September signals a very busy time for sports journalists. High school and middle school sports begin to gear up. There’s youth recreational sports getting under way.
College fall sports, especially football is on my mind. Then there’s the start of the NFL season just as the Major League Baseball pennant races heat up and the regular season winds down. September Callups are baseball players called up to the major leagues for the final run of the season.
September is also a tough month for me personally. It is the month of my youngest brother’s death. It is the month of my mother’s birth and death. Mom was born on Sept. 22 and died on Sept. 18 — her parents’ birthday — 15 years ago. Mike was 13, starting eighth grade when an accident at home with a loaded gun sent him to heaven 38 years ago.
And, we all know what happened Sept. 11, 2001.
There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of my family members who have gone ahead of me, but growing up in the family I did, prepared me as best as we can be for their deaths. Sports were an integral part of our family, still is.
I’m glad I’m a sports journalist. I love my job. With all that I have to cover, it helps keep moving forward.
Mike was just coming into his own as an athlete. He had a growth spurt that summer. He was looking more and more like our big brother, Monte, who was 6-2 and 185 pounds in high school. I never got to see Mike play junior high or high school sports.
I remember him as a wrestler for our hometown youth wrestling team. Mike wasn’t the best but had potential. He and another kid from a neighboring town always faced each other on the mat in tournaments. Mike just couldn’t beat him until that 1976 season. Mike was so excited to tell me about his win.
We also had to battle with Mike to get him to get ready to go play youth football. Don’t really know why the kid resisted so much. Once he was suited up and at the game, he showed potential on the football field also.
Now, I see Mike as he was then, in every boy and girl who participates in sports. Those ones that never give up no matter the odds. They just keep working, striving to get better to help their teams. I see Mike in the young men and women who compete at the high school and college level — the potential he showed could have made him a good athlete at those levels.
Potential is in every girl and boy who want to play. We — community members, parents and coaches — need to encourage and teach the youth how to play the games. Focusing on fundamentals, character and sportsmanship, we can help build self-esteem in all of them, not just the “good ones” but all who want to participate. Having fun is part of the game and more often, we forget the sheer joy, fun and love of the game, putting too much on winning.
We play to win games, no doubt. Where there is a winning team or individual, there is a losing team or individual.
Now, this is where my mother comes in. Mom loved sports and loved to be involved with youth in sports, whether it was coaching or helping with a sport. She even served as high school wrestling cheerleader sponsor for years when no one else wanted the position.
When I was going to Kansas State football games, every game I’d tear up when the KSU alma mater was played. Mom loved K-State and knew the words to the alma mater.
I see Mom in all the volunteer coaches and helpers at youth sporting events. They know as she did that it was important to make all boys and girls believe in themselves on and off the field of competition.
So, September is difficult for me, but is also a rush of knowing what Mike and Mom were still thrives wherever I am covering sports. Mom and Mike are my September Callups.
Contact Sports Editor Jocelyn Sheets at (641) 792-3121 Ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com.