Sports Talk: A Bittersweet farewell to Casey County's Finest

As a correspondent sports writer for The Casey County News, I write an weekly editorial column for the publication. Published Feb. 19, 2014.  
In his second to last regular season home game last Saturday, parents, players, alums, fans and friends celebrated the career of 19-year Lady Rebel Coach Randy Salyers. For those who missed it, I encourage you to be there this Friday in his final regular season home game.

Photo Credit: Carpe-Imago/Chris Zollner

It just so works out that Coach Salyers gets a couple extra (hopefully two!) games in the Rebel gymnasium since CCHS is the host of this year's district tournament.
 
For me, Coach Salyers has been everything from a coach to a middle school P.E. teacher to a friend, and, like many, I have never really known Lady Rebel basketball without him.
 
My relationship with Coach Salyers began around 1998. As a sixth grader, many of my peers and I stepped up to the play with the middle school basketball team. While Coach was already working at the high school level, it was obvious he had great interest in the up and coming Lady Rebs and developing them. (I also ran track for the first time this year and, for those who don't know, he was the track Coach in those days and oversaw numerous state contenders and even state champions.)

Presenting Coach with a quilt made of
Lady Rebel Tshirts from throughout his career.

I was too young to think a lot about the fact Coach Salyers was showing such interest in the youth of the Casey County girls' basketball program, but looking back, it's obvious he was already in it for the long haul. The summer after sixth grade he was already encouraging us to attend his open gym practices and working with the middle school coaches, including Coach Darryl Barlow. He was the eighth grade coach at the time and now sits proudly alongside Coach Salyers on the high school level and has for a number of years.

1998 would have only been two years into Coach Salyers' career with the Lady Rebs, but that detail was unbeknownst to a youngster like me. By the time I was in eighth grade, several of my classmates were dressing on his varsity squad that won the 12th Region tournament and competed in the KHSAA Sweet Sixteen. I had no idea I was riding in on the building of something historical for Casey County sports. I'm not talking about the program's first trip to the state tournament, but Coach Salyers' career that would see so many accomplishments and make Casey County a regular top contender in the 12th Region.
 
I did not finish my high school career as a basketball player for Coach. I gave it up my junior year to focus my efforts on running, but having dedicated so many years--summers included--to the basketball life, I could not so easily walk away. You see, Coach Salyers has a way of creating a family out of his basketball team and leaving that was impossible for me, so I stayed on as a manager for the next two years and happily saw my classmates capture back-to-back district titles in 2003 and 2004.

It's a rare exception that a parent is completely OK with someone besides themselves yelling at their daughter and it's a rare exception that a young lady can handle a grown man yelling at her, but, again, Coach Salyers has a way of making his team a family. In a family you genuinely care about each other and have a special understandings and every player under Coach Salyers understood how much he wanted to see us thrive on the court. We've all seen Coach Salyers yell at his players pretty intensely during games (that or we've experienced it first hand AS one of those players!) But Coach also always has his players' backs. He is the kind of coach that made you want to work your tail off for him, and when you did that, he would go to battle for you. If you were at last Saturday's Mercer County game, you saw that first hand.

Aside from being my coach, in both track and basketball, Coach Salyers has been a dear friend in my years since graduation, and like many I will sorely miss his presence in the county when he is gone, but could not be happier for him during this change in his life.

Two of my good friends whom I played ball with under Coach.

I have to add a fun fact to this article. I am sure many wonder why in the world my by-line includes "Peat" and I will not go into where the nickname originated. Honestly I don't even know, as I have had it since before I can remember and it began as simply a family nickname used by my parents and relatives. Coach Salyers, however, having heard my dad call me "Peat" at sporting events was the first person outside of my family to publicly call me "Peat" (embarrassing the dickens out of me!), but from there I began to embrace the name and more and more people called me "Rita Peat". By the time I was in high school few people did not know the nickname and some even confused "Peat" as my last name. If it were not for Coach Salyers, my by-line may only read "Rita Harris".

