Life After High School and High School sports

Last summer, I sat upstate in the Adirondacks. I knew this Fall was going to be different. I was not going to be helping a football program for the first time in a while.

In general, I was thinking about how many of the guys I have known are so much different. Some of us do not even talk to each other anymore.

It is only two years that have passed by, and it seems as if I am living in a different universe. Watching any sports in general now, is different as it was three of four years ago.

Both the teams I managed had made it to state championships that required long travel. Unfortunately, for me I had personal and family obligations that would not let me attend.

Saturday November 25, 2017. I was sitting in my house when the clock ticked down on Stepinac winning the Catholic State Championship in Buffalo. Although I did help out SUNY Cortland's team, it was just not the same then.

Saturday March 24, 2018. I was sitting in Polpettina in Eastchester, when Stepinac won the State Federation Championship in Glens Falls. I arranged to meet a family friend in Canada and had other personal obligations too.

Both those times, I knew I would not be the same again.

Both those times, it felt like those sports each had an Amtrak train in my life, and each one darted out of the station when it was time for each one to go.

Of course, the youth should take all the opportunities they can.

I have spoken about Jim Kelly before. He has had many struggles in his life. He played in four Super Bowls and lost each one of them. He is still grateful for all the memories he had.

In some sense I feel like Jim Kelly. Maybe I did not get to do every single little thing that I wanted, but I did get the experience and brotherhood.

Now people my siblings age and younger are in High School. To think about all the time that has gone by and how old I have gotten is crazy.

I go to track meets even, and can't believe that the time has gone by.

Every time I go out to my favorite places, whether it be the Raceway Diner, Tuck'd Away, or some other favorite establishment of mine, I am proud to wear the Stepinac S over my heart.

I do not think there has been a day in my life that has gone by where I do not use a piece of Stepinac merchandise.

As I always say, words can not express how grateful I was for that experience.

Tony Bennett always talks about how he left his heart in San Francisco. I have left a piece of my heart in Stepinac.