The How

Recently someone asked me not “how” I write this column every week, but “why.”  I get the “how” question all the time. Especially if they learn that I’ve been writing it for over 33 years. Thirty-three years! That boggles my mind. 52 weeks a year, although in the early years, it came out only a couple of times a month. Somebody calculated what that means in numbers and came up with over a million words. (No English teacher I ever had thought I had that in me.)

 The answer to the “how” is usually that I just sit down and write what is in my head (or on my heart).

But the answer to the “why” is not so automatic. I guess I’m a teacher at heart. My first college degree was in education but I was really wanting to go into physical therapy and needed a good undergraduate vehicle. A lot about physical education made sense to me. Anatomy. Kinesiology. Physiology of Exercise. All that was a good background for physical therapy school. So this space is likely that underlying teacher in me.

At one point in my life, I thought I wanted to be a preacher. Even made that known publicly. Nothing would have thrilled my mother more. Alas, that was just not where I was supposed to go. But goodness knows I sure get preachy in this space. Maybe we all find our ministry in different places.

One thing that my upbringing gave me was an overwhelming desire to make a difference in the world. I’m not sure where that came from, probably a combination of things.  Probably Boy Scouts. My church for sure. I talked about a lot of those things a couple of weeks ago.

In thinking about the “why,” I realize that a lot of it is my firm belief that sports are important. I am a prime example of how sports provide incredible life lessons. I am the beneficiary of those lessons. It has given me the career that I have and helped make me the man that I am.

Part of my “why” is that I want sports to be good for every kid out there. And I want sports to be safe for them. When I write about coaches and parents, my focus is really on providing what is best for the kids.

There are those that will say that sports are inherently dangerous and something to be avoided. That injuries accumulate and then come back to haunt you when you’re older. Not on my watch.

The decisions that I make on the field, on the court, or in the clinic always reflect the long haul. In other words, I will not let a young athlete do anything that will adversely affect their health in years to come. It’s always been that way. I never wanted to look at a 40-something with health issues that I could have done something about.

I’m not going to be around (professionally, anyway) to see today’s athletes in their 40’s but that responsibility to them is still just as strong.

So when parents ask the question “should I allow my child to play,” I answer with an emphatic “yes.” First, if we don’t learn to be active as children, we are unlikely to be active as adults. And sports are our best vehicle for developing active children. The alternative is a sedentary lifestyle and the heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and early death that often accompany that.

Secondly, the lessons learned in sports can help us in our jobs, in our role as parents, in our community. Sports teach us how to be a good teammate, which translates to being a good co-worker. Sports teach us the value of hard work. Sports teach us how to be coached. Sports teach us that it is important to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.

Coaching the Kids

When I was a teenager, we were always looking for a place to play pickup basketball. There was an outdoor court at Mr. Don P. Smith’s house. Same at the Junior High. We had “ways” to get into two gyms in town that had long been closed down.

Two of my grandchildren are playing Parks & Rec basketball this year. One set of games is at the old Everett School gym, the other at old Springbrook. I appreciate the fact that our local governments saw fit to preserve these valuable assets which are of greatest value to our young folks. But this column isn’t about facilities but about people.

Just yesterday, I watched Grandkid #2 playing basketball in the Parks & Rec league at Springbrook.  One of the referees was Frederick St. Hill who is a high school official for both football and basketball yet here was, on a Saturday morning patiently calling the game and helping these youngsters understand the game.

Later, I watched Grandkid #4 playing at Everett and was thrilled to see Joey Winders and Mark McGill as the referees. The children of these two men were long since finished with youth sports yet here they were, on a Saturday morning, doing the thankless job of refereeing basketball for 8 and 9 year-old kids. That is an amazing level of dedication to youth sports in this community.

I’ve known Joey for a lot of years. We first met at Maryville Little League. Joey had started coaching girls’ t-ball there in 1982. Now this is important—Joey wasn’t a parent coaching his kid’s team. Joey didn’t even have girls. He actually didn’t even have any children at that time. He was simply that dedicated to promoting youth sports in this community.

And he’s still at it. He has coached the Maryville Southerners in the Parks & Rec youth football program for 33 years.  He coached them before his sons got there and he’s coaching them long after they’re done. He does it for the kids.

Don Sentell is another example of selflessness.  Don has coached youth football for 55 years! During that time, he has coached multiple generations. That’s an amazing record of service.

Don’s philosophy is that having a parent coach a team isn’t always the best option. He seeks out assistant coaches that are interested in young athletes but who aren’t parents of his players. Junior Masingo has coached with Don for 51 of those years.

Ricky Maples is another one still coaching. And he never had children of his own. What he has is a legacy of being a part of the lives of a lot of other people’s kids. I coached with Ricky when my own son was playing and am grateful for the experience.

I know for a fact that it would be impossible to have youth sports teams without parents willing to coach. I am convinced that it can help make you a better parent. I think it did that for me. If you look around, there are men and women in our community that are dedicated to providing the youth sports experience that is so vital to the development of our children. These that I mention have just gone way above and beyond the call of duty.

But if you are a parent/coach, let me give you a little advice. Be more teacher and less coach. Teach fundamentals. Teach teamwork. If you yell, you’re doing it wrong. Treat everyone fairly, especially your own kids. Let everybody play.

I had a parent file a complaint on me one time for playing a handicapped player as a goalie. I was “destroying the integrity of the game.” The youngster wanted to play goalie. I let him. It remains one of my prouder moments.

Imagine that you’re the worst player on the team. Be the coach that you wish you had.

Shaped by My Hometown

I was inspired this week by Coach Dabo Swiney’s words offered during a press conference following his football team’s national championship game. (Yes…I’m a huge Clemson fan. You might remember that my son played football there.) He talked about how his hometown of Pelham, Alabama shaped him.

