Left Alone

I’ve never been that little kid who felt abandoned when he wandered a few steps away from his parents in a crowded department store, but I do have an inkling of how he may have felt. Let me explain....

The largest track meet of the year

As the head track coach at Northern Bedford years ago, there were times when I had to get home early from a track meet. During those times, I would usually go home with my wife (who regularly attended most meets) and rely on my assistant coach, Harry Guyer, to supervise the kids on the bus during the trek home.

We had just concluded the West-Central Coaches Meet at Mansion Park in Altoona and I headed to the press box to collect the ribbons that my team members won that evening. We were fairly successful during the meet and it did take some time for the staff to get all of the appropriate awards to the correct coaches.

The meet was huge by area standards. The attendance was good and the parking lots were full of cars and buses. But what happened after the meet was something that has perplexed me to this day.

A mystery

Ordinarily, the boys I coached had a pretty hard time pulling something over on me. (Perhaps, this is because I was no angel myself while growing up.)

For instance, one of my team members somehow got into a locked cage-like compartment next to the gym where the track uniforms were stored, and he promptly handed them out freely to his buddies. I spotted a young lad wearing one later that summer and it took an entire five seconds to determine who the thief was. Solving that crime was easy.

But this was different. I will never know if my team members purposely drew up their devious scheme, or if they really didn’t notice that Mr. Guyer was not on the bus that day as our driver headed to the meet. But I do know that I accompanied the team alone that night. And it just so happened that my wife didn’t attend that meet either.

All aboard!

As our bus driver prepared to depart Altoona, he questioned if everyone was on board. The kids promptly told him that Coach was going home with his wife and that everyone was present and ready to go. Funny, the driver wasn’t aware that the assistant coach wasn’t on the bus and that no one was present to supervise the team.

And there I was in the press-box, waiting in line for my kids’ precious ribbons as my Northern Bedford bus departed without their head coach.

Everett Area comes through

As I stood in the near-empty parking lot, holding my large brown envelope filled with ribbons, it became apparent immediately that my own bus had left the meet without me. As my feelings of abandonment turned to anger, I happened to catch sight of two remaining buses that had not yet left the lot. One of them was from Everett Area, and I was good friends with their head coach, Larry Bulger. When I asked Larry for a ride home, he was shocked to find out what had just occurred. His shock soon turned to raucous laughter though, after I cooled down. Later, as we stopped for a late dinner at McDonald’s on the way home, we both got a kick out of what had transpired.

Silver lining

Not all was dreadful that evening because I got a free meal, courtesy of the Everett Area School District. And Larry and I, along with Everett Athletic Director, Dwayne Gochnour, enjoyed reminiscing many times about what had taken place that evening.

Dwayne even called me at school one day before an upcoming meet and asked if I thought I’d be needing a ride home later that night. The three of us often enjoyed re-living the time I was left alone in Altoona. When I see Larry to this day, we still laugh about the time I missed my bus.

For me, because I never knew if my kids had that scheme planned or not, I withheld all of the ribbons earned that evening until the season was over. Small potatoes, I know, but it was all I could do.

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