 |
| Max as a candidate at Homecoming. (Max Surikov photo) |
His football cleats are now put away forever, and the basketball shoes are in the closet. The class credits have been accumulated, and the days are counting down. In just a few months, Max Webb will say goodbye to his days at Springboro High School.
When his classmates one day debate whether high school was the best experience or the worst thing ever, Max will always be able to say one thing for sure.
He did his absolute best, and made a difference along the way.
Hear me on this, for this is quite the resume. Max has made good grades, displayed an excellent attitude and earned the respect of his teachers, coaches and administrators. His classmates voted him as Homecoming King and the Best All-Around Student.
And for every football and basketball game the last two years, Max has been in the starting lineup, earning accolades in the process.
“And now…number 14…Max Webb.” It’s become as familiar as the playing of the national anthem.
Max will graduate with a million great memories – of pre-game pep talks, game day jitters, hectic final seconds of thrilling ball games, and the day-to-day camaraderie with teammates and classmates.
 |
| Max in a big game at Lebanon. (Max Surikov) |
He’s been in newspaper clippings, video highlights, yearbook pages and scholastic award listings. He’s been a part of everything.
He’s embodied what it means to be “The Heart of the Panthers.”
Ryan Wilhite has been Max’s football coach the last two years. He assigned Max the challenge of talking about “mental toughness” during two-a-days last summer, believing Max displayed that characteristic more than anyone else. Because Max is so quiet and humble, the coach wasn’t sure how Max would do with it.
In football terms, he scored a touchdown. “He quite possibly gave the best speech of any of our 22 seniors,” Coach Wilhite said. It takes mental toughness to play defense and to remain calm when the game gets tough, Max told them. It’s just as important to have mental toughness as it does to have as physical toughness.
“We were all blown away,” Coach added. “It left one of our coaches saying, ‘I just heard Max Webb say more in that 10 minutes than I’ve heard him say in the three years I’ve known him, and I am impressed.’”
He was even more impressive on the field. Max was an all-conference defensive back and a proud leader of a Panther team that won the GWOC South, winning the title with a triple-overtime victory at Lebanon in the last game of the season, which I believe was the best game in Springboro’s football history.
Troy Holtrey has been Max’s basketball coach for the last two years, and he too gave Max an assignment before the season began. It involved more than scoring points, playing good defense and grabbing rebounds, which he already did as well as anyone.
He needed Max to model team leadership. “This year was the first time we’ve ever had so many sophomores and juniors,” Coach Holtrey said. “The long-term impact Max will have on our program is the way he made the underclassmen feel like his teammates.”
Like fellow seniors Josh Davis and Colin Maher, Max helped the younger guys feel like they a valued part of the program, right from the beginning of the season.
That helped the Panthers win a share of the GWOC South championship for the second year in a row. The title was locked up in a thrilling victory over Lebanon in the last conference game of the season, with Max hitting some key free throws down the stretch. Max was recently given a special mention on the all-GWOC team.
“Max never missed a practice. He was always at everything,” Coach Holtrey said. “And he always played hard all the time.”
Any school would love to have a hundred like Max.
One day, Max will find the old practice jerseys and the sweat-stained shoes somewhere in the bottom of an old box. He’ll look at the faded pictures and reflect on the memories that only seem to get better with time.
Yes, he’ll say, there was a time when he was a Panther.
There was a time when he was young and strong and the spotlight of the town’s attention on Friday nights.
And he’ll know those days were good. Because he gave them all he had.
To the Max.