The Sounds of Summer

Posted on June 20, 2012 at 10:50 am

When high school is in session, a casual walk down any hallway is the definition of adrenaline. The kids come at you at 150 miles per hour with gusts up to 250 with their tales, woes, injuries, test grades, love life or lack thereof, all that and then some. In fact, being an employee at a local high school, I will often walk out among the halls when I hear the bells ring; the goal being to pick up on their energy.

 Trust me, if you need a pick-me-up, it's way better than vanilla coffee with cream and teeth-rotting amounts of sugar.

Now, however, that same walk is a different thing; more of a downer if you will. Lockers sit empty, idle. None are opening and closing; more importantly, none are slamming with authority. The bells are turned off. There is no chatter, no trash on the floors, no signs on each locker, no Happy Birthday wishes pasted on Locker #134, no Go Bears on the one right above it. No, instead there is - in a word - nothing.

Today I could actually hear my feet strike the floor. For that matter, I could hear myself breathing. During August-through-May, you can't even hear yourself think. You can't walk two steps without seeing someone, picking up on a conversation, finishing another, well-wishing one, cheering up one more. In short, when the bells are set to do their cosmic duty every 50 minutes, each step is another adventure; it's all-ways (one word and two)  a case of sensory overload times twelve.

Except in June and July. I heard no bells ringing but I walked the halls anyway. I saw nothing, heard nothing, felt out of place.

In summary, sometimes silence is the loudest sound there is.

Peace out!

Wrestling, sportsmanship, fathers and sons

Seeing and hearing what I'm about to write makes everything I do for a living worthwhile. This is about sports...and coaching...and doing the right thing...and showing your true character.

And it comes to us by way of wrestling, and I'm SO glad it does since we've had to listen to so much guff about our State Duals championship in January and the controversies and what our opponents had to say and blah, blah, blah. Fortunately, two things come to mind about this: One, it doesn't and won't taint our championship and two, it lets me brag on the kind of characters our wrestlers are.

I take you back to last Saturday afternoon in the 195-pound slate of the 3rd/4th place match. One of our beloved seniors, Charlie Rousseau is in action, feeling out his opponent, looking for an opening. To summarize, Charlie found and seized his moment, slammed his opponent to the mat and executed the pin for the win, clinching himself a trip to the podium because of it.

Now, here's the beauty of it. Charlie Rousseau did not celebrate over his fallen opponent. He didn't taunt and dance the way boxers appear to have been taught to do. He didn't show off.
"I called for a trainer," Charlie remembered. And he did so immediately, without one ounce of self-serving, look-at-me-type antics that you see all too much out of athletes on TV these days.

"It was an awesome moment," Coach Jeff Walrich said. "Charlie showed genuine concern for the kid."

"Well, after I threw him down and pinned him, I realized he was unconscious," Charlie continued. "I was scared because he was just lying there limp. It was pretty scary."

Assistant Coach Stacey Davis had this to say: "Seeing the way he handled himself in that bout made me proud to be one of his coaches. Instead of celebrating, he immediately called for help when he realized his opponent was injured."

And that's not the end of my little wrestling tales, for Coach Davis plays a part in this next moment, which happened later that night.

Lee Davis, another of our favorite seniors, is in the finals in the 182-pound slate. Davis, you see, is no stranger to state competition. He earned a trip as a freshman; took third as a sophomore; third again as a junior. "I didn't want it to end like that this time," he would later say.

In short, it didn't. Davis captured the state crown and then, what was his first move? He immediately left the mat and jumped into his father/coach Stacey Davis's arms. If you've seen the picture, please hang it someplace where you can see it everyday and often. It's a reminder of how cool sports can be, how neat kid/parent relationships can be, not to mention what can happen to you when you really and truly work hard at something.

"When he jumped into my arms, I had a flashback going back to his freshmen, sophomore and junior years at state and how those tournaments ended - all the work that came to that moment in time with him winning the title," Stacey said. "I believe at that moment we both grasped how special it was. It is a feeling of joy and pride I will never forget."

Bless you father and son. Bless you Charlie Rousseau. Good for you guys and your successful team and season.

And, on a final note: When you get your rings, wear them proud. You've earned them...in more ways than one.

God Bless,

"Coach" Dunn

Philipson, club, sending smiles from HI

The question is usually asked regarding the sick or the unfortunate: What can I do to help? HIES junior Cory Philipson not only found a great answer, but also brought it to the school and took action.

