It’s sort of like Punt, Pass, and Kick–but less competitive and more contemplative — Groundbreaking athletes always inspire me. I devour stories of women (and men, too) whose strength, determination, and courage have taken them to extremes unimaginable by armchair mortals like me. Just a few weeks ago, in fact, I devoted much of a post to Jasmin Paris (https://sherrychidwick.substack.com/p/im-no-jasmin-paris-but) , the first woman to finish the grueling Barkley Marathons. And don’t even get me started on the Olympics—winter or summer, any sport, any nation—I love it all.
I coulda been a contender
I used to consider myself an athlete back in the day. I grew up big and strong and coordinated, with a heart for competition, a brain for mechanics, and a work ethic that refused to quit.
Remember the NFL-sponsored youth program, “Punt, Pass & Kick”? I spent hundreds of hours, perhaps thousands, practicing these skills in my yard. Thousands more hours in the yard were devoted to soccer skills. And thousands more were spent playing catch with a baseball or softball, or fielding grounders and fly balls. In my spare time, I rode my bike up to the school playground to shoot hoops. Despite some early raw potential, though, I didn’t have a lot of opportunities to take sports very seriously—beyond the front yard—in my younger years. By the time I had the chance to play competitively, I was in high school, too late to catch up to those who had been doing it all along.
By my senior year in high school, I concluded sports wouldn’t be putting me through college, as I had assumed earlier on.
Time Out
SIDE NOTE: I had to compete at something, so my senior year I turned my attention to competitive public speaking—a skill I figured would serve me well in life, regardless of my declining physical prowess over the decades. I was right.
My high school speech coach was the legendary June Garner (who also coached comedian Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias) (https://laist.com/news/gabriel-iglesias-wilson-long-beach-netflix) at Woodrow Wilson High School.
And yes, this is the same Wilson featured in the 2007 Hilary Swank movie, The Freedom Writers, based on a true story that occurred a few years after I graduated. As you can imagine, a movie set at MY school, about a resilient and inspirational teacher who encouraged her students to write, is going to be a favorite of mine.
Here’s a preview:
Here’s the whole movie, if you have some time and want to be inspired:
Although I myself dropped out of competitive sports fairly early, I am still inspired by outstanding athletes. I don’t go out of my way to watch sports on TV or read sports magazines, though, so occasionally I stumble upon a player I’ve never heard of before, someone I missed over the years.
The hero I never knew
Kendra Wecker of Kansas (https://www.kshof.org/team/kendra-wecker) was only six years old when I graduated from high school, so she was never a hero of mine back then. But had one of us been able to somehow time travel, she would have been an absolute inspiration to me.
Kendra played all the sports growing up—volleyball, softball, track and field. She led her high school basketball team to an undefeated season culminating in the Kansas state championship her senior year—being named an All-American in the process.
Her powerful throwing arm allowed her to compete internationally for the United States, winning a world championship as a javelin thrower.
She was a dominating force for Kansas State University’s women’s basketball program in the early 2000s, being named to the All Big-12 First Team three out of four years. Her senior year, she was the Big 12’s Player of the Year and, 20 years later, is still listed among the best of the best (https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/kansas-state/women/leaders-and-records.html) in Kansas Wildcat history.
Upon graduation in 2005, Kendra was selected fourth overall in the first round of the WNBA draft. Tragically, she suffered a devastating injury in the first game of her first season with the WNBA and never made it back to her original position of dominance on the court, but she worked for many years after that helping to develop other players. Her love of the sport has never died.
But do you know what really got my attention about Kendra Wecker? This. Take a moment to watch this short video from a 1995 newscast:
At 12 years old, Kendra Wecker was a lot like me—playing sports with the boys on a snowy Midwestern school playground, or with her dad and siblings in the yard at home. Only she was much better than I ever was. She was what I aspired to be back then.
Who else would enjoy reading about this inspiring athlete? Share this post with them.
Same drive, different goals
These days, in my mid-50s, I’m no longer an athlete. I destroyed my throwing arm in the speed pitch booth at a minor league baseball park one summer about fifteen years ago (but not before I won s…
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