VOLUME 1, CHRONICLE 18, TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK: “…You stand at the edge while people run you through, I thank the Lord there’s people out there like you…”
Elton John “Mona Lisas & Mad Hatters

Miss Julie & I are privileged to grab a paycheck around, go to church with & have sat cheering our boys with, some pretty fair educators. Pretty fair like Nolan Ryan was a pretty fair country pitcher (& I count Miss Julie among them). The crew of strong ladies I hang around, I see collectively at the table every day & they set the bar high as they expose kids to artists & authors & to being kind & to being a 3rd grader & behaving like a 3rd grader & not a 1st grader, while not exposing those kids to the personal struggles that ride shotgun as they park their car in the teacher lot. Maybe in 45 years or so, one of those kids will look back & be as appreciative as I am for two that set a high bar for me & others on this one way trip from womb exit to obit entry. On the left, that’s Coach Moser. He taught basketball & baseball & art & algebra & also a little thing called commitment. At the end of 7th grade, he called together about 8 or 10 boys that had more love for ball than talent & told us because he had a one hour one way drive to our school, he only planned on a one year tour. He then told us he was staying until we left & assigned the pictured summer homework. If you’re raising a baller, it’s still good practice & you’re welcome. He taught me that commitment came with both pain & pleasure. In May of 1977, I found the pleasure after a summer of swinging at tennis balls pitched in a gym by Coach Mo as my name filled the line reserved for All City 2nd baseman. In December 1976, the pain came. With an arm over my shoulder, Coach fired me from my starting point guard position but demanded my commitment, effort & competitive fire remain the same because the team was more important than me. The fire got banked a bit but Coach never let the flame extinguish. Our team went on to have its best season & so did I.
Could be why he went on to be one of only two coaches in our state to win state titles in two different sports at two different schools. On the right, that’s Coach Careathers. He didn’t orbit us long but orbited well. He taught football & geography & commitment too. He’d spent the 1974-76 seasons as Conredge Holloway’s fullback in Knoxville & with him as a free agent in Ottawa & as a draft pick of the Oakland Raiders, quarterbacked by a man known as Snake. Things didn’t work out for him but they did for me. He told me I was his guy in spite of my talent lacking those two mentioned QB’s but I had a chance because commitment & effort required no talent. I spent some Sunday afternoons in front of a chalkboard & the scraping sound of friction as chalk drew X’s & O’s learning more than football. Learning that while Jesus took 10 abstract rules & turned them into a concrete two, Coach did the same with his 3 rules of leadership that have grown more cured every year. 1) Being in charge means occasionally ticking (not the original word, but it’s a family show) people off 2) Win men’s hearts & they’ll follow you anywhere 3) There is no substitute for preparation in the 4th quarter. I failed those rules from time to time but they never failed me. The three of us left that school the same day in June of ‘77 to new ports of call. We were together once more in early June of 1978. A spring football injury left a knee exploded & an ankle pointing, grotesquely locked, at 10 o’clock. Leg in traction & a codeine induced groggy, I heard laughter & made out my dad’s face & those two. I don’t know how they knew but they took time from their new players to visit an old one. Commitment, lived & breathed. There would be no more game days for me but those two prepared me for the game days that really mattered, like when a job was lost, a house burned, the two times the doc stated “it’s a boy” & the one time Miss Julie said “I do”. I got to tell them both I loved them & thank them before they passed & today if you’re a student or a parent & a teacher or coach is demanding, has raised the bar high & required commitment, thank ‘em. If you don’t, you may find yourself 45 years down the road & can’t…