Fast On My Feet
When my younger brother Joe was around three, he was roaming the sidelines at a Franklin High Panthers football game. All of us Collins boys were wont to do that, considering the head coach, Dick Stott, was my father’s best friend and my father helped out as an assistant coach.
Well the star end Sonny Burrell, who happened to be our next-door neighbor (small town), caught a pass at the sidelines and was knocked out of bounds and into a bench. The bench caught Joe, who had fallen, in the temple and pressed an indentation into his soft noggin. Joe was rushed to the hospital where we were told it was a simple concussion and that he would live. I remember my mom wasn’t very happy with my father that night.
So my second goal whenever I head over the watch Wake practice is to see how the team is coming together. My first is to stay out of everybody’s way. Players don’ t need to be worrying about running over an burly, bearded 58-year-old sports writer.
I did have a semi-close call at this morning’s practice. Chris Givens ran an out pattern that had several of us, including me, scrambling for safety.
Greg Collins, the head basketball trainer who helps out in football, hollared for me to watch out.
I told him I would and I didn’t need him putting me back together.
“It’s not you I’m worried about,’’ Collins explained. “I don’t want any of the players to get hurt.’‘
At least he has his priorities straight.