I grew up in Arlington, VA and went to Yorktown HS. I have lived here for most all of my life (with the exception of the 4 years I lived in Charlottesville for college). I drove up to Yorktown High School yesterday to watch my good friend from High School, Jason Busby, coach the freshman basketball team. He and I played basketball together 9th through 11th grade. Jason was the starting point guard and really good player by his senior year on the varsity team. By that time I had chosen another sport.
When I drove past the school to the gym I saw many members of the Yorktown Track team running around the school on an easy distance run. It brought back memories.
As I watched those kids running around the school I thought about how fortunate they were to have chosen a sport that is something they can do for the rest of their life. The guys and girls that I saw running outside on Yorktown Boulevard looked like the either the Freshman or JV squad that wasn’t running particularly fast. But they were running. Those kids were building good habits that they could take with them for the rest of their lives; on a COLD December day before their Christmas break. And I guarantee none of them even thought one second about that. They were there to finish their training run that Yorktown head coach Mark Stripe had instructed them to do, then get back inside.
Jason’s freshman squad won and continued their undefeated season with a big win over Falls Church. Jason doesn’t play much basketball anymore with a 1 year old at home, but did have something exciting for me as we caught up on the court after the win: “After this basketball season I am going to start training to try to finish my first half marathon!” he said.
“What’s taken you so long?” I said jokingly.
Then I thought about how I tried to convince him 20 years ago to run Cross Country with me to get in shape for basketball.
Then I again thought about the kids running outside. “Jason! You would have run a one of these 13.1 milers 10 years ago if you had taken my advice…” I almost said – then thought of a more appropriate response:
“That’s awesome! I’ll write you up a schedule tomorrow!”