I still have not wrapped my head around a season of Lady Rebel basketball without Coach Salyers. The girls playing today were not even alive when his career began 19 years ago. But, without a doubt, girls' ball at CCHS will continue and it will likely continue to thrive on the foundation Coach Salyers spent so much of his life building.For that, he will never, ever be forgotten in Casey County. I like to think that one day my daughter, born only four months ago, will also know of Coach Randy Salyers' reign over the Lady Rebels and the name he brought to the program across the 12th Region.

Farewell to the Love Shack

It's officially over. Our five year affair of fun with the Love Shack in West Mansfield, Ohio is officially over. It's hard to say whether five years have passed quickly or slowly. In so many ways, the fun had on that exciting weekend in October 2008 seems only, oh, maybe a year ago. At the same time, the worlds we are all in are oh-so-different now.

October 2008: Our inaugural gathering at The Love Shack

August 2013: The final gathering at The Love Shack

The Beginning: October 2008
Our good friend Gress took a job in Columbus after finishing speed school at UofL in 2008. We sent him off with a ridiculous shindig in July (that also felt very much like a shindig saying farewell to my college career...). By October Gress had found a place to call home in Ohio and where his, then girl friend (now wife), Boo, would be moving in with him. I'm pretty sure it was the weekend after Gress first received the keys to his new home that about 12 of us made the road trip north to visit. The house, located on several acres of land on a lonely state highway with few and far between neighbors, was still completely empty. We all brought pillows and blankets and cozy clothes and (most importantly, then) lots of booze. Most of us being still in "college mode" to some degree at least, floor beds were welcome. Simply having a pillow and blanket to go with the floor was a luxury--that is if you could find both before simply opting for passing out wherever you fell. We had a ridiculously fun weekend that I know all of us will always remember (despite how much we never remembered to begin with). 

Gress Family Portrait in 2008 before they were officially a family!

Present: The last weekend of August 2013, we packed up all of that stuff that hadn't even made its way into the home in October 2008 and had a convoy to Kentucky as the Gresses made their move back to Louisville. 

What's happened between now and then?

• Boo & Gress got engaged and married.
• Nic and Michelle, newlyweds then, are expecting baby #1 now.
• Chad is engaged to a lovely lady none of us even had the pleasure of knowing in 2008.
• Benzo has written and composed an entire album of original music that he now performs with his own band
• Dani, no longer with her 2008 guy, is in a serious relationship with her current boyfriend and has completed her masters.
• Joshie is overseas with the National Guard traveling all over the middle east.
• Deutsch, not even 21 in 2008, is well through his Bellarmine career, working for a TV station while his serious girlfriend pursues her masters.
• Jaso couldn't even attend our final trip to Ohio, because it was only days before he left for bootcamp with the National Guard.
• Ben and Miche, who were merely friends on opposite sides of our circle of friends then, are now engaged--thanks to the sparks that flew in October 2008.
• Me, a recent college grad with Mingus nowhere on my radar then (who didn't even make his first Love Shack trip with us that October), is now happily married almost two years and is expecting baby #1. 

The Story Behind the Name: The Love Shack

The house was named the Love Shack for obvious reasons, starting with Miche and Ben. It was solidified after Mingus and I. I cannot recall that I ever recounted mine and Mingus's beginning, but the Love Shack most definitely had everything to do with it. The funny thing about both Ben & Miche and Mingus & I is that our beginnings are so similar. In both cases we knew each other for years prior to a relationship. We'd been at many of the same parties, events and outings because of being in the same circle of friends; thus the reason we would end up at the Love Shack together--visiting mutual friends. However, between coming in on opposite sides of that circle and the fact that one person in each of the duos (Miche and Mingus) were in serious relationships throughout these years of crossed paths, we never really even got to know each other for years. 

But then the Love Shack happened.

