Thursday, April 15, 2010

Crowley Eagle Baseball

Some of our best times at Crowley High School were spent at the baseball field. My fondest memories are seeing Chris out on the field. We were very close to Chris' coach, Mark Jones. He was such a great example to the boys in everything he did. He worked hard to share his faith in any possible. Coach Jones is retiring this year after about 30 years at CHS.
One of the many funny memories I have of Coach Jones happened Chris' senior year. I was the editor of the yearbook that year, so I spent a lot of time during the school day going out to business "trying to get advertisements". One day, a friend and I were trying to get Chili's to do one and of course they said no. So since we were there... we thought we'd grab some lunch. I ordered a burger (oh to have that high school metabolism) and took Chris' high school ring off so it wouldn't get grease all over it. I proudly wore his ring on my thumb with layers of tape wrapped around it so that it would fit. I didn't realize until we got back to school that I'd left it at Chili's. I ran back and it was gone. I knew Chris was going to be mad, since he had paid for it with his own money. I trudged up to the baseball advisory room to tell him the news. My face was all red because I had obviously been crying. I stuck my head in and asked Coach Jones if I could talk to Chris. Immediately, he grilled Chris about what he could possibly have done to make me cry. Chris looked at him in confusion. He made it very clear to Chris that whatever it was that we needed to talk about should not involve Chris upsetting me further. Therefore, Chris had no choice but to take it calmly and give me a hug. I've been thinking about keeping Coach Jones' number on hand for when I break my shopping bills to Chris in the future.
Anyway, a large group of alumni showed up to surprise him at last Friday's game. It was very touching and emotional for all of us. What a sweet time of reunion and memories.

Chris and some buddies
Coach hugging Charlie.
Coach and Chris
Me and Lindz

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