If I asked you if you know who Tony Smedley is, the predominant answer is “no.” I’ve asked several people of late, and no one I approached has successfully harvested an accurate response from the depths of their memory banks. “What’s he been in?” one person asked me, assuming he was an actor of some sort. “Was he the celebrity […]
The Beauty of Aging
I joined a group of guys for breakfast today, all of which are a generation older than me. There’s bruised arms, hearing aids, an occasional shuffle to the restroom behind me. They’ve all reached milestones I once thought were distant dates in an unknown galaxy, nearer to a predetermined fate none of us can avoid. As today reinforced, it’s a […]
Flawless in Transition
I’m accustomed to seeing coaches successfully communicate with Special Olympics athletes. I’ve run the Summer Games soccer venue for 12 years now, and I’ve witnessed the full array of responses from athletes, both to coaches and officials. What I saw this past weekend, however, was one of the best pre-game speeches I’ve ever witnessed. A 70+ year old coach sat […]
An Unceremonial Goodbye
I’ve been following this possibility for a couple weeks, and yesterday it happened. Gene Stephenson, the long-time coach that started the baseball program at Wichita State University and brought the program to prominence on a national scale, was fired yesterday by athletic director Eric Sexton. It was apparent at the Missouri Valley Conference baseball tournament here a few weeks ago that […]