Peaking in High School
 

I just got some tragic news last night. It concerns an aquaintance of my children. This young man is 22 years old - a couple of years younger than my middle daughter and one year older than my son.

He was the typical high school jock - pitcher on the baseball team, quarterback of the football team. He probabaly pulled a lot of the high school cheerleader types. Socially, he was a total a-hole. He once actually swung a bat at my daughter when they were about 8 years old, and he didn't get any better with age.

It's a classic symptom of everyone covering for his bad behavior based on his athletic abilities. Anyway, like most athletes who are great in high school, he found he couldn't dominate in college, because everyone is a great athlete in the NCAA.

Things went from bad to worse, and the young man took to drinking (or more probably increased his drinking). Then he lost his scholarship and started really circling the drain. Well, we just found out last night that he got blasted, got into a car accident, and is now in a coma - from which he is not expected to recover.

This family has had a pretty bad run of late, most of it their own doing. The mother (who is a genuine beauty) got with the high school baseball coach a few years back (trying to get the boy more innings?). She was really high maintenance and about worked the dad to death (he was an a-hole as well).

I guess the point of this whole rant is to point out that so what if you aren't the next Tom Brady or Johan Santana. No one is! How many times have you seen guys (or gals) who are bitter to the point of distraction because the highlight of their life is high school. It's tragic when you live the rest of your life trying to recapture past glory.

Al Bundy

I had a friend was a big baseball player
back in high school
He could throw that speedball by you
Make you look like a fool boy
Saw him the other night at this roadside bar
I was walking in, he was walking out
We went back inside sat down had a few drinks
but all he kept talking about was

Chorus:
Glory days well they'll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl's eye
Glory days, glory days

Well there's a girl that lives up the block
back in school she could turn all the boy's heads
Sometimes on a Friday I'll stop by
and have a few drinks after she put her kids to bed
Her and her husband Bobby well they split up
I guess it's two years gone by now
We just sit around talking about the old times,
she says when she feels like crying
she starts laughing thinking about

Chorus

My old man worked 20 years on the line
and they let him go
Now everywhere he goes out looking for work
they just tell him that he's too old
I was 9 nine years old and he was working at the
Metuchen Ford plant assembly line
Now he just sits on a stool down at the Legion hall
but I can tell what's on his mind

Glory days yeah goin back
Glory days aw he ain't never had
Glory days, glory days

Now I think I'm going down to the well tonight
and I'm going to drink till I get my fill
And I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it
but I probably will
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
a little of the glory of, well time slips away
and leaves you with nothing mister but
boring stories of glory days

I was usually peeking in HS. IE; drop the pencil in the aisle... I degress.

Our HS quarterback was all conference. He drove the 67 Vette, of course back then it wasn't quite new, but it wasn't a classic yet either. Still the rest of us had a slight envy green tinge as he dated all the cheerleaders.

He didn't take a snap in college. Probably typical of a majority of HS athletes.

I'll be glad if our Son graduates and my Daughter doesn't get pregnant! The rest is gravey...

I peaked in college. ;)

A friend of a friend of mine has a similar story. He was the star running back of his high school team. He could litterally run circles around the other high school kids. He got a full ride to Notre Dame and was surprised that he didn't walk right into a starting position freshmen year. He also figured he would be allowed to breeze through classes like in high school. His only start in college he got injured and was out for the rest of his freshmen year. He was put on academic probation and barred from playing his sophomore year. He was booted from the university second semester sophomore year. He ended up coming to Illinois State where he got injured again, and finally got to play a little in his fifth year. More academic problems. He ended up leaving ISU without a degree and running with a bunch of thugs. I think he's in jail now.

I realized quickly that college is a lot different than high school. I was a pretty good gymnast in high school (or so I thought) - all city, all conference, in Oakland, CA. Well I tried to walk on in college and realized that I pretty much sucked! Those college athletes worked out about twice as long and twice as hard.

But fortunately, I realized my limitations and switched to dominating church league softball, volleyball and basketball! I'm a regular Bo Jackson... I guess I should say a relative Bo Jackson, when it comes to sad, pathetic, non-athletes playing "organized" sports.

I guess some of our stars peaked in HS because they are now gals! Then maybe not?

I would think the best part for this guy is he received a full ride to college. Hell, screw the sports. The full ride is the gold.

First thing I thought of, too.

I couldn't possible imagine how miserable I'd be if my "glory days" were 20 years behind me, and counting. I was just reflecting this afternoon that I'm living them now, and things are only getting better. The point was kind of hammered home yesterday, stepping out of a vintage Porsche into a beautiful late afternoon autumn sun, after doing 15 or 20 killer fast (by my standards) laps at the track. Life is good :)

I saw a disproportionate number of P-cars when I was in Regina, SK this past June. There are a lot of P-cars in Houston, but they're obscured by all the pick up trucks.

Isn't the weather pretty nice in Canada right about now? We're still picking up after the beat down that Ike put on us.

Actually, it's a classic symptom of crap parenting. Most times one or both parents are living an extremely self-centered lifestyle, the kid/s have an extremely tough, uphill battle to end up anywhere near stable in college and thereafter.

The guy who was the best athlete in my h.s. had great parents, and I truly don't know how much college ball he played... may have had a partial baseball scholarship... but he was very well-balanced and is to this day. He was athletic director at App. State for a good while. Very solid guy, with a solid family of his own... still married to his h.s. sweetheart, too.

It's the parenting... or in the case of the guy you describe, the lack of it.

Well you can't really say "the weather in Canada" - we are some 5000 km wide :) It's probably snowing in some areas, whereas it's 20 something degrees here (celsius - don't know what that is in F, but it's comfortable). Yesterday was just a bit on the cool side for the morning and the track didn't get that hot, but we saw about 25 yesterday, which got things nice and sticky.

Kurt V beat me to the Springsteen post.

I always laugh when I see those "your Prom" magazines at the store. For some of the girls THAT will be the event of their life since about 8 months later the shotgun wedding won't be as glamorous.

I hated high school. I worked hard (well...at the very end) so that I could get into college and get on with my life. I worked hard in college so that I could get a job and get on with my wife. I work hard (ignore the 12,000 posts ;)) at my job so that I can die rich.

Okay, truth be told I've started LIVING my life after college. And I finally feel like I'm moving into a place at work where I am respected and can do great things, but it took 8 years demonstrating that I deserved the opportunity first.

I never want to obsess about the past being my best days.

I'm still waiting to peak. :) or :eek:

Sherwood

Both my boys were pretty good swimmers in high school.. both made "States" [Virginia].. and now both swim for their respective Universities.. George Mason and Univ South Carolina... not olympic caliber.. but both enjoy the comaradie and disipline of collegient swimming... and both doing pretty good academicily [better that my spelling]..

For the most part, I dislike jocks(even at the pro level, depend on the sport of course), especially in high school. I think they are all A$$ holes. It really depend on what kind of sports you play? I don't expect the start tennis player to be a jerk but the quarter back... ? I rode USCF bicycle races in high school and didn't do any of the ball and team stuff but cross country to keep in shape for the next race season. I was the super nerd with tights and shaved legs. My horns would come out when I got on the saddle.

I teach woodshop 3 hours a day in a local high school. The football coaches a bunch of butt heads also (They coach hi school ball, whooo hooo real bad A$$es). They can turn their backs on a bunch of upper classmen picking on the typical younger kids. Picture your typical high school movie stuff. Freaking bull $hit. That's where it starts

HS sucks and i'm still in it!