It's All About the Child

The late, great Jim Dykes once told me "I like your column but you need to get off that (expletive deleted) bike fetish."  In other words, I write about the bicycle a little too often.

So every time I start to tell you more about the bicycle or how wonderful it is to ride around here, I stop and ask myself if I'm violating Mr. Dykes revered admonition.   Sometimes, if the story is too good not to be told, I forge ahead anyway.  But generally, I stop and write about something else.

Jim Dykes, if you don't remember, was a long-time newspaperman in these parts.  His column in the old Knoxville Journal was one of the funniest and smartest tomes you will find.  His compliment (I took it as such) was maybe the greatest day in my life as a columnist.

If you've been reading, you know that I'm now a grandad.  Six times over, even.   7, 6, 4, 3, 2, and 7 months.  We are blessed that all six live in Blount County.   I can't imagine what it would be like for them to be half way across the country or, like my buddy Steve, half a world away. 

I've heard many a grandparent confess that if they knew that grandchildren were going to be this good, they would have skipped kids and gone straight to grandkids. It really is that good.  However, I really enjoyed my own children too much to say that but my wife-oh my goodness-she loves those babies.  Heaven is an infant in her arms.

In the next few years you might get tired of hearing about my grandkids, just like Jim Dykes was tired of reading about my bicycle.   Maybe Rhetta Grimsley-Johnson (my other favorite columnist) will be the one to tell me to back off on grandkid stories.

But as with everything I write, there is always a message.  Self-proclaimed as "preachy," I do always try and be a teacher (my first profession) here.  

Anyway, while attending soccer games for the three oldest last Saturday, watching my kids and all the others out there, I found myself stepping back and looking at things differently.   I mentioned that a couple of weeks ago.

There seemed to be as many grandparents out there as there were parents.   I can tell you that the grandparents were generally better behaved than the parents (did I really yell at the referees back then?) but then and now, the kids just wanted to play.  

At 7,6, and 4, they really didn't care what the score was at the end of the game.  I'm pretty sure no athletic careers were being etched in stone out there on a blustery morning on Everett Hill but you might have thought otherwise had you been there.

What I saw out there were kids running around and having fun.   Some took it more seriously than others and sure, some were better than others.   But each of them "needed" to be out there, sometimes for very different reasons.

 And what I came to realize most clearly was that every child deserves to feel special.  Mine, yours, every single one of them.  Because they are. 

So when I'm faced with the decision of riding bicycles on these glorious roads and trails we have around here with my buddies or watching grandkids play soccer, you're going to find me shivering on the sidelines.

All About the ACL

ACL.  It's an acronym, but most people don't know what it stands for.

Oh, they know what it means.  They know that it is in the knee.  They know that if it is torn that the season is over.  They know that it rarely means good news.

The Anterior Cruciate Ligament is in the middle of the knee and is easily the most important stabilizer of the knee.  In other words, it is essential to holding the knee together.  You might be able to do some things without a good ACL but not many.

It crosses from front to back, attaching the lower leg bone (tibia) to the upper (femur). 

There is a PCL, or Posterior Cruciate Ligament, but it very rarely gets injured and even when it does, a lot of people can function normally without it.

Too often, it seems, I have had to deliver the bad news that the ACL had been injured.  And trust me, EVERY athlete knows that means bad news.   It's the injury they fear the most.

Before I go on, let me offer a few statistics.   Females have a lot more ACL injuries than males.  At a ratio of maybe 8-1.  Most of that is anatomy but part of it is that a lot of female athletes avoid strength training either until they are older or just avoid it altogether.  Or go about it all wrong.

There are roughly 100,000 ACL ruptures per year in this country, with a significant portion of those being athletes.   The tear occurs most often with a twisting or deceleration injury.  About 70% of all ACL injuries do not involve contact.

Football gets blamed for a lot of the ACL injuries but there is no sport that is immune.  And not playing something is unacceptable.   That leads to a sedentary lifestyle and that simply isn't an option if your health is important to you.

But there is good news.   Because of advances in orthopedic surgical techniques and rehabilitation, you will be healthy again one day.   Not today, but sooner than you think.

I will often see someone that has had surgical repair to their ACL within a few days of that surgery.   Your first thought might be "that's too soon," but I assure you it is not.   We know that early intervention means good results.  It might hurt a bit to move that knee (again, not nearly as much as you think) but in the hands of a skilled physical therapist, that movement will not only be essential to the rehabilitation process but will also rapidly help you to feel much better.

Most ACL rehabilitation programs are "criteria-based," which means that they are largely driven by the progress of the patient.   Basically, that just recognizes that some people heal quicker than others.   Still, there often can be no substitute for time so there are certain principles that we must all follow that are based on evidence.

At various times in the past couple of decades, there has been an attempt to return athletes to competitive sports as quickly as possible.  We now know that practice can be a big mistake.   It is far better to allow adequate healing while at the same time restoring things like motion, strength, balance, and agility.  It's going to take at least 4-6 months and there is really nothing you can do to shorten the rehab.

