August 13, 2009

sports

25 years of Perry League memories

Last Friday night Perry League t-ball coach Jimmy Chesire coached his final game after 25 years with local children. He’s shown above with some of the more than 60 kids who participated this year.

By Jimmy Chesire

We brought our 2009 t-ball season to a close last Friday, Aug. 7, with our final night weiner roast/potluck picnic followed by the awarding of Perry League trophies to the 65 children who were on hand.

We brought the trophies over from my car, four adult volunteers -— Jason Newsome, Maria Slattery, Jason McClean and Mike Duncan — each adult carrying a brown cardboard box lid with 25 trophies in it — and as we wended our way through the crowd of picnickers a soft murmur lifted, a soft spontaneous chorus of pleasure, a soft, low “oooh.” It was a thrill to hear, to feel, a little like walking through a field and suddenly being hit by some sweet, surprisingly strong scent, a perfume like that coming off a bouquet of gardenias left sitting overnight in your living room.

It was the last night for Chris Murphy and me as the official Perry League coordinators. Becky Reed and her three beautiful kids — Stephanie, 17, Bill, 16, and Daniel, 8, former t-ballers all — brought a huge “Thank You” poster for kids and adults to write on, to thank Chris and me — and many did, saying some wonderful things: “You’ve both been a great inspiration,” Bill Huff, 16, former t-baller, wrote. “Thanks for letting us have fun playing baseball,” Tj Sundell-Turner wrote. “Thank you, Coach,” Mina Brown’s dad wrote for Mina. “Coach Jimmy, you rock, you should go down in history,” McKenna Banaszak, 8, wrote. “Thanks for starting my baseball career,” Lucas Donnell, 16, star pitcher and hitter with the Yellow Springs High School varsity, wrote.

There were lots of little hearts drawn by children signing their names. And lots of love, so rich and thick it took two hands to lift this darn poster and carry it home: “Love from Nevaeh and Shaylee and Christiane (Badger). “We love you!” Regan (Parker), David (Gansz), Dylan and Sarah. “I love you, Jimmy.” Ryan Scott (along with his parents Amy and Evan and Grandpa Bill, a former t-ball and little league coach and champion in his own right).

There were a bunch of drawings of baseballs and bats, too, some of those bats looking like mushrooms or those rubber nipples babies nurse on. And then there were the kids who just signed their names: Nathan (Schindler), Victoria (Osborne), AJ (Newsome), Hannah (Littell), Riley and Matthew! (Duncan).

The Lions Club gave me a nifty little coffee cup, which I am using right now, and a wonderful, wonderful note thanking me for my many years’ service, for my articles in the News “that make the events become real to all of us,” and for helping them at the Lions Street Fair Booth (which I plan to continue to do, as does Jason Newsome, the young man and father who will be taking over the on-field leadership role next summer). It is a beautiful, deeply felt, and very generous note. Thank you, Carol Gasho and all you Lions.

There were two other thank yous that touched me as deeply as the Lions Club note: in the first, someone simply wrote in pencil “Bodhisattva = Jimmy” with lines like rays from a sun leaping off the word Bodhisattva. (Thank you, whoever you are, for that high holy praise. It is what I aspire to be and in fleeting moments have become out there on that t-ball diamond.) And then this lovely note from a friend and local writer Barbara C. Singleton: “I’m captivated by the appreciative attitude shown in your writings about kids. You let me see them so clearly.” Thank you, Barbara.

And thank you, all you wonderful Perry Leaguers, big, little and in between.

It has been an extraordinary 25 years for me and my partner in crime, Chris Murphy — and for me, it will not end abruptly. Jason R. T. Newsome, who was a champion coach this year — a perfect t-ball parent volunteer showing up every night of the season, loving the kids, working on getting their names, having as much fun as the kids did— has agreed to take on the principle leadership role next year. Jason will be the Perry League’s new program coordinator. He and I have agreed that I’ll help him through all the little things needing to be done to get the program up and running smoothly next year — announcements, ordering shirts and caps, selling shirts, raising enough money to pay the Rec Board back each summer. Jason will run things on the field, allowing me to show up after the evening’s play has begun to watch, to come on the diamond and play with the kids, to gather material for the weekly columns the Yellow Springs News has been so generous about running for all these years -— a “tradition” we’d like to continue, for next summer and a few summers after that, if we can.

In the meantime, thank you for all your wonderful support of me and Chris Murphy and the Perry League, our amazing Yellow Springs t-ball program. Being in a leadership role has been a gift that has surprised and elevated me over and over again, a gift that keeps coming at me — for example, the 18-year-old boy, Justin Donley, bagging my groceries at Tom’s Friday night when I went in wearing my Santa Claus hat (thank you Brian, Jennie, Eliza and Miles Gilchrist) wondered if I knew everyone in town — several people had wished me a Merry Christmas as I watched him load my groceries into my trunk. “No, it’s just that I’ve done this t-ball thing,” I started, but he interrupted me.

“I know,” he said, “I played t-ball and little league after that.” And then he reminded me who he was, that he had a brother who played, too, that his mother was Brenda who worked there at Tom’s and I remembered: “Oh, yeah. I love your mom. And you and your brother were great!” And, pleased that I remembered, he glowed; and so did I, all the way home.

And that’s the Perry League, Yellow Springs’ t-ball program for — oh, heck, for anyone who wants to come on out and have a little fun, give a little love, get a little love, and go home with a glow. That’s right. It’s right there, for you and for me. And I thank you and me for that. Ain’t we great!

Thanks, everyone. See you here next summer, okay?

Track club excels

Ten athletes from the Miami Valley Track Club traveled to Greensboro, N.C., last week to compete in the USA Junior Olympic Track & Field championships. Five came home as All Americans, having finished in the top eight in the nation in their events.

Leading the way were National Champions Erika Shaver and Jacob GunderKline. Shaver, a senior-to-be, posted the fastest time of the year by a high school girl in 2009 by winning the 3,000-meter race walk for 17- and 18-year-olds in a time of 15:24.62.

GunderKline, a Yellow Springs High School alumnus who is headed to Goshen College in the fall, won the 3,000-meter race walk for 17- and 18-year-olds in 14:55.67.

MVTC continued to dominate the scene with Reini Brickson of YSHS taking second in the young women’s race walk, and John Randall, a senior at Beavercreek, taking second in the young men’s race.

Mitchell Brickson (YSHS), was fourth in the intermediate boys race walk with a new personal best of 15:39.33. Sydney Beal, from Beavercreek, finished eighth in the 11–12 girls division.

Brickson, who captains this fall’s YSHS cross country team, was 14th in the same race as she straddled all of the barriers flawlessly in a new personal best of 9:24.42.