Sports Happens...

I hope you didn’t miss my column too much last week but I was in Washington, D.C. with the NRECA Youth Tour as a chaperone. Yes, there are still a few people in this world who believe that I am mature enough to be a chaperone.

Having never been in D.C before I really had no idea what to expect but I will say it was quite an experience. And as much as our group was able to see we still only saw just a glimpse. Since this is a sports column I need to fill this area with sports stuff. As you have probably figured out I could cover a wedding and find something about sports to talk about.

On the very first night our group was in Salt Lake City getting ready for the next day’s flight to D.C. One of the chaperones told me that one of the Utah girls played rugby for BYU even though she was still in high school. I went over to Aspen and said, “I hear you play rugby.” She acknowledged that she did indeed play. I told her that it had been a few years but I once played the game as well.

I showed her the big scar I have on my forehead and she said, “Last spring I got a concussion. The coaches came up to me and asked if I was okay. I asked where am I? They said you’re in Provo playing rugby. I said I play rugby?”

I said, “Yeah, that’s rugby!”

When we went to Arlington National Cemetery I saw the changing of the guard, Audie Murphy’s grave and several memorials that were quite moving. On the tour bus that we were on the lady who was narrating the tour let us know that Abner Doubleday’s grave was nearby as we passed. I did my best to get a picture but the picture that turned out showed a small tree blocking the view of the grave.

For those of you who do not know Doubleday was a General for the Union army in the Civil War. He fired the first shot at in defense of Fort Sumter the opening battle of the war. After the war and after he died he was credited with inventing baseball. It is a nice story but there is little or no evidence to back this up.

I visited with our bus driver on a couple of different occasions. He talked about some of the baseball teams that he’s picked up and drove to Baltimore or D.C. for ball games. I asked if he took the Mariners to Camden Yards where the Orioles play. “I think I have,” he said. “By the way the best trade we ever made was with the Mariners. We got rid of Eric Bedard and picked up Adam Jones!” “Don’t remind me,” I lamented.

I talked with several kids about their sports interest and several played football, one was a wrestler and a few played basketball. The basketball players were girls.

I had a nice visit with one of these girls and she talked about several injuries she had encountered. I was feeling her pain as she talked about hitting heads with a teammate during practice. She had shoulder and knee injuries yet she said that she planned to get a college scholarship to play basketball. I admired her determination and I told her, “Don’t let anything hold you back. Work hard and you can succeed. Good luck!”

On the last night as we were trying to get kids to bed, we started hearing the elevator doors open and some kids coming up the stairs. They were getting Cokes out of the machine on our floor. This was disrupting my plan to get more than four hours of sleep.

I asked, “Where did you guys come from?” They answered, “The second floor.” I then asked, “What state are you from?” A tall slender kid said, “Kentucky!” I walked toward him and raised my voice, “Isn’t it enough that you guys won the National Championship?” The kid backed up and said, “I’m a Texas fan.” I laughed and said, “Just hurry up and get your drinks, I’m just messin’ with you.”

We flew from D.C to Salt Lake City on Thursday for the trip home. As we were waiting to board the flight home to Spokane I was standing behind two guys who were chatting.

One of the guys turned around and I said, “Mark Rypien!” He came over and shook hands with me and asked, “Have we met before?” I said, “No, I’m a Coug fan from way back and just wanted to say hi.” Rypien is a genuine nice guy. As we were leaving the plane he said, “Have a safe trip home!”

So you see it doesn’t matter where you go.

If you pay attention you’ll find that sports happens everywhere! You just need to pay attention.