Ben & Miche: October 2008

Their story happened all on its own accord; however, several of us dreamed up what a perfect match they could be leading up to that first weekend. Myself and the three who traveled north with me for that weekend even plotted on our drive how this weekend could be an ideal time to push the two together. No plotting was necessary. Although coming in separate vehicles, they two of them were already at the Love Shack when we arrived and the sparks were clearly already flying. They did not leave in separate vehicles that weekend and they never looked back either.

August 2013: The original Love Shack Lovers,
now planning a wedding!

Peat & Mingus: January 2010
A year and a half later I made my second trip to the Love Shack. I had not planned to make the trip at all. Why Mingus asked me to ride to Ohio with him for a weekend, when we weren't really even close friends and we never talked or why I said "yes" when he asked me on a Tuesday and we left on a Friday, are both mysteries that can only be described as FATE. I almost always had weekend plans with friends then, or when I didn't, I usually welcomed the down time. FATE is the only answer I have for why I'd agree to a last minute road trip with someone who was practically a stranger. But instead it was the best decision either of us ever made. While our time spent at the Love Shack that weekend was a blast--other friends joined us up there--it was the hours on the road to and from that opened our eyes to each other in a new way. By the time we returned to Louisville, neither of us wanted to say goodbye. We had dinner that night and spent the next day, MLK Day, together as well...and we never looked back.

January 2010: The road trip weekend that started it all!

August 2013: Married & Expecting in less than 2 months!

We've all made various trips to West Mansfield over the years. Sometimes it was the giant crew of us again, other times it was only a couple of us. We've had our crazy shenanigans, we've planned weddings, talked babies, cooked together, baked together, played in the snow, had fun trips to Columbus and so much more. An annual favorite was always Chinese New Year, which is what we celebrated the first weekend Mingus and I made our trip together in 2010. (See 2012 here and 2013 here.) 

There were eight of us who joined Gress and Sara the last weekend of August to help them pack up the giant Uhaul and embark on the caravan of five vehicles to Louisville. While maybe Miche & Ben and Mingus & I have our individual love stories that inspired the name for the Love Shack, I think the real love that the 70's ranch home brought about was a love of a group of friends. I know every one of us who ever made the trip to the Love Shack felt it... It was a special intimacy we share as friends that was especially nurtured at the Love Shack. Any time we gathered here, far north from our homes and out of the city it was more like a family reunion than a friend reunion. While the first trip revolved around our crazy shenanigans that were quite common at that time in our lives, as time rolled on, the trips were more about time together and the chance to try new things together and make new memories. We've all gotten busier and settled into our individual lives, but somehow we've grown closer even with not maybe spending quite as much time together. 

We will miss out getaway house, the Love Shack, but we are stoked to have our wonderful friends back in Kentucky and close to home for the rest of us.

August 2013: Ready to unload the Uhaul at their new Louisville home!

Chinese CRew Year: The Year of the Snake

It was another relaxing and wonderful weekend up north at the beloved Love Shack! It was our last Chinese New Year celebration at the Love Shack, which is of course bittersweet. We all have excellent, fun memories at the Gress house in West Mansfield, (including mine & Mingus's epic road trip that started it all for us), but the departure from the Love Shack will also mean we get the Gress's back in Kentucky--Louisville to be exact--and we are all stoked about that news.

Ten of us traveled from Kentucky to make a crew of 12 for the weekend. While we had layers of ice in central KY, no snow to be seen, but luckily it was coming down in Ohio. No blizzard repeat of 35 years ago (thank goodness!) but enough for my Mingus to play from the time we arrived on Friday night (MIDNIGHT!) until 2am! The next day, after a delicious brunch at the Amish restaurant in Plain City, Der Dutchman, we got some disc sleds and Gress took us on 4-wheeler rides through the snow. We may have all come out with some bangs and bruises but all totally worth it.

At least they still get snow in Ohio! Had lots of fun playing outside!

Four Wheeler Rides = Excellent idea!
Except $5 disc sleds don't last long... we destroyed three!

Mingus getting me all safety strapped in for my turn!

