January 22, 2012 -- Paying Tribute To A Great Coach
The night was a tribute to longtime Franklin Wildcat baseball coach Doug Long, who was being inducted into the Ohio Baseball Hall of Fame -- which is a big deal on many levels. I was part of a panel that included Michael Aldridge, who later went on to play in the New York Yankees farm system.
I mentioned how I left my team jacket at Talawanda near the end of our senior year, a penalty that called for me to run ten laps around the field. But our season ended only a few days after, and graduation came only a few days after that, so I never ran the laps.
Many years later, I saw him at Ricky Chamberlain's medical office one afternoon and I casually mentioned my "unpaid penalty." I figured since I was now a husband and a father and a practicing attorney and a magistrate in two courts, I might be entitled to some leniency.
Nope.
"Do you know what the interest on 10 laps is after 30 years?" he said. "You need to run a marathon, 10 times over. Start running."
I got the laugh I was looking for, from everyone except Coach. My motion...was denied.
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July 16, 2012 -- Helping Another Great Coach
All of a sudden, for no particular reason, the Springboro school board elected not to renew Troy Holtrey's contract to be the boys' basketball coach, a position he held for 21 years.
No reason was given. The board said it could not discuss employment issues in public. But I felt it could at least discuss the problems with Troy; he was entitled to at least that much. That's what I talked about on camera on the afternoon of July 16. And it's what ten or so of us said when we spoke at the school board meeting on July 31.
Then I was asked to lunch by the new superintendent, who had recently been hired by this new school board. "He deserves to be told what is going on," I said. "If there is an agenda they want him to follow, at least let him know it and give him the chance to follow it. But this is crazy."
By Labor Day, the decision was made to go in a different direction.
I had followed Springboro basketball since I was a kid in the late 60s. I knew so many of its people and its history. And I wasn't sure, after this announcement, the program would ever be the same again. People move in, shake things up, then leave, forcing those of us who are here to pick up the pieces.
Sad.
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August 22, 2012 -- A Summer Of Being A Coach
Our intern at Springboro Court spent the summer calling cases, serving as bailiff, and doing whatever else anyone needed done. But by summer's end, she had to go back to school for her senior year. She promised to be back in a decade or so, at least as a lawyer, maybe the prosecutor, or -- who knows? -- the magistrate.
But in any event, for now, Court was adjourned for Chloe.
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November 15, 2012 -- Witness To An Incredible Season
After going 3-7 in 2011, I can't say I had high expectations for the 2012 Springboro football season. But it turned out to be one of the most incredible seasons in school history, and especially exciting for me because I was on the sidelines (as a sportswriter) for all of it. Thirty years earlier, I was there for Springboro's first-ever 10-0 team. Now I was back for its third undefeated team.
Chloe was a cheerleader for that team. The players were her classmates and friends. Kim felt like she was the mom to every single one of them, and together we had a great time.
"The Heart of the Panthers" may need a sequel someday.
