Luke The Drifter said:
Not the same, but I've become friends with many of the DBU coaches, players, and parents. What a fine group of folks. My daughter (no rule #1) dates a DBU ball player and getting to run in their circle has been a ton of fun.
There is nothing better than getting to hang with the players on a personal level and get to watch how they interact and grow into great young men.
I'll share a personal story if y'all don't mind. Over the years of my son being at OSU, I became the house cook when we were in town. We'd usually grill steaks once in the fall and have a couple of weekends in the spring when we would grill for about 12 to15 of the players and their families. If I wasn't grilling steaks, I'd grill carne asada and chicken fajitas for everyone. In 2018, the Tech series was the last series before the B12 tournament. It was a Thurs.-Sat. series with the Saturday game being a midafternoon game. We had planned to have everyone over to the house to grill out and I had pounds of marinated flank steak and chicken in the cooler. During the second inning, my brother called to let me know my dad had unexpectedly passed away. My dad was a huge baseball nut and was, obviously, very proud of his grandson. Before my wife and I left the stadium, I pulled a couple of the dads aside and told them about our situation and gave them instructions on everything we had ready, they just needed to grill. Our immediate reaction was to get in the car and start heading back to the metroplex. My parent lived south of Houston and we knew we had a long drive ahead. As we sat in the car and began to talk, our first thought went to our son. He loved his Papa and always enjoyed talking baseball with him. We made the decision to stay until after the game so we could tell him personally. He needed to hear it from us, not his girlfriend. We stayed in the car and cried and talk and talked with my siblings. After much discussion, we concluded there wasn't much we could do rushing off after the game and decided to stay for the cookout and be with our son. We felt that's what dad would've wanted, for us to take care of Ben and his teammates. That was the most amazing night and I couldn't have had any better therapy than cooking for the players and their families and honoring my dad. We left after the cookout and lots of hugs and tears. We love love those guys and they still communicate with us regularly.
Sorry so long.