Today, overall, has gone quite well. I was able to preach and celebrate at both St. Anne’s in Anderson and St. Patrick’s in Noblesville, but due to the flooding in Brown County that I wrote about yesterday, I was unable to be with the good people at St. Matthew’s in Nashville. How ironic that Big Brown (no relation to the County) and I both were unable to attain the Triple Crown over the weekend! It’s not anything I will get bend out of shape about though. It is clear to me that just getting to do two of the three services was still a lot for me and I am beat (but not beaten!)

So I was totally ready for a nap when I got home, and I do not know how it all happened, but Amanda got the nap and I got Ben (who was supposed to be a part of our overall nap strategy).

Ben has been amazing all afternoon, like a baby on espresso. Every time I think he is about to go out suddenly he smiles as if to say “just kidding dad,” and he’s good for another hour. And if that were not bad enough, I thought I would take the opportunity read while he sat next to me (part of the time in his high chair and part in his playpen). But he however decided to “sing” (as best as a baby can) all through that time instead. Don’t get me wrong, he is a great baby, but he is clearly tone deaf at this point of his life. It’s cute, but not for that long, particularly when I am trying to read. So I am praying his singing improves…..and at this point it really has to!

I mentioned a book I had received called “My Stroke of Insight” a few days ago. I did get a chapter read yesterday in that, but it was not the book I was reading today. Many of you may remember the movie “Hoosiers.” It was roughly based on the 1954 Milan High School Indians basketball team and their State Championship run. The coach of that team was one of my favorite teachers at Mishawaka High School who left a big impression upon my life, Coach Marvin Wood. I have been reading his biography, “A Boy, a Ball, and a Dream: The Marvin Wood Story.” And I tried, amidst the off pitch, 11 1/2 month old singing, to finish it today.

Sure, as we all know, I was no basketball player, and had I ever been one, Coach Wood would have been sure to cut me. In high school I was only 5’4″, nowhere near the 6’4″ I am now (okay I am just 5’9″). But Coach Wood was my health, PE, and driver’s education teacher, but more than anything he was a man of incredible integrity who left his mark upon me, and many of us who had the pleasure of attending God’s favorite High School, Mishawaka High.

After I graduated and was a student at Butler University in the early 1980’s and Hollywood came to film part of the movie “Hoosiers” there, a movie loosely based on Milan’s 1954 Cinderellas story. And I remember saying, “Who would ever want to see a movie about Indiana high school basketball?” I even declined, like so many other students did, at a chance to be in the movie as part of the crowd at Hinkle Fieldhouse. But here’s why…..

In all my years as a student at Mishawaka High we never really knew that Coach Wood was famous. He wasn’t someone we though Gene Hackman would ever play, he was instead our teacher….and that was who he wanted to be. He was a man who cared about each of us, a man of deep faith and moral conviction, who chose to not say, “Hey, don’t you know who I am?” But he was instead a man who listened to, taught, and walked with all of us. He left a mark on so many of us….myself included. And it said a great deal to me that he never used his remarkable past to leverage anything with us. He just cared for us and led us, and always did so with a smile. I still remember the sign he had hanging in the library under a pretty tall walkway….. it said “If you hit your head on this, please contact Coach Wood.” My head never hit it, not even close (even on a ladder). He always just had a smile, and he always could get one from you too.

I doubt that among so many others he taught through the years that Coach Wood would even remember me, after all, I was a hockey player and only ever got out on the basketball floor for gym or a dance, but I will always remember him. But, in truth, I also would certainly not be surprised if he did. He made a big influence on me and I, among so many others who had him as a teacher, felt it was important enough to be present at his funeral in Mishawaka quite a few years ago. It was an amazing gathering I will never forget.

It’s funny. Now I am a coach, and a lot of what I do is a compilation of many of the coaches I have had personally in my life. Coach Wood would have laughed had I said I wanted to play basketball, but even without playing, I know he coached even me. And I was blessed to have one of the best, because ultimately I believe coaches teach us more about life than anything else. He taught me a lot.

Thanks Coach Wood…..I never told you in person, but I am confident you hear it now. I am glad to have had the opportunity to read the book, but more than glad to have the opportunity to walk a short time with one of the great ones….. and I will make sure the opportunity is not wasted.

As I said, today has gone quite well (other than the off-tune singing)……and as I reflect upon it, so has my life. The Lord has blessed me with some great examples…..and for them, and for this wonderful day, I am truly thankful.

God Bless….

Fr. Tom+