We of course did the traditional Chinese feast, which this year's menu included: Orange Chicken, vegetable spring rolls, miso soup, and vegetable fried rice. We of course made an elaborate cupcake display in honor of the Year of the Snake and to celebrate BenDeisel's birthday. 

Host Sara-Boo working on delicious Orange Chicken for our Chinese feast!

The fumes were SO strong--which was great for the flavor
of dinner itself, but bad for the eyes. Miche improvised well!

Double Headed Wang for the Year of the Snake!

While the ladies took care of most of dinner prep, the men had an epic couch burning. The old yellow couch, originally belonging to Gress's grandmother, traveled with him from place to place through our party years in Louisville and we finally bid it farewell (as it's not something the two of them want to tote back to Kentucky in their move.) After the sharing of fond memories around the couch, the men took it outside for a giant bonfire.

Reminiscing Apartment and 1040 memories from the epic yellow couch that
lived through it all... The couch went out with a bang!

A great way to spend our last Chinese New Year at the Love Shack!

Fantastic group of friends! We are so blessed!

Chinese New Year 2012: Puff The Magic New Year.

Sports Talk: Holiday Tournament Memories

As a correspondent sports writer for The Casey County News, I write an weekly editorial column for the publication. Published Dec. 26, 2012. 

No matter who you are or how old you get, Christmas break is a thrill. Of course, as we get older, the profession we choose oftentimes shrinks the amount of time our “break” consists of and hopefully we at least get the 25^th itself!

The break while in school, though, is always such a relief. No studying, no books, no class, or waking up early. However, as a basketball player, it usually meant holiday tournament time.

There are pros and cons to the holiday tournaments. It means your “break” is less of a break than that of many friends. Your schedule is still very much dictated to you: practice times, game times, bus departure times, etc.

I played for the Lady Rebels as a freshman and sophomore, sophomore year being the only season I was a member of the varsity team. As a junior and senior I chose to forgo my hoops career but stayed on as a team manager, so I was still traveling with the team through Christmas break.

There was a part of me that did not like it at all at that time. The Christmas season is full of so many fun traditions: present wrapping, cards, music, baking, shopping—the list goes on and on.

However, I look back now and realize that some of my most prominent high school Christmas break memories come from my tournament traveling.

Christmas is a time for family and tradition, but as a high school athlete, your team does become a family of sorts. The fact I stayed on as a manager for the Lady Rebels proves just that. Giving up the sport was difficult in its own right, but what made the decision hardest was giving up the time investment I’d put into the team: my closest friends and coaches. Wanting to still be a part of that family, I became a manager.

Christmas tournaments were always competitive. We won games and lost games. It was an opportunity to see some competition outside of the normal district and regional teams we played every season, but it was also extra time and fun with most of my closest friends.

The traveling oftentimes meant staying overnight somewhere and eating out. Oftentimes there was down time between games when parents would take us shopping or out for other fun adventures together.

The Lady Rebels competed in Gatlinburg, Tenn. last weekend, a tournament I remember traveling for during my time with the team.  Sure, I loved being home at Christmas time, but looking back the memories from the travel are irreplaceable. Lots of late night laughs in hotel rooms; ice skating, shopping and simply experiencing Gatlinburg at Christmas time.

What I didn’t consider during those years was that my teammates and I were not the only ones giving up our holiday time for the sake of a sport. The coaches and parents were also giving us, the athletes, their time. Because they were willing to spend their breaks on demanding schedules, me and my teammates—my friends—had the opportunity to compete while also creating great memories together.

Family is such an important and meaningful part of this time of year and not just those in blood relation: everyone from your parents and siblings to your coaches and teammates. No matter who you are spending your winter break time with, enjoy it, cherish it, and be grateful for those people.

To all the single ladies and fairytale dreamers....

Despite being married now, I still find myself  nodding my head and relating to the single girls standing up for their single life. The older we get, the more the question is asked "So why are you still alone?"  I commend those who refuse to "settle" because they know that their knight in shining armor is out there. They know someone exists for them and that God will align their paths when the time is right...Some will roll their eyes but my belief in this got me exactly what I was looking for...

