We’ve discussed it before. Whenever you find yourself gathered with old friends and teammates, the conversation invariably turns to the coach. Doesn’t matter which coach. There’s just going to be a long discussion about the coach — the funny stories, the not-so-funny stories, the real stories and sometimes the not-so-real aspects of the stories that have grown into truth with each telling through the years and years.
There isn’t a community worth its salt that doesn’t have The Coach, and by The Coach we mean the man or the woman who comes immediately to mind when the reference point is “Coach.”
Remember when Coach did this? Remember when Coach said that? How’s Coach been? Saw Coach the other day, and so on and so forth, the reason being Coach has conducted his life in such a devoted so-on and so-forth manner in helping, teaching, coaching and guiding so many for so long that he has become the community fixture known as Coach. The same can be said of the community’s Doc, as we were reminded with Dr. Archibald “Moonlight” Graham in the movie “Field of Dreams.”
As for Coach, all of our communities here have been blessed to have The Coach for seemingly each new generation. For instance, some of the more powerful moments to take place last Friday during the Allegany High School Reunion of Champions involved coaches and players seeing each other for the first time after so many years of being apart.
Sure, on the surface it could have appeared nobody looked anything at all the way they did 20, 30, 40 years ago, yet there was no need for re-introductions, because in those moments, time stood still. All the coach had to do was look into the eyes of his former players, and see the look of respect and gratitude to know who they were, to recall what they went through together, and to understand what they still mean to each other to this day.
Even through some extra padding acquired through the years, the eyes never lie and are a window to the pride of a camaraderie forever shared.
That’s what’s going to take place Saturday, from 4 to 8 p.m., at the Moorefield Town Park where Moorefield will enjoy “An Evening With Coach Hott.”
George Hott was one of the greatest athletes in the history of Moorefield, a two-time all-state halfback for the Yellow Jackets as well as an all-star in basketball and baseball. He played football for the West Virginia University Mountaineers for two seasons before leaving Morgantown to play baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
George Hott served our country for 17 months during the Korean Conflict (looked like a war to me), and when he returned home from the Army he went to Shepherd College, from where he graduated in 1956 after an athletic career that would land him in the Shepherd CollegContact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.
Write to him at mburke@times-news.com.
Mike Burke - Sports
Moorefield spends an evening with its Coach
- Mike Burke - Sports
-
-
Happy birthday, Brooks
Today is Brooks Robinson’s birthday. That’s right, good ol’ No. 5 is 75 years young, a term the great Chuck Thompson used all of the time, and a term that, even as a child, drove me up the wall when Chuck would use it to send birthday greetings to somebody who had just turned 100.
-
How to e-mail (or phone) us your games
It will remain one of the great mysteries of my life (until I hit the lottery, that is) that seemingly grown men and women who have the mental capacity to sit at a computer, compose an e-mail and send it, cannot look at the little league/softball game reports that appear daily in the Times-News and duplicate the format we require for publication.
-
The DH, the rook, ‘old school’ and the Codes
Baseball, to say the least, is presently buzzing in the Baltimore-Washington corridor, as the Orioles streaked to baseball’s best record through the first 29 games, while the Nationals seem to be every bit the contender they were said to have been, sitting atop the National League East as of yesterday.
-
Take me out to the coin collector’s?
You know, you try to do the right things, but sometimes it just doesn't pay off in the end. And that's fine.
-
We’d have taken Hines back, too
The Mega Millions madness is over for now, and that’s a good thing, because, frankly, I’m a little bit ashamed of all of you. Really. If you could have just seen yourselves and the way you’ve been acting these past 10 days, with nothing but greed soaring from your eyes, you’d be embarrassed, too. It’s as the great Charles E. Lattimer used to say (to me quite a bit, actually), “(Jiminy Crickets), look at yourself, son.”
-
With no rule, there is no spirit to break
Three days after paying a king’s ransom for the No. 2 pick in the NFL draft and the right to select Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III (or, if Jim goes completely Irsay on us, Stanford quarterback Oliver Luck), the Washington Redskins were informed by Commissioner Vernon Wormer that they had violated double-secret probation, bringing to mind a piece of Redskins history that would produce one of the great lines in sports.
-
No need to wonder what ACIT means to Karcher
This weekend’s 52nd Alhambra Catholic Invitational Tournament will mean a great many things to a great many people, from the players who will be competing, to their coaches, schools, family and friends, and to the fans who come to see some of the best high school basketball in the country.
-
Shot clock should help loaded ACIT to light it up
The idea had been floating in Joe Carter’s thoughts since last year’s ACIT final between DeMatha and Benedictine, when DeMatha head coach Mike Jones, to help alleviate his team’s injury and foul issues, slowed the pace of the game in the first half of the title game his Stags would win, 53-43.
-
Senior Day honor is the least Mosley deserves
COLLEGE PARK — Sean Mosley will be honored at Comcast Center today on Senior Day prior to Maryland’s game against Virginia, and it’s difficult to believe it’s been four years since we got our first glimpse of the 6-foot-4 guard out of Baltimore’s St. Frances Academy when he was the Most Outstanding Player in the 2008 Alhambra Catholic Invitational Tournament field.
-
Somewhere over the rainbow starts here
During a break in the program Sunday night, former Pittsburgh Pirates slugger Bob Robertson sat at a table backstage sharing some stories from the day when he played some of the finest defensive first base and hit some of the longest home runs in the major leagues in helping the Bucs to the 1971 world championship.
- More Mike Burke - Sports Headlines
-
