related to Wisconsin sports teams, college or professional, you can usually find her “watching” games on her phone or getting updates from her equally nutty brother. I have to give her credit, she’s stuck with the Packers, Brewers, Bucks and Badgers through thick and thin, good years and not so good years, never swaying in her love for her teams. I know this very well as I met her when she was 16 and I was 15. What made matters worse for me was that when I met her, I had just moved to the small Wisconsin farm community from a larger town in Southern Minnesota. Of course it made for constant battles with us from the day we met. It was good for me early on as the Vikings consistently beat the Packers, so good in fact that after a while I was banned from watching games with them at my sister-in-laws house. Not only did we sit on the opposite sides of the Minnesota-Wisconsin matches, I was a Los Angeles Lakers fan and she loved the Boston Celtics (Magic and Jabbar were my boys and she was madly in love with Larry Bird).

We went to high school together and after college we married and eventually had two boys. You’d think I’d be able to sway at least one of those boys to my side of the Mississippi, but nooooo, they are momma’s boys and follow all the Wisconsin teams (OK, the youngest was a Vikings fan for one season, he really liked Randy Moss for a while…). In fact, as they grew up she had them convinced that Paul Molitor (Brewers) and Brett Favre were their real fathers (I’m not so sure they don’t still believe it, they tell enough people…).

When we moved to New Jersey she went through a rough period of not being able to watch the Packers unless they were on National TV and she could never watch the Brewers or Badgers. We’d drive to NY or Philly to catch the Brewers as often as we could and it’s become a mother’s day activity every other year to see the Brewers play the Mets at Shea. Yeah, she’s a nut, but it’s one of those things I truly love about her.

Enter DirecTV into our lives… A few years ago I bought her the only present I think I’ve ever bought her (in like 25 years) that made any sense. I went to Best Buy and brought home a dish and four receivers and spent the better part of a weekend installing it. I remember getting up at 7am on a Sunday to get the thing working so she could watch the Packers at noon. I had one of my boys sitting in front of the tv with a walkie-talkie adjusting the dish and if I’m not mistaken, we got it working at 11:45am, just in time for kickoff. That’s when it started, I became a football widow…

My wife can’t watch just one game, she has to watch every game at once. Before a play in one game is finished, she’s already flipped the channel to see the next play, to the next game, back to the first game, take a call from her brother, flip the channel, throw a pillow at the tv, flip the channel, yell at the dog for moving and changing the mojo, change her shirt, call her sister, call waiting - it’s her brother, check the stats on her phone, flip the channel four times, yell at the tv… That’s just the first two minutes of the game, it goes on all day long. Fortunately for me, my office is in the basement on the other side of the house, not that I can’t still hear the stomping on the floor, but at least it’s not directly above me like it was before I installed the dish receiver on her tv in the bedroom. I’ve found that it’s just best if I stay away from her on Sundays.

Not only that, but she mets her sister in a different city every year to see the Packers play.

So today she is sitting in that -3 degree weather at Lambeau with our oldest son and I’m sitting at the gym watching the game on TV, she’s a true fan, I’m just a casual observer.

Yes, she loves her sports and I admire her for that more than she’ll ever know…

On Sunday I was having a discussion with a young lady about her new helmet as she waited her turn to hit. If I’m not mistaken, she’s 11 playing on a 12u team. We were discussing some of the helmets I’ve seen lately that have been airbrushed by a local artist and a few other things. She called her mom over so I could tell her about it and she jumped in the cage. As I spoke to her mom, I watched her take 15 swings or so. When she finished she came bouncing up to her mom all excited about how well the round in the cage was, speaking about a thousand words a minute, smiling from ear to ear. She finished with mom and ran over to her friends still thrilled. So I said something to her mom about it being nice to see her so excited, to which she said her too since she’s had some rough times with softball and it seems like she’s finally starting to really enjoy it and things are coming together for her from all the hard work she’s put in. It’s funny how hitting a few softballs in a cage can make a young girl that excited, but it’s fun to see a young girl get so excited from just hitting a few softballs…

Yesterday my son had a basketball game at JP Stevens. We knew the track team was there as well and I had hoped to catch one of the girls that has been working out here with us. I figured they were outside and it wasn’t going to work, but as we were leaving I noticed a few girls walking into another gym. Knowing that only a couple of events are usually held in a gym I thought I’d see if she might be in there. Turns out they were just starting the high jump and she was about to take her first jump. As the event progressed I made a prediction as to what she was going to jump based on what I was seeing in her early jumps, a prediction that would have her beating her personal best by 4 inches. As she made consecutive jumps is was clear that this was going to be one of those days you remember for a long time as jump after jump she seemed to get more comfortable. When she cleared her first jump for a personal best, she flew off the pit and was met by a few teammates with the typical teenage girl screams and hugs. When she made the next height (the height I predicted), it was a mad house. The best part was that she actually cleared the next height but brushed the bar off with her heals on the way over, which tells me that she’s going to have an amazing 2008 on the track. As her coach, I was thrilled that I was able to be there to see the pay off from the year of incredibly hard work that this young woman has put in to improve her skills and physical strength. It was even better to see how excited she was after, to get her text messages and to get the phone call from her mom how excited they all were…

That why we do it. That’s why we put in the time and effort. That’s the pay off we get.