Dec. 29, 2008

Personal account written by Davenport (Mich.) head coach Mark Youngs

About four years ago, I finished "They Call Me Coach", a book written by John Wooden.  After reading the book, I decided to do my best to contact Coach Wooden and tell him how much the book meant to me as a person and as a coach.  We exchanged a few letters and I offered to fly out to L.A. to meet him for breakfast at his favorite restaurant, VIP's.  His daughter then called me and told me of him coming to Western Michigan University to speak, and that they would meet me after the speech.  I got to talk with Coach that evening, got my picture with him and have since repeated the story of our meeting at least a hundred times. 

Two weeks ago, I decided to write Coach again and tell him that I was going to be in his neighborhood on Dec. 27th. We all signed a Christmas card, included a program and I told him that I planned on taking my team to his favorite restaurant that morning.  I didn't hear back from coach this time, but I figured that maybe my letter got lost in the mail, or maybe, due to Coach now being 98 years old, that he just wasn't up to writing back any more. 

We decided to go to VIP's this morning anyway, whether Coach would be there or not.  We showed up at 9:15 am and there was no Coach Wooden in site.  We were treated like celebrities at VIP's, the owner took a picture of our team and said he'd put it on the wall between Coach Wooden's and Harrison Ford's (another frequent patron).  The owner took me aside and said that Coach's caregiver (Tony) was at the end of the bar and would like to speak with me.  Tony said that we had missed Coach by 15 minutes but that we could maybe meet him later in the week if possible.  I knew that there would be no way we could do this due to our games being in San Diego and Riverside during the upcoming week but thanked him for his time. 

As Tony walked out, two of our players (Carrie Grubius and Karlee Despres) asked Tony if we could maybe just follow him to Coach's place.  Tony called Coach and Coach said that he would be happy to meet with us.  We followed Tony to Coach's apartment and he led us inside.  Coach was sitting in the middle of his living room with a huge smile on his face as we walked in.  He shook each girl's hand and the girls gathered around him and sat down.

For an hour and a half, Coach John Wooden recited poetry, told stories, posed for pictures and signed copies of his "Pyramid of Success" for each one of the players.  He allowed us to look at all of his awards, all of his hundreds of books (most written about Mother Theresa, Abraham Lincoln or himself).   He asked us to recite a pledge of sportsmanship and he gave us all copies of the pledge. Coach Wooden beamed as he spoke with our team.  It was as if he couldn't do enough for us (he even shared his favorite candy from a candy shop in his childhood home of Martinsville, IN). 

He spoke of competitive greatness and how he said he could feel a wonderful spirit within our group.  He told the girls that "faith, family and friends are all that they would need to be successful".  We presented Coach with a Davenport team jacket and we all shook his hand or gave him a hug good-bye.  He even wheeled his chair out onto his balcony and waved to us as we drove off, like a grandfather saying good-bye to his new-found grandchildren.

Today was a day that none of us will ever forget.  The greatest coach of all-time showed a bunch of small college athletes and coaches why he is considered the best ever.  He treated us as if WE were the ones doing the favor.

And about that last letter that I had sent to Coach; sitting on his coffee table when we walked in was a copy of the 2008-09 Davenport University Women's Basketball media guide along with the letter and Christmas cards that we had sent just over two weeks ago.