Last week my older brother Brian coached his final game after over 20 years of coaching Pop Warner, JV and High School football in the Utica-Rome area and at Holland Patent High School. There was no fan fare, no ESPN reporters, no ceremony, no good bye tour, just his current players and coaches thanking him, giving him hugs and shaking his hand as he walked off the field to his car. He wont be retiring to Florida or going to a fishing cabin in the Adirondacks, he has to be at work at 6am the next day. He was a really good coach and even better person. His players, their parents and his coaches truly loved him. A lot of those players wont realize for several years how lucky they were to have a man like that influence their lives. Its not until we have kids or get into coaching or teaching that we find our selves emulating things we learned from people like him who taught us valuable life lessons. People like my big brother taught us skills, made us do things right, learn fundamentals, discipline, responsibility, accountability, teamwork and how to win and lose gracefully. Your first day on a sports field when youre 5 or 6 years old you dont know any of these things, someone had to teach you, someone like Coach Langley. Our family, my parents and my two brothers and two sisters, lived the first part of our lives in Central Ohio. In Ohio football is not a religion, its much more important than that. Almost everyone in every town is associated with the high school football team; either as a player, coach, band member, cheerleader or booster. Our college team is The Ohio State Buckeyes, and only The Ohio State Buckeyes. Our Dad had us watching and listening to OSU games soon after we were born. Today our family lives all over the country, but all of us are still huge Buckeye Fans. Even our in-laws, our wives, husbands, children, nieces, nephews all cheer for the Scarlet and Gray. Most of them have never even stepped foot in the state of Ohio. My brother and I played freshman football at River Valley High School in Marion, Ohio. Our big star then was a kid named Scott Wetzel. He was big, strong, fast, and could play any position from linebacker to quarterback. One day in practice we were doing the Hamburger drill. Two players go head to head while the whole team watches. You have to stay between two cones, and it ends when one player drives the other backward or knocks them to the ground. No one on the team wanted to face Scott, he was that intimidating. I remember our coach yelling out, No one. No one wants to go against Wetzel? Finally, a short, skinny redheaded kid yelled out I will. It was my brother Brian. Most of us shook our heads and said are you crazy. Brian walked into the center and prepared to take on Mr Wetzel. Athletically my brother Brian was always big on heart, but short on size, speed, strength and any real natural football talent. He was football smart and learned everything about each position. He became a respectable player and capable backup, but he did it on sheer determination and hard work. He was a special teams player, scout team guy, and played occasionally on offense or defense in blowouts. But he loved the game, absolutely loved being on the team and competing, he even loved practice. He was the epitome of a team player. As expected, Wetzel drove him back pretty decisively. But Brian didnt go down and did better than most of us expected. He earned everyones respect, including Scott Wetzels. We moved to upstate NY where my mom was from, Brian and I were sophomores at Holland Patent High School. Our family was going through pretty tough times then, my Dad had lost his job and was trying to start over. We didnt have money to pay for heating oil at one point, which isnt fun living in Upstate NY in the Winter. That was a pretty rough situation for kids. Being the oldest sibling, Brian handled it with unbelievable humor and a great attitude. Im not sure I would have made it through that without him. Brian thrived at Holland Patent. He quickly become one of the most popular kids in school. His bright red hair earned him the nickname Sparky. Kids just really liked him, all of them, the jocks, the heads, the nerds. Even the girls loved him, but mostly as a friend or brother... to his dismay. He had a great sense of humor and was just a fun person to be around. He became the leader of his own little gang of guys who were basically delinquents, not very serious about school, but were entertaining and harmless. I had stopped playing football and concentrated on baseball hoping I was going to get a college scholarship or maybe even drafted after High School. Our senior year Brian talked me into playing football again. It was 1982 and we had a really good team lead by our star player and current New Hartford football coach Todd Hobin. On Defense we had Prospect fast pitch softball legend Dennis Williams. We were coached by another great Central New York teacher of young people, Bill Brown. Two-a-days started and the first depth chart came out. I was starting both ways, at wide receiver and corner back. No one was happier for me than my brother, no jealousy, no that should be me, he was just genuinely happy for his little brother. My parents couldnt