Saturday Sports and Memories

   It's a September Saturday.  Sports are in the air.  Every college football fan is still optimistic about his team's chances for the upcoming year.  Kids are into their fall soccer schedules.  And we just came home from our first middle school cross-country race.  My son Tem ran.  So did several of my students.  It was so exciting to see each of them push and challenge themselves successfully in this race.
   I have not been to a cross country event in many years.  Cross country is a phenomenally simple sport that involves running over a two-mile course (five kilometers in high school) through countryside terrain or city parks or golf courses or school campuses.  Each course has different conundrums to challenge the runners: hills, rough patches, sharp turns, uneven ground.  Bad weather can further increase the challenge, making mud where there was none or bringing a wind that can impede forward progress or chill the runners and stiffen their muscles.  I was a runner through high school, and remember those days and friendships fondly.   Lessons about perseverance and discipline, hard work and endurance, teamwork and respect did not have to be taught.  These were all inherent to the sport itself. 

John D. Warners

   But I missed my dad today.  John Warners was both my father and my high school cross country coach.  Every race I ever ran or watched,  he was there except for the one day we ran against Creston High School during my senior year and lost by one point.  My grandmother had suffered a heart attack during the day and my father and mother were at her bedside.  She died that afternoon, right about the time we were running.  Even now that day seems like a recent event in my mind.
   My father should have been at the race today. His grandson would have made him proud.  In the field of about 150 middle school runners, Tem crossed the finish line in third place today.

My son Tem and his grandmother, Jane Warners

He ran very well.  But knowing my father, he would have been proud of Tem long before the race today.  He would have been proud because his grandson works hard at school, is kind to people, has a great sense of humor.  There were times when I was growing up that I felt as though my father was proud of his children only when we performed well or achieved something great.  That was the impression I had. Retrospectively I was wrong.  What changed my perspective was watching him interact with his grandchildren over the years.  He loved them and was proud of them simply because he was their grandpa and not because of how they performed.  But my father died four years ago. While he knew and loved my youngest children, today would have been special for him.  My mother was a spectator today and she mentioned how great this would have been for Dad to see. Today the old coach could have seen his youngest grandson excel in the sport that he loved.  It would have been special.
   On this Saturday in September, sports are in the air.  On the cross country course today, so was the nostalgia.  It is good to reflect and reminisce.