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If only Ritzville would have hosted the 15th Annual Undeberg Invitational Track Meet on Saturday, had there not been a stay at home order.
The COVID-19 interruption of so many things took its toll on spring sports and one of the best track meets in Eastern Washington.
As a meet volunteer, I’m a bit partial, but most everyone that works the meet knows its importance here.
On Saturday, I took a trip to town, getting to the track at around 10:45 a.m., about the time that Coach and Athletic Director Greg Whitmore would have addressed the 700-plus athletes.
He would also say a few words about the late, great Harold Undeberg, who loved kids and enjoyed being a race starter and had high hopes that each participant would do their very best that day.
We would then hear the playing of the National Anthem. Following that, Greg would tell participants to shake hands with an athlete other than a teammate and wish them good luck.
Had that actually happened, I was there in time. But the only other people there were Harold’s granddaughters Anne-Marie and Heather and two great-grandsons.
I wore my orange long-sleeved Undeberg T-shirt and made my way over to the long/triple jump pit, where I would have worked alongside Mark and Dan Meyer.
I was able to visit with Dan on Saturday and we both talked about how difficult it was to miss out on the event.
Anne-Marie and Heather were doing the Undeberg Invite 5K and posting on Facebook.
I took two laps — the second was a victory lap but one of my knees reminded me that I wasn’t a young man anymore.
I needed to be there on Saturday so when we do this next year I can remember how quiet it was.
The weather may not have been fun to deal with in the afternoon. Maybe it was for the best…
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking in the past few weeks and wonder what it would have been like had this happened during my senior year 50 years ago.
First, I didn’t participate in a spring sport. But I can imagine if school had been canceled.
We didn’t have computers, so we would not be doing online studies. I can imagine that we would need to pick up assignments each week and turn them in and get more assignments until school was through.
I think Dad would have really liked it — on the farm, I was an essential worker! I would be on the tractor for 9-10 hours a day. I think that he would consider it on-the-job training.
There is another thing that is very interesting. The jobs that I had that paid the least as I was growing up and in the work force would be considered essential jobs today. The job where I made the most money would be considered non-essential since it was in an office and a lot of my time was spent working with members and we can’t do that now unless we are at least six feet apart.
So be kind to all essential workers; they are making the country’s heart beat right now.
— Dale Anderson is a local sports columnist. Email him at worstseat@yahoo.com.
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