A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

Dear Readers,

A long time ago, in a Galaxy far, far away...

I was a wrestling coach... At the same time my coaching career started to take off, I began dating this wonderful young woman named Diane.  When we first starting dating  I was coaching at the local junior high:  Holy Angels. Our team was pretty good, but we had been slapped around by the 2x defending league champs, St. Peter's in our last three meetings. The championship tournament was coming up and it was going to be close. At that point in my life, I had never been a part of a championship team, much less the head coach of one. I told Diane that the championships were coming, and she could come if she wanted. She said she'd love to come. For the uninitiated a middle school wrestling tournament is best described as a mix between herding cats, the Jerry Springer show, and a strange Darwinian social experiment. It's a controlled chaos at best- Well generally controlled. At the time, wrestling was one of my deep passions. If I was her, I would have walked into the gym, seen that craziness and turned around and run away.

So the tournament wrapped up, and the announcer was reading the team scores. He got to the final two, and announced that this was the closest tournament in the history of the event, and that the scores had been double and triple checked because it was so close.

The New Champions winning by just one point from Newark- Holy Angles! The gym went nuts with cheers, and frankly boos! The win was totally unexpected, except for from our camp. People were shocked.  Skip, my assistant coach, and I hugged each other and all our kids started jumping on us. We ran around the center of the mat, I had my 72lber, John on my hip, and my 82lber -Stan was on my back.  Skip, a former heavyweight, must have had 6 kids hanging off him. We jumped around like we just beat the Russian Olympic Hockey Team. In our minds we had. In the midst of this chaos, this craziness  I remember looking up in the crowd at Diane and her sister sitting midway up in the bleachers eyes as big as saucers surrounded by people jumping. cheering and jeering. They were witnessing the total chaos unleashed in that small New Castle gym. They sat stoically. I smiled and waved at her, and she smiled back waving, clearly happy for me, but not really having a concept of what the hell was going on. Another of my wrestlers jumped on me, and I went back to celebrating with the kids.

If I  was her, I would have turned and run away....

24 years later, I am very grateful that she did not, and in fact more times than I'd care to admit she's been the anchor for me when I was at the center of some chaotic crusade. 24 years of supporting me all started with that smile and wave. She keeps me on track when my passions might be close to getting the better or me. I am not a balanced man, I don't do half-assed very well.  I focus on something and pour all my heart and energy into that. I can be tough to live with sometimes. I am lucky to have the support and best friend that I do in Diane. Thanks for being my rock Monk. My harbor in the storm and better than anyone, helping me find balance. Thanks for not running out of that gym screaming... Here's to at least 24 more amazing years...

respect
fatmarc