afford new cleats for us, so Brian and I were playing with pretty warn down, old spikes. I was as selfish and oblivious as most kids at that age, but even I realized my parents had no money to buy us new football cleats, so I didnt even bother to ask for them. During practice I developed very painful shin splints, probably from wearing bad shoes. I had to sit out a couple weeks of practice right before the season started and lost both my starting positions. This was one of the lowest points in my life for a lot of reasons. In football we had lost our first two games, I was injured and couldnt play, I seriously considered quitting the team. One day during that time period I was standing in our driveway and my Dad pulled up with Brian in the passenger seat. Brian opened the door and handed me a box. I opened it and there was a brand new pair of football cleats inside. I really couldnt believe it, I had no idea how they paid for them. When youre having trouble paying rent you usually dont spend money on things like that. I asked Brian where his were and he said hed just use my old ones, they were in better shape than his anyway. We only had enough money for one new pair and he wanted me to have them. In your lifetime there might be 2 or 3 life altering moments that drastically change your beliefs and attitudes about pretty much everything. That was one of those moments for me. Up until then I hadnt considered my family, my parents or brothers and sisters, a priority. Like most kids, I was pretty self-absorbed and my family was just people around me that I tolerated. I remember standing on the driveway that day, looking at that goofy red headed kid and just thinking Why would he do that for me? It was instantly obvious and changed me to this very day. He did it because we were brothers. I was his little brother and he was just looking out for me. Thats just what you do. That moment changed how I treated every relationship since then, and how I raise my daughters to treat each other today. Our team went on a winning streak and made the Sectional Finals in the Carrier Dome in Syracuse. It was Holland Patents first ever Sectional final. I quickly worked my way back into the starting lineup, had a great season, and even caught a touchdown pass in the championship game in my shiny new cleats. We lost to a great Jamesville Dewitt team lead by future Syracuse and Miami Dolphin wide receiver Scott Suedes in an awesome game. That season was the biggest moment up to that point in Holland Patent sports history. It started a great run of teams lead by Coach Brown and a new community-wide enthusiasm for football. Holland Patent won the Section two years later with our little brother Mark on the team. Over the years Ive quietly tried to pay Brian back for that and be as good a brother to him as he was to me. But I cant and will never be able to, and thats OK. I would have him out to Boston when Ohio State played BC, or fly him down to Florida to visit, and listen to his endless stories about his players, people I didnt even know. I came close to getting even in 1993. Our little brother Mark was stationed at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio then. Mark and I sent him a plane ticket and game ticket for the Ohio State vs. Michigan game. For Ohio State fans, there is no bigger event. He cried when he received them in the mail. Hed asked me why I did that and I just said Thats for the cleats. I dont think he even knew what I was talking about. I might be able to even things up this year. By sheer coincidence I work with A.J. Hawks father. A.J. was a two time All American linebacker at Ohio State and currently starting line backer for the Green Bay Packers. More importantly, hes one of my brothers all time favorite Buckeyes. A.J. Hawk represents everything my brother loves about football. A.J.s Dad is having him send me a signed picture thanking Coach Langley for his years of service coaching kids. That should get that big baby crying again. My brothers favorite movie is the great football classic Brians Song. Set in the late 60s, its a true story about the relationship between Chicago Bears legend Gayle Sayers and his teammate Brian Piccolo. They started out as rivals competing for the same position, became great friends and eventually the first black and white player roommates in pro football. Brian Piccolo died tragically of cancer in 1970. In one of the last scenes of the movie, Billy Dee Williams playing Gale Sayers has to break it to their teammates that Brian Piccolo has passed away. Sayers ends his speech saying, I loved Brian Piccolo, and I want you to love him too. Brian Langley, Sparky, has had a positive influence on hundreds of young men in his coaching career. If they dont yet, most of them will soon realize that. He has been an excellent husband to his wife Patty, father to his sons Gary and Josh and daughter Aubrey, and a great friend to everyone who knows him. To me, hes simply the best person Ive ever known and I cant express how fortunate I am that hes my brother. I love Brian Langley, and I want you to love him too.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 15:32:28 +0000
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