I grew up nearby, in Loudon, Tennessee. If you don’t know Loudon, it is a town of about 5000 and the County Seat of Loudon County. I was shaped by growing up in a small town where I could leave the house in the morning on my bicycle with the simple instruction to be home by dinner. If I ever got out of line, somebody would tell Mama.

I was shaped by my parents. My dad was a little man with only a 6^th grade education but who worked hard until his heart failed him. My mom was this really focused little lady who went to work in a factory when my dad couldn’t. Their work ethic shaped my career.

I was shaped by travel. We didn’t have much and we hardly ever stayed in a motel, picking friends or family to stay with, but I saw the St. Louis Arch being built and Niagara Falls and Daytona Beach while still a child.

I was shaped by my church. My earliest memories all seem to be about the First Baptist Church in Loudon, Tennessee. I thought it was this grand place yet now I find it quite small. Reverend Rainwater was this distinguished man who taught me that God is good.

His wife was a schoolteacher who holds the distinction of being the only teacher to ever spank me. She thought I wasn’t hurrying into the bleachers in the gym quickly enough and gave me a swat on the butt. I must have been 8 or 9 at the time. Probably not a real spanking yet it has stayed with me.

I was shaped by Scouts. First by Cub Scouts and then later by Boy Scouts and Explorer Scouts. Mrs. Patton was our Cub Scout leader. I remember her as a gracious lady, one who lived on the hill and whose husband wore a tie to work but who treated everyone the same. She gave me an example of dignity and equity.

Boy Scouts opened a lot of doors and gave me some memorable experiences. I had been to Boundary Waters Canoe Area twice by age 15 because of Scouts. I was exposed to good men and the outdoors because of Boy Scouts. I learned leadership skills because of Scouting.

I was shaped by football. I was a high school sophomore, lacking self confidence and being a huge underachiever when I overheard the high school football coach tell a bystander that “he can be a good one if he will work at it.”

I learned that if you want something bad enough and are willing to work hard enough at it, you can achieve it. I was never told that I could do great things. Instead I was told “people like you don’t go to college.” My football coach gave me a very different message. He is still my hero today.

I was shaped by my friends. I picked well. Ronnie McNabb was my best friend through most of our years growing up and was later my college roommate. Teddy Randolph was the third piece to our trio and a great guy. We were inseparable for years.

From them I learned to enjoy life. Maybe we did some things we would rather not be known but there is no doubt that all the time that we spent together helped me become the person that I am today. They stayed in our hometown and have built good, solid lives there. I moved away and it worked out pretty well for me too.

I’ll never be a Maryville native but I love it here and consider myself as much a part of the fabric of this community as anybody who doesn’t have deep roots here. It has shaped me as an adult and given me opportunities I would never have had anyplace else. Thank you.

Join a Gym?

If you know me, you know I’m not real big on New Year’s Resolutions. I pursue health with a dogged persistence. Year round. But maybe Resolutions work for you. Great. All I ask is that you don’t be one of those people that joins a gym in January, only to fail to show up in February.

Let me put it another way…I’d love to see you join a gym in January. Any gym. Sure, I have my preferences but that opinion doesn’t count for much. It’s important to get started. But it’s more important to stay with it.

It doesn’t matter much what you do—just do something. Not everybody can walk/run for exercise. Not everybody can ride a bike. Not everybody wants to lift weights or hike in the mountains. But you’ve got to find something. You’ve got to find your thing. Something you will continue to do. Again, it matters little what you do but that you do something.

Move. Lift. Stretch. Live. And if you can find a way to have fun doing it, well then you will be much more likely to continue to do it.

I played basketball for most of my life. Played until I was 59. I loved to play. If you’re old enough, you will know what I mean when I say I was a “Basketball Jones.” In times of stress, I could play basketball and all that stress fell away. It kept me moving. I played until way after it could be said “he’s good for a man his age.” It became more of a “can you believe he’s still playing basketball?”

Finally my knees betrayed me and I knew my basketball days were over. Fortunately, I had the bicycle to fall back on and turned my passion to the bike. The bicycle was not so hard on my knees. I found my way to have fun while exercising.

It’s sort of like the old cliché about work:  If you can’t tell whether it is work or play, you’ve got it made. Same thing with exercise. If it is always work, you can’t/won’t sustain it. There has to be some element of play to it, some element of joy in what you are doing.

Take hiking in the mountains for example. There are trails that you can be on in 20 minutes from downtown Maryville. Gorgeous trails. All it takes is a good pair of boots and the right clothes, most of which are in your closet. Never been to White Oak Sink? You’ve missed out.

Don’t want to ride a bike on the road? The Greenbelt was originally built for bicycles. And the Cades Cove Loop Road (11 miles) is closed at various times to motorized vehicles, making for a perfect biking venue.

Those that are playing Pickleball tell me that I would enjoy it. I just don’t need another thing to do. If you walk the course, golf can be a bit of exercise. Riding a cart, swinging a club, then riding the cart again to your ball just doesn’t cut it. Sorry.

I’m not saying that you have to always have fun exercising. Sometimes you need to work harder, get out of your comfort zone to get better. Sometimes you have to train so that you can enjoy what you do.

The other huge thing to do is to find a partner. Or several of them. Hiking alone is great for some but is better with somebody. Same for biking. The accountability of agreeing to meet someone to exercise will get you out there when you might not feel like it. Or when the weather is questionable.

If you want to live long and stay healthy, you’ve got to get out there and move your body. Resolve now to start down that path and then focus on staying on it. Don’t waste your time by joining a gym in January only to sleep in during February.