I must say, when I received this picture, I got a little weepy eyed. A "boy" – Nick Morgan -becoming a man, hugging his coach – Stacey Davis. 

For some background, Nick finished third Saturday in the Class AAAA wrestling meet in Macon. He's a four-year state placer – a record shared by three others in our history, but untouched by so many. 

Before moving forward, let me do it this way. As a cross country coach, the student/athletes get through with school and yes, running is hard, but they are outside and free and unstrained. I will neither confirm nor deny they may flirt a little bit.

And all sports are hard. They require students to put all their assignments into a file in the corner of their head and perform for coaches, dig down physically after racking their brains mentally. They have to please so many in the same 24 hours we got, though perhaps the overload is equivalent to asking them to run a marathon on undeveloped legs.

But think of this: The wrestlers go through six hours of lectures and, instead of free and unrestrained, some of them get thrown down on mats. For an hour or three. And in a room 20 degrees or so hotter than Hades. 

"It's the hard that makes it great," a movie from the past said.

On a scale of how hard it can be, wrestling might get more points than a pin on a scale of 1-to-5, and it takes a kid with a different intellect, mindset, way of going about things.

One more thing: Remember the Covid year of 2020? Then again, how can we not? The sport of wrestling had ZERO Covid cases – while the rest of us had our share.

Anyway, this picture: A senior finishing up a great career. Hugging Coach Davis. Mutual respect. Tough love. Goading, prodding, inspiring, teaching. And remember, they're in that room, that room hotter than Tampa in the summer.

And let's not forget this, and perhaps this should've been written first and it's paraphrasing from Coach Davis. Nick did this after getting his individual dream crushed of winning the state title. He could've simply rolled over – literally – but he battled back to etch his name among the best of the best in the sport. 

And if Nick's neck isn't already decorated and weighting him down enough, he already has football awards hanging on his wall, can choose between college rugby or football – could wrestle if he chose. Balances that between Student Council and planning his future and being a senior – and don't underestimate all that goes into being a senior.

Why do we do this? Why do we coach? Or play? Or put so much into what people may or may not understand? 

There's not a blueprint. No guarantees. Wrestling isn't "everybody gets a trophy." Instead, it's physical and mental amplified by a duffer's golf score, and it requires most if not every skill.

In closing, sorry for the interruption. But once upon a time I was sitting home on a Saturday night having a staff meeting with myself. Wondering why? What for? And does anyone care?

Then I got this picture – this picture that came in on my email.

Ah, here's the answer…