Mike's Footsteps

I had the pleasure of meeting Mike and joining the DeSmet Lacrosse family five years ago when my husband began teaching and coaching at DeSmet. Through the years I’ve made lots of memories involving Mike, but there is one that will not stop playing in my mind. It was the weekend before he passed, and all three DeSmet teams were playing Columbia Rockbridge. JV played last and Mike stayed around to see the game. At the end of the game he leaned over my daughter, Stella (11 weeks at the time), in her stroller and said “Oh, I want one of these.” I made a comment on how wonderful babies are and he looked at me with that devilish grin and said “No, I meant a buggy for someone to push me around in!” he winked and softly punched me in the shoulder. What a stinker.

That is my favorite Mike memory, and unfortunately turned out to be the last I’ll ever make. I think that Mike realized that the toughest person to coach is your own child – inevitably your child will have inherited some of the weaknesses that you’ve worked so hard to overcome. Watching your child struggle in that same way, through those same things, has to be difficult and coaching him through has to be the ultimate challenge. What makes me saddest through out this grieving process is that, for Mike, the time was right. He was ready to take that challenge and there is no doubt that he would have been the ultimate coach & father.

Having never been coached by Mike, I have to say that I’ve learned so much about him these past few days just by watching Amber. She has been the picture of strength, courage and beauty. She’s carrying on in life in a way that only Mike could have shown her. As she said, she has “big shoes to fill”, but I can’t imagine anyone short of Mike himself doing as good a job. For me, Stella is the ultimate symbol that, even though it feels like the world should stop for even just one minute to allow us all to catch our breath, life goes on. The best we can do in the face of it all is follow in Mike’s footsteps.

Caitlin Plein