chapter 08: heart of a lion

the best award I ever won was the Michael Maahs Memorial award. This was established at my highschool for the wrestler displaying the heart of a champion. Mike Maahs was a wrestler at the school who was on the team long before I ever dreamed about wrestling. As I understand the story, Mike was fun loving kid, who like any other high school kid would get himself into some trouble from time to time. He was admired by his friends, and as I understand it a pretty funny dude. Mike's senior year found him in a spot of trouble as he was academically ineligable for the bulk of the wrestling season. It would have been easy at this point to just walk away, and call it a career, graduate and party like mad. But this would not be Mike's path.

Mike came back with just three weeks remaining in the season. Mike was a tough wrestler, but clearly his conditioning would be suspect. In the upcoming conference tournament Mike would need a top 4 finish to qualify for the state tournament. Mike refused to give up. He fought, he scrapped, he stalled, he held on, but he kept winning. Mike wrestled every match like it was his last, ever minute counted, in essense it was, losing meant the end of the line. Mike was crafty, but after missing the bulk of the season, despite a poor seeding in the tournament and with very little poorly conditioning Mike displayed the heart of a champion, and finished 3rd in the conference, earning the his coveted invitation to the state tournament. The summer after graduation Mike was in a car accident and was killed.

When I look at my friends, the dccod, I would have to give my Mike Maahs award for heart of a champion to Slick Rick. He is modest and would never tell anyone this story, but I was there it is true. A week before Charm City a bunch of us were out doing some cross drills sprinting around a field and what not. With just one effort to go, Rick got tangled up with a couple of riders and was thrown violently to the ground. The end result, was Rick on the ground for 20 minutes, a pair of shattered rudy projects, and a couple broken ribs.

The week coming up to Charm City Rick had trouble walking around the shop. I felt horrible for him, he didn't look like he could move, how the hell would he race. At cross practice, Rick was killing it. I asked him, "are you okay" and with a shotgun smile he said to me, "show no weakness, no mention of this anywhere okay." I agreed. The morning of Charm City everyone in the dccod was excited, but everyone was watching our boy Slick Rick too. And what did he do? he won, he capitalized on an early crash and with kutney rode away, eventually winning. And the next week at Lilipons, yup ribs still broken, and another win. Hagerstown, yup, another win. Iron Cross Lite, yup put that w in the bank. I remember Luxxy saying to me, "we were all together, I knew where rick was gonna go, I think we all did, but damn no one could stop him..." Heart of a Champion.

Now one could say winning makes you a champion, I would disagree. If that was the case guys like Iverson and Owens would be champions, but they are not. In my mind in addition to winning, a champion makes those around him better. The DccoD would not exist without Slick Rick. Not many know this, as it is often referred to as the cult of rick or the white hand of saron in DccoD circles, but Slick Rick is the one that has taught all of us cross. At practice, Slick Rick has the plan, I just shout it out. Slick Rick is the one helping folks improve their technique. Through his work at Henry's bike shop, (continueing the efforts of droopy) he has created a cyclocross hub where we can go and talk cross, get cross stuff, and have a base of operations.

Rick is modest, and will probably beat me up for this entry, but the guy is the real deal. Without him and his support there is no Dccod. I believe that. Rick has pushed and guided me the past two years, and undoubtly made me a better crosser. How many others has he helped? countless. I am proud to count myself in the cult of rick, the white hand of saron. Heart of a Champion indeed.

thanks slick rick.

respect
fm