This is the story of three young people.
They all shared the same story.
As young people: uncaring, uninformed…and yes, mean-spirited individuals told them they just weren’t good enough. But they each fought through the disparaging remarks, turned them into motivation, and ultimately proved the naysayers wrong.
Steve Grimes was a senior at Jackson Central High School in 1967. His older brother, Tommy, was a star basketball player, coached by the legendary Willis Steenhuis. Steve just didn’t quite have the raw talent that his brother possessed. He was slower, didn’t have a great shot, and was shy and mild-mannered. Physically, he was slim and average height.
He was destined to ride the bench with the “B” team.
But boy, did he put in the work. I was the sophomore basketball team manager, relegated to sweeping the floors, picking up nasty socks and towels, and locking the ancient gymnasium after practice. I couldn’t go home until everyone left. And Steve insisted on shooting 50 free throws without a miss.
It took time…
The season progressed and so did Steve’s shooting and quickness ability. Mid-season he moved up to the varsity. A few games later, he was the sixth man off the bench.
At season’s end he was awarded the honor of “Most Improved Player.”
Fast forward 56 years. My granddaughter, Posey, is 11 years old. She has been playing both recreation league and travel softball since she was six years old.
She loves it.
Three years ago she was asked to join a new travel team that was just getting started. She and three of her teammates gave up secure positions to join the new team.
If you know anything about youth sports, you probably know where this is headed. The unwritten rule in youth sports is “coaches’ kids get to play first.” Couple that with “coaches’ kids get to play pitcher, catcher, first base and shortstop.” (This is why you see travel teams loaded with five or six coaches.)
The first season started fine, But then, the band of “coaches/dads/grandfathers” became displeased with the results. That’s when the youth softball enterprise began their version of NIL. This involved poaching above average players from other teams with the promise of having a secure spot.
Problem is, this is problematic for the original group of players. And so it was with Posey. She was a catcher and outfielder. Oh, but the new recruit was also a catcher. So, the plan became obvious that “we got to run Posey off.”
This devious band of softball experts decided the best way was to try the “humiliation” approach. “We’ll start her for one batter and then pull her out and let her ride the bench for the following five games of the weekend tournament.”
Our family endured the rest of the season watching her fight back tears and embarrassment, while the band of coaching experts, managing a rigged system, vicariously relived their likely mediocre high school athletic career.
The so-called “cherry on top” came when Posey’s pitching coach told my daughter that the elderly head coach, (the grandfather) had stated to him “Posey is the laziest, slowest, and most un-coachable player he’d ever had.”
And now….the end of that unfortunate experience….
Posey now plays with the varsity team at Madison St. Joseph as a sixth grader and leads the team in on-base percentage and second in batting average.
The rigged system and unqualified coaches did her a favor.
The last kid in this story made a six on his ACT test in math. He withdrew “failing” from Accounting 101. He graduated 1,257 out of a class of 1,600 at Mississippi State. His roommates and suitemates…..(all engineering majors)…teased him that he would never find a job.
He wound up “selling pencils” for a living.
That kid was me.
He wound up owning the 10-million-dollar company where he’d worked for 50 years.
He graduated from college 53 years ago.
He is still obsessed with proving those engineers wrong.
Hey, Kid…..YOU CAN DO IT…..
Kendall Smith is a Northsider.