One of the most gratifying things that can happen in my profession is to be there when a young athlete gets back to their sport, especially that point when they realize that their knee is normal again.   If you were there when they first hurt that knee and can relate that heartbreak to the joy of return, it is especially sweet. 

George Quarles: Building Young Men

Friday night was Maryville High School's George Quarles 200th win as a head football coach.  Keep in mind that that writing about him is a great personal risk for me--he avoids the limelight like the plague and he could fire me tomorrow.  But I wrote about him once before and he didn't fire me so I'm going to take that risk once again.

After all, it isn't every day that somebody wins 200 high school football games.   In only 15 seasons as a head coach.  

Since becoming Head Coach in 1999, he has lost only 14 games.   Let's take away the three losses in his first year (1999) and the first four of 2000, when his team started the season 0-4 before reeling off 11 straight wins including his first state championship as a head coach.   That means that since the incredible run of championships really started, he is 190-7.  

Think about that.   In that stretch, 6 undefeated seasons.  Nine state championships, more than any coach in Tennessee high school history.  

I mean, goodness!  200 wins!   That's amazing.   He may have reached that landmark the fastest of any high school football coach in history. 

But let me tell you the best thing about him:  He builds character.  Sure, every coach everywhere talks about building character but Coach Quarles does it.   Every day.  

The next best thing about him (in my opinion) is that he builds work ethic.   Put those two together and he builds good young men.   The football thing just happens to go pretty well because of both of those things too.

I'm asked often what it is about Maryville that makes the football team so good year after year.  I don't know that I have any better answer than anybody else.   Dedication, buy-in, winning attitude, confidence, preparation, coaching...the list could be long. 

But it all starts with the humble man at the helm. 

Well today, I'm going to tell you the inside secret about George Quarles.  The one main thing that sets him apart from almost every coach that I've ever known.   Vision.   That's it.   He has it.

He can see everything.  Everything.   A lineman makes a wrong step? Coach Quarles has the best offensive line coach in the country in David Ellis and yet he still sees the field so completely, he can see that lineman and every other position on the field, including what the opponents are doing. 

It is uncanny, really.   That ability helps him to be...well...George Quarles.   And you and I can work and study and we can never have that "thing" that sets him apart. 

It has been my pleasure to walk the sideline with him for almost every one of those 200 wins and more hours together on the practice field than either of us would want to admit.   Thank you, Coach Quarles, for the opportunity.  And congratulations

Your Perspective Changes

Let me tell you a grandchild story.  Oh, not your usual grandchild story (I hope) about "look at what MY grandchild has done lately."  

I could go there:  I've got six of those creatures.  Grandchildren that is.  7, 6, 4, 3, 2, and 6 months.   Let me tell you about my grandchildren (no, not really).

The three oldest of those (7,6,4) are playing soccer through the soccer program at Parks & Rec.  7 & 6 had played last year but in Knoxville where they lived then.  

I hadn't been on the fields at old Everett High School in a long time, maybe since my son played first soccer and then football there.   They've done a good job of fixing it up--new concession stand, nice bleachers, good fields for play.

But it really hasn't changed that much.  Heck, it hasn't changed that much since 1968 when my high school football team played Everett High in football (Jackie Lefler threw a touchdown pass as time expired to win the game) or when my brother-in-law played in an epic playoff game against Maryville High on that same field in 1975. 

It is most definitely a memorable place, steeped in memories for a lot of people.

So here I was early on a Saturday morning, waiting the start of a game on fields where I had spent many hours.   The Black/Dee entourage was impressive:  Last Saturday we even added my 94 year old mother to the group.  When we lined up the folding chairs (you know the kind), we seemed to reach from end zone to end zone.   It was more like we invaded the place as we settled in to watch whichever child (7,6, or 4) play.

A buddy of mine with grandchildren of his own to watch beat me to the cliché-"it seems like just yesterday that we were here with our own kids."

The week before, we had watched the first game (7) in a driving rain.   4 was up next and he declared that he didn't really want to play in that rain so we left to go eat something.   6's game later that morning was cancelled so the Grandmother and I didn't have to make excuses for our absence.  We were with the 4--we didn't want to stand up out there in all that rain either. 

My goodness the 4 year old may have more sense than all of us anyway.

But last Saturday was gorgeous with sunshine and just enough cool to make it comfortable.   And everyone had the aforementioned folding chairs lined up field side for the spectacle to unfold.

Let me tell you about those kids.   I'm pretty sure 7 won't have a long career in soccer but she sure has fun out there.  Oh, she'll play something.  She's going to be tall and she's already athletic with parents wise enough to let her choose her own path. 

6 is a much better soccer player than we would have thought.   She stole the ball once, dribbled the length of the field and then a fired a shot that just missed the back post (but I wasn't going to go there, was I....)

4 probably won't play a lot of soccer either.   I see more individual sports in his future.  Maybe tennis or something where he doesn't have to hit someone else and for sure someone else doesn't get to hit him.

But the point of all this is that they are out there, moving, running, kicking, having fun.   Basic movement education.   I don't care if they become great soccer players or not.  I'm more interested in them learning how to move their bodies, developing athleticism and love for an active lifestyle.

Now THAT'S what it's all about!