Coach Encounters

We were doing the mall thing Monday when I happened to see this guy standing with his three kids.  I stopped, stared, and said, “Coach!”  He looked up, stared, and replied, “Professor!”

Coach T was the assistant softball coach for Clare in high school; he also had a one-year run as varsity football coach.  So, it really was high praise when he told us Clare “could play linebacker for me any day.”  I think he meant heart more than size.

Coach thought I was pretty ok for a dad, especially when he found out I happened to have a Ph.D.; I always had the suspicion that someone with an advanced degree bit him once.  From that perspective, I seemed downright normal in comparison, outside of the clothing choices.  Coach always wanted to know what team I was wearing, you might say.  Monday, it was an Oakland Oaks jacket and Joliet Slammers cap.   

We talked kids, we reminisced, we shook hands again and went our separate ways.  Life goes on no matter how much I want it to stand still, or repeat, any of eight springs, 2007-2014.