Saying Goodbye... a few times.

One of the benefits of moving to another country is that it forces you to see people you haven’t seen in awhile. In my case, it also requires you to have one last coaches meeting. I am fortunate that over the past 25-years, I’ve built incredible relationships with some pretty incredible people. Near the top of the list are the gentlemen (and some ladies) that belong to the “coaches meeting” fraternity.  To better understand the significance of these people to me, you need to know a little bit of my history (I know that some of you already do, so I apologize for any redundancies).

As a young man entering high school, my world truly revolved around sports. From my earliest years, I remember playing baseball, soccer, football, or something, and enjoying every minute. Coming from the Boistfort Valley, my coaches were usually my friend’s parents, and they taught us not only how to play the game, but all the other life lessons that young kids should be learning. When it was time to start at Adna, I had serious concerns that I was losing this connection with my coaches, and that sports might not be as significant to me anymore. Well, I was wrong. I found that my coaching community at Adna was as strong as any I had experienced, and I loved going to games almost as much as I loved going to practice.  

During the baseball season of my sophomore year, I came home from a game in Mossyrock on a Friday evening and was promptly sat down in the men's locker room at the high school. With my coaches all around me, a family friend told me that my father had unexpectedly passed away. From that day forward, my coaches remained around me. They went out of their way to make sure that I “made it”, that as a young man without a father, I had good solid role models to lean on and look towards. While the baseball coaching staff was amazing, I have to say that my other coaches and my small community also helped raise and support me over the years.

After high school, I promptly moved to Spokane to pursue education (and Jamie). There was a span of about 3-years where I didn’t have an opportunity to come home much, and I only stayed in touch with my coaches via email and phone calls. This all ended when one of my coaches came up the idea of having coaches meetings at his house. Basically, a select group of former players and all the coaches (past and present) are invited over for an evening of baseball talk, barbeque and sodas. It grew from small gatherings a few times a season to pretty much a mainstay in all of our lives.

Anyhow, the whole point of this rambling blog post was to say that I had an awesome going away coaches meeting last Saturday, and will greatly miss that group of guys while I am gone. Without them, I know I wouldn’t be in the position I am now, and I’ll be forever grateful for that.

We do have our last official going away party this Saturday at our house, so if you haven’t already set aside some time on the evening of the 30^th, you should. 16 days and counting.

Below are a few pictures (taken very EARLY on) from the last coaches meeting. 

Colton and Rex (head baseball coach)

Qued Oysters - a Coaches Meeting tradition

Papa Ike eating said oysters

Planked Steelhead