2019 4th and 5th grade camp in the books

SCHS 2nd-3rd Grade Camp 2019 in the Books

Coach Means Many Things

John Bradley is my friend.

It did not start out that way because when I was in high school playing for Henryville, he was the varsity boys basketball coach at Silver Creek.

His job my senior year was to find a way to slow me down as a scorer, and well, he was the coach of the evil empire.

Somehow I was able to get past his past when he became the boys basketball coach at Henryville.

I had graduated a few years before and my coach had stepped down and there were a couple different guys who had coached and it didn't work out.

Coach Bradley was ready to come in and rebuild a program that the town could be proud of.

I was pretty lost those first few years after high school, not really understanding what I was doing, where I was going and would still attend Henryville open gyms and games when I could.

I will never forget one day I was standing against the wall of the Spurgeon gym (the older, smaller gym) and Coach Bradley came up and asked me how I was doing.

After some small talk about where I was working, what I was doing he then asked a question that would forever change my life.

"Would you be interested in coaching the freshman team?" he asked.

I was 23 years old, but the weight of coaching was something I had zero confidence I could do and he must have seen how I reacted because he told me to take 24 hours and think about it.

I did.

I accepted.

From that moment in that gym to today, coaching basketball has taken me around the state of Indiana, it has taken me to other places in this country, it has taken me to five continents (six this summer, headed to Australia), and has allowed me to be to young men what John Bradley was and is to me.

A mentor, and now a friend.

Recently, Coach and Mrs. Bradley's son, Michael, passed away and I cannot fathom the pain they have endured and still are and I am sure will for the rest of their lives.

But they can rest easier, I hope, knowing that they have made positive contributions to so many young people's lives as coaches and teachers.

They have given much of their time through the years to help others from students to adults. They have done so willingly and unselfishly.

If it were not for John Bradley walking up to a 23 year old and asking him a simple question, I do not know where I would have ended up.

But because he did, it has been a heckuva ride and all because he took time then and through the years to help me out.

My only hope is that he can understand what he has done and that he and his wife's lives have not been in vain because of situations that happen to them, but they have had hugely successful lives because of the situations they have created for others.

Who Do You Think You Are?

I'm just a guy who is probably too self-aware that is able to convey his feelings in written and spoken form that some people can relate.

That's it.

Sure, I'm a husband and father (the greatest thing I am), a son, a brother, a....well, you get the point. I'm many things.

I'm a basketball coach who has lost with seasons where I've won 3 games to this past season as an assistant with Silver Creek boys where we won the State Championship.

I'm someone who thinks too much, worries too often, and too often thinks they know everything and nothing at the same time.

I'm someone who deals with anxiety and sometimes feel like I don't know if I want to go on, but am scared to death I'm going to die.

I feel the weight of too much responsibility, but yet, will pull back when I cannot breathe because of me not being able to say "no".

Recently, I was asked by Leah Lowe if I would provide an article from time to time for the Charlestown Courier, and I agreed.

Not because I think I have anything anyone would want to read, but because writing is cathartic for me and if maybe, just maybe, it can help someone else see they're not alone, make them smile, or help them to remember something than that is a good thing.

I enjoy being from and living in southern Indiana.

Yes, I love my hometown of Henryville and my current town of the last 16 years, Sellersburg.

But I can also see the goodness in the surrounding communities and the people who make those places tick on a daily basis.

I enjoy traveling over seas (I have been on five continents and Lord willing six this summer when the family heads to Australia) for coaching clinics and the basketball people know about Indiana high school basketball.

I enjoy finding joy in the monotony of daily life. I believe we too often forget to stop and smell not just the roses, but the air outside even if it is the smell of whatever is burning from the Clark-Floyd Landfill (what is that by the way?).

Finally, my faith in Jesus Christ is what helps me make sense of the chaotic, depressing things that happen too often to and around me.

I put my hope not in the things of this world, but in Him.

I put my hope not in the people of this world, but in Him.

I put my hope not in anything of this world, but I do in Him.

So, here we go, this is the first installment of what may become something I do regularly, or it might be the last, depending on what Mrs. Lowe thinks.

It could be basketball related, it could be Jesus related, it could be family related, or it could be about something that is on mind and has nothing to do with any of that.

Thanks in advance for reading, but if you do not; well, have a great day anyway.