And so it begins

This Wednesday at nine o’clock in the morning, the bells will ring at St. Ben’s and St. John’s to welcome the class of 2016 and usher in another school year.  For the first time since 2003, I will not be there to walk in late, loudly greet my fellow faculty members, complain that the coffee pot is empty, play country music too loudly, and strum incorrect notes on my guitar.  Instead, I will be on sabbatical, initially nestled away in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming.

 

Spending the last several months with John has been an amazing experience.  But last week, I visited him for the final time (until the season is over), as we needed to go our separate ways.  For the 70^th straight year, the last 60 at Saint John’s, John will be consumed with coaching football.  And for the first time ever, after a year of anticipation, I will be consumed with writing a book.

Before heading to Wyoming, I packed-up two laptops, five previous books about John and St. John’s football, six notebooks full of scribbles, ten hours of videotape, 75 hours of audio recordings, and over 200 notes and letters from alumni.  My charge is to sift through this information and turn it into a couple hundred page book which describes how John has created such a powerful legacy.  While the reasons for his sustained success are clear in my mind, the challenge which will cause me to re-write the book several times, will be to write in a manner which will be interesting and inspiring to others.

I had been especially anxious over the past couple of months, as I was constantly worried about how to spend my final time with John.  But now that we have said goodbye, I find myself surprisingly relaxed.    It is refreshing to know that while I may never have all the information I need, I now have all of the information I am going to get - and my job is to do the best I can with it.  In essence, practice is over, and now it is game day.

Am I nervous?  I suppose so.  But more than anything, I am confident.  I have listened to John preach about the importance of confidence for quite some time, and he has created a monster.

Well, I am going to wrap-it up now; I’ve got something a bit more important to write about.  I’ll end by answering the question that many of you have asked me, “Where do you begin?”  My answer is that I’m not stressing about how or why to start; I am just kind of diving in. 

As John would say, “Just do it, damnit.”

 

 

 

The view from my rocking chair.

 

 

The view from the Bighorn Mountains.