I don't just say this because I'm happily married now, but because I look back and see that, without a doubt, God opened our eyes to one another when he knew it was right and not a moment sooner... Indeed there were plenty of chances for us to hit it off sooner.

Just to prove my point....witness this recent discovery by a very close friend............

You'll remember my friend Micah who traveled to Brazil with me in 2010. He and I go way back. We're talking 5th-grade-way-back. 

In the spring of 2006, Micah hosted a get-together at his mother's house for a semi-small group of friends. There were about six of us who'd graduated high school together. I brought a few other friends who knew Micah. My older brother Nic also came with a few of his closest friends.

We hung out in the sunshine all afternoon.We grilled, enjoyed drinks, played yard games and hit up the hot tub. Later that day I made my first (and only to date) trek through downtown Louisville for Thunder Over Louisville at the Ohio River. It was a madhouse but exciting to say the least. Nic hosted the post-party at his apartment. 

A fun, fun spring day in Kentucky. One of the many memorable college events where my camera was overly active in documenting the fun.

Ah, but it documented something else--or someone else I should say--as well. 

Among that group of close friends at Micah's was none other that my Mingus. He's right there in the thick of the fun happening in several pictures. He's there laughing with my closest guy friends. How did he not become a closer friend because of this day? 

Valerie and I at Micah's Party in 2006.
Jon was just over my shoulder when we took this picture...

What makes this 2006 gathering different than the others over the years--besides the fact I never knew he was there--is that this was as small, more intimate group gathering. It really shows that we were staring each other in the face but we were kept blind to each other for one reason or another.

Given, we were both wrapped up in own love lives at this point in time. He had a girlfriend. I was spinning circles with several confusing loose ends in the relationship world. But that never kept me from becomes friends with Nic's other friends. 

Jon and I connected immediately on that day we finally did hold a conversation. Could it have happened had we simply decided to hold a conversation on that sunny spring day in 2006? 

Needless to say, there is no answer to that question, and frankly, I don't care about the answer. 
If we had hit it off that day and started dating? I can't say the course of my life would have followed the path that it did for the next four years and I had a great college career as a single gal living it up with my girl friends. What would he say? Ha, I'm not sure but since I do know a tad about his adventures (thanks to my brother and mutual friends) I'd venture to say he wouldn't trade in those memories either.

We needed those four extra years to explore ourselves and independently grow before we could best begin to better each other. 

My dad once told me that if we would go back and change anything about our lives it must mean we aren't really happy with where are lives are presently. Any one change to the past would cause a ripple effect of changes to the aftermath and alter the present as we know it and everything in between. I couldn't be happier now, so I'm more than grateful to have been single for years and letting God steady my heart while waiting for "the one".

Told to me by my Pa shortly after graduating Bellarmine. 

My Wedding on a Budget: 30 Days to Go!

ONE MONTH!!!
Can you believe it?! Sometimes it really hits me and I start thinking about all of the people that will be there, together, celebrating and simply having a wonderful time and it makes me both joyous and tear up at the same time. I remember the entire year prior to Nic and Michelle's wedding I was so excited. I would hear songs on my iPod and begin daydreaming about the amazing day it would be. It was also the summer after I graduated from Bellarmine, so I sort of saw it as the great finale of my Bellarmine run. (Which, most should know, was an amazing four years.) Well it hit me today, that I have been so caught up in planning that I've not stop to realize how excited I am just for the event itself. Being married to Jon is something I have wanted for a long time and having a life we live as one is something he and I have talked much about. As our day nears, and RSVPs are coming in, I have begun to realize all of these wonderful people who will REALLY be in one place with us.

