Wednesday morning –
You're driving a 14-passenger van, toting some track kids, said van with mirrors wider than a sumo wrestler. You're just off of a night before, when your phone rang and it was from that soccer coach –
Clayton Schmitt is his name.
He always calls, and even though our school history has had other coaches, your only thought when it comes to girls' soccer is picturing him roaming the sideline – he and that black warmup suit he always wears.
They did it, they did.
Paige Jacquin rattled one in on a free kick, the defense halted the Wesleyan offense faster than I-285 traffic on a 5 p.m. Friday, and there was retrospect and weariness in Schmitt's voice on the phone, but happiness.
Wow, girls won state again. Just like they did back in 2022.
Got some writing to do.
But now, you're driving over 316 west, and your text is telling you about this girls' tennis team across the state in Rome. It seems the match is knotted a 2-all, with it all going down to our #2 doubles.
You are literally nervous for those two – in this case it's junior
Hannah Johnson and freshman
Alessandra Georgiev – and you can feel their nerves even past the padding in this bus. Hannah, who is supposed to simply be studying for finals and choosing colleges. Alessandra may not even have her learner's permit yet, but now a banner will or won't be raised depending on their serves and volleys and overheads.
The final is 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 – they take the third set, and you can literally feel Coach
Jeri Finlay's smile and hear those girls giggling from the bleachers in Athens. Wow, this is great, you think.
When you get home tonight, you've got some writing to do.
So…later in the day you're sitting in the tent with the 4 X 400-meter relay team. You see, it's been said that God invented Prom on the eighth day, but in track terms, it's this relay because after a LONG day of jumping and throwing and sprinting and panting, it's this race that decides who gets fitted for rings and who just sits at their banquet and dreamed of what might've been.
Still, there's
Brayden Bailey across from you. "If we win, do we get rings?"
"Yeah, but we're barely in second and dropping to third,"
Caden Page says.
"I hear that, but I want a ring. Do we really all get rings?"
As fate would have it, you have to get Bus #22 back before that race, but your text is blowing up while you're making a left at the corner of Hammond and Roswell Road, with the news so shocking you almost drove the 14-passenger vehicle into some place called Hearth Pizza.
It seems Hebron did the most heartbreaking thing of all – held a 5.5 point lead over us but dropped that sacred stick, the baton, and got zero points in the race. Dropping the baton, to give you some perspective, is worse than the high school queen saying no, because you also must carry the load of depression for not only yourself, but for three others.
In the meantime,
Ayden Nida,
Brent Warbington, Page, and Bailey pull out a third place finish, good for six points. You read your text from Coach
Joseph Thomas that says, "I didn't see that coming."
Bottom line, boys' track also wins state – and you laugh while thinking of that line back in front of Athletic Director Tony Watkins' office behind the sky box getting longer regarding all these teams getting fitted for rings.
With this said, you park the van while your phone is exploding. You visualize a ring sitting next to your bed – you're so happy for those soccer girls and those tennis girls and now those track boys.
This is great, you love this – the truth is stranger than fiction. Seriously, three state titles in two days?
You laugh, perhaps it really is all over but the laughing. You think of your own banquet coming up, getting to look out at all those giddy faces. Still, that will have to wait, enough for now.
After all, you've got some writing to do…
