Dear Diary: The World’s Greatest

WICHITA, Kan. — First let me say, what a ride.

This has been special. It has been one of the greatest weekends of my life. And by Sunday night, it will definitely be the best weekend of my life that involved a 15-hour bus ride.

By now you know how it turned out. The Pikeville College Bears, the men, had the most success they’ve ever had in the national tournament. Two wins propelled them to a fifth-place finish. They’re young, all could be returning, and now they know what it’s like to be along for the ride to a national title.

And then there’s the women’s team. National champions.

Ain’t it sweet? Let me type it again: You can never type it too much.

Pikeville College. National champions.

Hallelujah.

Two of these young ladies were around for one of the most disheartening mornings of our lives. In 2005, the year after the first title, we made it back to the bracket finals, or the final four, if you will.

Kayla Bandy and Michelle McKay were freshmen that year, new to the national tournament, and on the Friday of that event, they did exactly what we accomplished on Friday: Three matches, three wins. We were one win from a repeat trip to the national tournament.

Six of the seven members of the national-title team were there, along with the two freshmen. We faced West Texas A&M that morning, needing only one win. They needed to beat us twice.

And boy did they. They crushed us by scores of 4-0, 4-0, and sent us home. All that talent. All that experience.

And a bone-jarring loss. Make that two of them.

In 2004, Ron and I and I’m sure several other people tried to convince that team it needed to enjoy the moment while it could. Opportunities like that — regardless of how easy they made it look — don’t come around very often.

On the solemn bus ride back to the hotel that godforsaken Saturday, I sat alone with my thoughts when this one came to mind:

Maybe we’ll never make it back.

Not everybody does. Most people, in fact, never win one national championship. Maybe that was the moment God smiled on that little campus on the hill and gave us our crown.

And maybe it’ll never happen again.

But today, it did. Today we got to experience it all over again. This time it was a different town and only five of us — Myself and Ron, his wife Shella, my old English and French teacher, and President Smith and his wife Karen — were there to see it again.

But today, it happened again.

When something like this happens, I think of that line in II Peter, where he says of his time with Christ, and I’ll paraphrase here, “We were eyewitnesses of His majesty.”

Today, God blessed me to see another of those once-in-a-lifetime moments.

Speaking of God, here’s something else that happened today. Perhaps after you read this, you’ll have a little better understanding why these young people mean so much to me. It’s one of those things I get to see because Ron is so good to me that he not only brings me along for events like this but also lists me as his “assistant coach” so I get to go kind of behind the scenes.

After the initial celebrating on the television stage, we were asked to go back behind the curtain so they could present trophies to the final four teams in both the men’s and women’s tournament.

I was the last one of our 10 to the back and when I got there, Kayla Bandy had the entire team huddled up. I cannot begin to tell you how well she’s taken control of this team, along with fellow senior Michelle McKay.

There they were, knelt in a circle, and when Ron and I walked over to them, Kayla was talking. “Come on, girls,” she said. “Let’s pray.”

Mind you this wasn’t something I suggested, or even Ron, as good a man of God as I know. This was Kayla, the senior, the captain, telling her team, “God has blessed us, now let’s thank him for it.”

And she led one of the most beautiful prayers I’ve been blessed to be a part of.

I thank God for moments like that, for a job like I have, and for young people like I get to be around every day of my life.

It’s been an amazing ride. I’m thrilled to be a part of it. We leave here at 5:30 Sunday morning, a time that is approaching at a far more rapid pace than my old fingers are able to cover this keyboard. But it’s been worth every second of it to get this experience again.

I thank God for my opportunities. Because of them, I get to see things like a senior leading a prayer, and I get to know a few other inside things, like the one I’ll leave you with momentarily.

But first, let me say this. One of the best parts of my job is getting to know a few more of our student-athletes, young people who I get to know or maybe get to know a little better by spending a week with them.

This week I got to know some and reacquaint myself with others, and I can tell you, there are some special young people in this world. I now know some of them a lot better, and a couple — like Jennifer Wright and Amanda Hammel, a great assistant scorekeeper — I met for the first time.

These are special, special young ladies. When someone tells you this generation doesn’t amount to much, don’t believe it. They all aren’t disrespectful and easy to dislike.

One of the good ones is Bandy, which leads me back to my last inside story of this trip.

During the televised national finals, every time a Wichita bowler took her turn, our eight young ladies huddled stooped over in a circle, all eight heads leaning in.

Most people, I would imagine, was wondering what in the world they were doing. I’ll tell you what.

They were singing.

Right in the middle of the most mentally-challenging event of their young lifetimes, they were huddled together singing songs we’ve listened to all weekend on the bus rides to and from the bowling center.

This was cute, I thought, and then dismissed it until the media break during the second game. It was there that I noticed for the first time that our friends at CBS College Sports had Kayla “mic’ed up,” wearing a wireless clip-on lapel microphone.

About a moment after that, they were huddled again, with Kayla laying down the beat to “We Will Rock You,” by Queen.

And then it hit me.

She’d forgotten, I’m positive, that she was wearing the mic. And if they so choose, CBS College Sports can share this with the entire world when this airs this summer.

And, with only a slight apology to Kayla, I hope to God they do. That would be, as the late Chris Farley might say, awesome.

Thank you, ladies. Thank you Ron. Thank you Pikeville College.

And thank you God, for putting these young people in my life.

And now to end our little journey, a few parting words about our team, the 2008 USBC ITC national champion.

I’ve heard this a few times this week, and it sums up perfectly the adventure they’ve led us on.

So until next diary time, thanks for sharing the journey with us.

God bless you, God bless our team, and God bless Pikeville College.

I'm that star up in the sky
I'm that mountain peak up high
Hey I made it
I'm the world's greatest

I'm that little bit of hope
When my backs against the ropes
I can feel it
I'm the world's greatest …