The result is a club entitled “Send-a-Smile” – it’s composed of Upper School students who hand-craft personal caring messages and send them to hospitalized children to let them know that people are thinking about them and their well-being. The cards are then distributed to the kids at Children’s Health Care of Atlanta.

Philipson says she got the idea from her mother. “My mom happened to be at this event where this woman was getting a scholarship from Emory for Send-a-Smile,” Philipson said. “I thought that would make a great club at Holy Innocents’ and a great way to get service hours.”

Not one to idly let a good idea go to waste, Philipson pitched the idea to the school’s Activities Coordinator Terry Kelly. “He thought it was great so we went ahead with it,” the junior added. “We brought it out on club day and had some people sign up.”

Send-A-Smile, as a result, started in 2010-2011 with around 40 members. Now only a year later, it is up to 70-plus students.

The club meets around three times per year – in October they sent cards for Halloween and last weekend they gathered for Valentine’s Day. Next on the agenda are more cards to be sent at Easter. To date, the Philipson family brainchild has generated approximately 2,500 cards.

Looking ahead, Philipson doesn’t want the idea to die out after her graduation in 2013. “I’ve been looking around for an underclassmen to keep this going at the school after I’m gone,” she said. “It’s for a good cause and a great way to get service hours.”

Philipson, besides being an Honor Student, is also a varsity basketball cheerleader.

Happy New Year and come see us!

So how hard was Tuesday morning, to get out of bed with the sheets and pillow marks still permabonded to your face? How loud was that alarm clock anyway? Did it make permanent damage to your eardrums?

Enough about that, let me tell you a good HIES way to start the first weekend back: Come watch our wrestling team this weekend. The Area Duals start today at 5 p.m. in our gym - the finals are estimated to be at around 4:30 p.m. tomorrow. Though our beloved wrestling coaches enjoy being tight lipped during this week ( and I don't blame them), it is this blogger's optimism that says we WILL be in the finals tomorrow.

Anyway, this is a GOOD team. This, if my estimations are correct, will be the first time all year they will wrestle against schools their own size. They've battled Classes AAA and above all season and have still kicked butt. To name names would be a roll call of the team, but Jason Grimes, Lee Davis, Brendan Quigley and the Fanning brothers - Wes and Court - are a few to mention.

Before signing off, kudos to our basketball teams last night for beating a good Mt. Pisgah basketball program - the girls 51-36 and the boys 57-42. The subregion season starts Tuesday at home against FCA - the girls game will be podcast. I personally will try to mention your beloved 1000 times if you promise to lie and tell Ruth Donahoo what a great job I did of announcing.

And no, I haven't forgotten swimming. They are in action Saturday, the 14th in the Riverwood Meet at Marist. If my records are correct - and they may not be - this is the most state cuts we've ever made. Congrats to Coach Andy Morrison & Company.

I must go now. A bell just rang and I'm supposed to be somewhere. Not really sure where.

Peace out,

Dunn, James Dunn

A Funny Thing Happened

Neugie’s Notes

Sorry to break from the “normal” sports stories, but humor always races to the top of the list as far as my writing priorities. This story came my way after one of my many walks through the halls and I just couldn’t resist.

So the football team is in action – their season opener no less – against Riverwood. It’s 3^rd-and-8 and quarterback John Galloway is standing among his teammates in the huddle awaiting the next play. In comes Wes Fanning – and in his hand is a copy of the actual playbook.

“The play was too long to call,” Coach Ryan Livezey remembers.

“Coach Healy started telling me the play; then he just stopped and handed me the whole sheet,” Fanning recalled. “Finally, he just said ‘Take this piece of paper in, tell John to call play #7 and stuff the piece of paper in his pants.’”

“After hearing him, I didn’t know if John was supposed to call the play and stuff it in his pants or if he was supposed to call the play and I was supposed to stuff it in my pants. I just told him to stuff it in his.”

Regardless, things evidently worked out. The Bears won en route to an 8-2 regular season and their fifth straight trip to the playoffs.

Now, let’s move over to cross country and to senior Katie Keith. Get the picture: She has just run her last race her senior year at the state meet in Carrollton. She’s crossed the finish line, taken off her bib number, gotten her water, all that. She sees me (one of her coaches) out of the corner of her eye. Running faster than she’s ever run in all three years of her running career, she tells me, “Coach Dunn, I am NEVER going to do that EVER again!”

For the record, she may not race again but I have it on good authority she’s still jogging. Rumor has it, she and Megan Westmoreland went for a spin at Chastain Park just the other day.

Until next time,

“Behind every good man is a woman rolling her eyes.”

Dunn Neugebauer

Peace be yours, today and always