Memories abound after 20 years covering Tri-Cities sports

Not every journey is planned. Sometimes you just move onto a pathway because it just seems like where you're supposed to go. And before you know it, you're miles down the road and it no longer matters how you started - you just know you're supposed to keep walking.

And then, as the Talking Heads put it, "you may ask yourself, how did I get here?" Well, I just wrote them one at a time. And with more than 7,300 days under my belt, I don't plan on going anywhere soon.

I first covered a sporting event involving a team from this area in 1989, a St. Charles-Fremd football game mostly lost in the mists of time, though I remember Fremd won and Buck Drach wasn't particularly happy afterward.

Two games later, the Saints lost to Lake Park and I made the mistake of asking Drach if he was happy his team had played better. Drach's focus turned directly to me and he icily declared that no, he wasn't happy because his team was now 0-3.

I remember another Drach interview session moment as well. The Saints had just lost a playoff game and the usual run of questions breaking down the game was taking place. Drach took a moment to remind everyone that the other team's players were just as good as people as his team's were.

"They kissed their mom's goodbye on their way to the game just like ours did," Drach said.

One final moment in a trilogy of Buck Drach memories: Rose Augsburg-Drach's memorial service, when Buck, mourning the too-soon passing of his wife from cancer, and I shared a hug and shared something that was beyond sports.

I could probably come up with three different moments from most schools at which I have seen contests over the past two decades. But those are the first that come to mind - and they sum up for me the local sports experience.

I have covered a lot of games, first for the Kane County Chronicle and - since 1998, for the Daily Herald. There have been a lot of games over that time, some were wins and some were losses, even a few ties - including a St. Charles-Rosary girls swim meet, where Saints coach Jennifer Heyer did a back dive into the pool afterward - to show her divers who were having difficulty mastering the skill that even she could do a back dive.

I remember some of the results. I remember the state championships. I even remember some of the interviews, especially if I asked a bad question, which has probably happened more often than I would like to admit.

But above the wins and losses, the trophies - all of it, these people I have had the pleasure of covering are just boys and girls who put on a uniform at the end of their school days. And their coaches are also people who switch from their daily lives to guide those boys and girls for a few weeks a year.

In the beginning, though, there weren't any stories; there weren't any athletes and certainly there hadn't been any discussions with coaches. They just called on me, and I had to take advantage of the opportunity to step it up to the next level.

At its onset, there was a phone call, made by Dave Heun, then the editor of the Chronicle and now a Daily Herald columnist. Sports editor Ron Zahlman was ill and unable to attend that St. Charles-Fremd game. I'd talked to Ron about helping out in the past but it hadn't happened. Would I be willing to do so now?

The answer, of course, was yes. There's no "I" in team and I knew I needed to step up and help this team.

Zahlman died from cancer the following year, one of many who have left my sports writing sage too soon. Zahlman was my first boss in the business when we were both students at Northern Illinois.

On the day he celebrated his retirement, longtime area reporter Les Hodge - my colleague for many years - reminded those of us present that there was nothing more valued than to be able to tell the stories of young men and women to our newspaper readers.

"There's nothing more important," he said, who then described the almost sacred duty he felt in writing about area athletes.

Hodge covered all sports for all schools, but loved Batavia's athletics the most. Like Zahlman, and Augsburg-Drach, Hodge is gone too. But his comments were spot on, and worth remembering.

There have been games, lots of games. Some stand out. The championships stand out - all those years of seeing St. Charles' gaudily decorated school bus for the girls soccer finals; St. Charles boys swimming coach Joe Cabel removing his belt and wallet before heading into the pool because chlorinated water is bad for leather; Bill Schalz doing the same three straight times for Rosary's girls swimming program.

I haven't been to every success. I wasn't assigned to all of them. And in spite of just saying how they stand out in my mind, they are not the most important things. I will always remember St. Charles' Shelly Baron, trying in vain to qualify for the state track meet - watched by her brother Eric, who is now the boys track coach at Kaneland.

Shelly didn't qualify, but she showed how important it is to try, even if the effort ends in tears, as this one did. Watching Eric through the race was just as engrossing. This wasn't just an athlete. It was his sister, and he had driven from college to provide inspiration.

Like I said, it's a team effort.

When people ask me whom my favorite athletes or coaches have been to talk with, my knee-jerk reaction is "all of them." However, this is true. From nervous freshmen who stare at the recorder - or their shoes - when answering questions to seasoned seniors who have their quotes and clichés well in-line, there's never been an athlete who I didn't enjoy briefly talking to.

And for me to try to make a list is impossible. Someone would get left off, and then I would feel badly. It's the same with coaches. An area writer and I once tried to make a list of coaches you'd invite for dinner. I quickly ran out of 8 place-settings and ended up figuring I'd just have to hold a banquet and invite everyone. Those I wouldn't want there aren't around any more anyway.

I am now in my fourth athletic season watching the boys and girls at Mooseheart compete through my day job with Moose International. Here, I get to see athletes who have sometimes overcome much simply to be on the field or court and I appreciate their sacrifices as well as I applaud their achievements.

If I am going to pass on naming a favorite coach, I will not pass the buck on a favorite athlete. So here it is.

My favorite athlete from these past 20 years is St. Charles' Maggie Miller, but it's not her two state championship medals or her college career at George Washington that keep us friends. It's the work she does for the Discover Hope Fund, attempting to help Peruvian women from poverty. I find that story as inspiring as any walk-off home run.

Other favorites have similar characteristics in common. In the spring, I had the chance to tell you about St. Charles grad Anne Poulin, who was heading to Africa to give some soccer clinics. We'll describe this fall how special her time there was. West Aurora boys soccer coach Joe Sustersic has done amazing things in recent years raising awareness of the issues facing children in Africa through the "Global Night Out" initiative. Athletes from throughout the Blackhawks program have been involved in that project.

When St. Charles North swimmer Kaylee Jamison won the Wendy's High School Heisman in 2006, her abilities as an athlete were only part of the reason she earned the award. Her sense of community involvement and volunteerism was every bit as important.

I once went to the Hesed House homeless shelter in Aurora with St. Charles boys track coach Jeff Leavey and some of his students. While I only went once, Leavey went often, taking students as an extra credit project to discover the true nature of homelessness. Rather than read something or listen to another's story, he gave students a firsthand opportunity. Some of the students I rode with that night in Leavey's car were athletes. Some were not. But people like those put the "human" in humanity, and regardless of that any on the above list achieved as athletes or coaches, I rate them all as gold medalists. And I know there are hundreds more who could go onto that list.

Finally, I have never been colder than on the night Kaneland defeated Marengo in the semifinals on its way to its first football championship. I have never been wetter than sitting at Conant High School next to the Aurora Beacon-News' Bill Kindt and just behind St. Charles grads Marci Miller and Merit Stloukal while watching the Saints win another of their state titles. And it was never hotter than just about every year I attended the state track meet - where I learned the need to keep my balding head covered.

I've never seen anything cooler than the start of the cross country state meet at Detweiler Park in Peoria. All cross country meets have a massed start. But the intensity of the state meet makes it even more special - especially if there's a little snow in the air.

And the hair never stood on my neck the way it did when Mary Descenza hit the wall after 75 yards of her 100-yard butterfly while attempting to break the national record. She missed that mark, but it wasn't for the wall of sound literally trying to lift her from the water to the finish line.

And I've never anticipated anything more than the next game I get to cover. The 21st year has already begun and the journey continues.