I think this reality is partially hitting because I've been working out lots of the logistics lately. I'm literaly writing out the entire day from the perspective of everyone who has a role and what they will need to be doing. I want to think it all through now, so that day I'm not worrying about it and I can turn it over to Cassie, who is our day-of coordinator, and let the questions come to her. However, what this play-by-play has made me realize is how PACKED the day will be! How much will be going on at once and that every 15 or 30 minute interval will end up feeling like 5 or 10 minutes. I already know I won't get to talk with everyone as much as I want. I already know I won't get every last picture I want. I already know something will go wrong. I already know something will happen late. I already know I'll want to dance more than I get to. I already know they'll be a song we forget to play. I already know the day will be over in the blink of an eye.

When I was about 11 years old my family took a vacation to Disney World. In preparation for it Mom bought several books--one of each park--so we'd be able to look through and decide what in each park was most important to us kids so it would help her plan the trip. The anticipation was unbelievable. So you can imagine what it felt like for us kids once we got to Florida and we were stuck at Alamo car rental for what seemed like hours upon hours waiting for our rental car. Mom had disappeared to go get it and we waited outside with Pa and began to think she'd never come back. Although he was probably anxious to get going as well, as an attempt to make us children "chill", he warned us, "You know, before you know it you'll be getting on a plane to ride home because it will all be over and you're going to wish you were back here at Alamo. That's right. You'll want to be here. So you better just enjoy it." Whether we understood it then or not, the phrase "wishing you were back at Alamo" became very common in our household, particularly for occasions like Christmas Eve.

I wouldn't say I'm quite at Alamo yet with the wedding prep. I'm probably still looking through the books. I've already picked out where I want to go and now I'm just planning out the itinerary. The play-by-play. No doubt Alamo will be here soon enough, starting with my bachelorette the weekend before the wedding day, and once again, I'll be wishing I was back at Alamo.

Leaving My Mark

One of the best feelings in the world, if you ask me, is knowing that you had an impact on somebody or something--that you left something behind. I will be the first to admit that my talents as a runner were never the number one asset for the Bellarmine track team during my four year tenure. I will quickly be a name that came and went on the roster, as any records I was ever a part of setting have probably already been surpassed with the quickly growing and bettering team. However, it brought a smile to my face and a small tug at my heart to realize what I did leave behind: a tradition of fun.

The very first Wacky Friday practice in 2006.

I recently found on the Facebook profile of a former teammate a picture of her and some of the others I used to run with along with several unfamiliar faces in the lobby of Knights Hall dressed in crazy colors, goofy hats and tall socks. The 2009 season has started...and Coach Washington's running group had Wacky Friday. 

2007

As a sophomore at Bellarmine myself and the other girls in my running group initiated a day-before-meeting tradition of dressing ridiculously for our light practice. We were an extremely close group with many of us living in a suite on campus together. The following year we had a strong group of freshman who embraced Wacky Fridays for all that they were. By my senior year most of the girls who'd set the precedent with me had moved on from their collegiate athlete days. Even with the team dynamic changing quickly, Friday practices not always being run the way they once were and many of those who "understood" Wacky Friday being gone, I couldn't let my tradition die before I left. Wacky Friday lived on by my seniority enforcement.

2008

I honestly thought without the understanding of it's origin or the originators around the goofy ritual would surely be over. But indeed it is not. Girls I've never known or had any running connection to put on their wacky attire and headed to practice a week ago. Smiling and posing together I can look at those pictures and know, "Washington still has a good group of girls running with him."

2009

It makes me so proud of last year's freshman to have carried on that bit of fun and team bonding I helped show them last year. I can't help but feel a little pride myself, as well though, to look at those pictures and think I did that. There is a piece of RitaPeat that lives on with Bellarmine Track, and the fact that piece is an element of fun and not an outstanding record, almost makes me more proud.

Read here the blog post I wrote for my writing for the web class my junior year to learn the history of Wacky Friday and how it came about.

Quotes: At the end of the day

"That's how I try to structure my life: to try to do what will produce the best memories for later...At the end of the day, even if you didn't accomplish anything, you'll have these great memories of all the people you've met and all the places you've been and all these things that you've done and all this time that you've shared with your friends." [Kris Roe, The Ataris.]