A Tribute To My Coaches

On the way home from the dentist's the other day several runners from our High School passed by. Whew! What a flood of memories! It brought me back to the early 70's.

I remember running through the streets of Bellmore. Most people did not understand our motivation but comeradie and personal achievment and freedom were among things that drove us.

Akin to those things were the coaches we had. Jim Murrin, Gerry Hughes and Paul Limmer sacrificed their time for kids- us kids! On cold early spring days they would be outside in all kinds of weather with us. They would tell us what the workout was and talk to us about doing our best and the benefit of hard work.

As we grew older we got to know their families. Today is Gerry Hughes birthday. As Mike McQuillan said earlier today, "This is Coach Hughes' first birthday in heaven." We lost Coach last fall. On November 8th he left this world. At his funeral beautiful bag pipes played "Amazing Grace" we said goodbye for now to our friend and coach. His family, wife, children and grandchildren were at the front that morning. We pray for them today. He is greatly missed by each of them- beyond words. We miss him too. But the memories of him being out there with us come back in interesting ways- like seeing the runners the other day.

Thanks to the families of our coaches who sacrificed themselves and time with dads and husbands so we could have them. We'll never forget them or the sacrifice they made! They are in our hearts forever.