I've loved a photograph of my father for as long as I can remember. He is down on one knee in the grass in a vest and a tie, a dozen boys in football jerseys crowded around him, and a helmet lying at his feet. He is mid-sentence, leaning in toward the boy right in front of him. My father was a dapper dresser; he mowed the lawn in either a three-piece suit or dungarees, boots, a cowboy hat, and a big belt buckle, so nothing about the picture suggests he changed clothes to coach that day. He came as he was, got down to their level, and those boys couldn't take their eyes off him. Earlier this month I watched my husband do the same thing, and it thrilled me.
My father, Charlie "Tremendous" Jones, doing what he did best!
Mike played football at Shamokin Area High School for Coach Ed "Beaners" Binkoski, class of '67. This month, the school dedicated a new scoreboard at Kemp Memorial Stadium in Coach's honor, and before the game, Coach and Mike gave the team a pep talk together in the locker room. Coach is 94 years young. That night marked sixty years since Mike scored three touchdowns, the game that got him noticed by recruiters and carried him to the Naval Academy. Sixty years later, he was back on the same field with the man who opened that door.
Coach Binkoski with his co-captains, Mike on the far right.
Coach Binkoski, 94, with the team before the game.
I use a phrase a lot. From 20 to 40 you are learning; from 40 to 60 you are earning; from 60 to 80 you are returning. The returning years are the years when we examine our blessings and dial up our desire to bless others. Watching Coach that night, I am adding a decade. From 80 to 100, you are confirming. Varsity players and little boys in their jerseys packed that locker room, hanging on every word from a 94-year-old man in a wheelchair, proof that what he put into those kids sixty years ago is still paying out.
The sign beneath the scoreboard tells you who he is. Coal Region native. Military veteran. University of Pennsylvania graduate and football standout. First head football coach of Shamokin Area High School; more than forty years of service in education and athletics; a 70% career winning percentage; two league championships; and the only undefeated, untied regular season in Coal Township football history. The last line on the sign reads "A man of class, dignity, and lasting influence," and that is the line his players would have written.
Mike giving the pep talk, with Coach looking on.
Mike was asked to say a few words about Coach for the dedication. Here is part of what he wrote:
"Coach Binkoski was not simply a high school football coach. As much as he was that, he was an elevator. He took young ball players and made us believe if we played for him, he would help us get into college with scholarships and financial assistance. He backed each and every one of his ball players with his personal history and reputation.
When I think of my classmates and teammates, every one of us went on to another level, whether university, college, or trade school. Not one of us in my class of '67 was left behind. This man brought together two rivals, Shamokin and Coal Township, and unified not just the players but the community. That is what I think about when I look at this scoreboard carrying his name, where the players who come after us will see it every Friday night."
That is what a coach does with his returning years. He puts his name and reputation behind sixteen-year-olds who haven't earned it yet, and he keeps doing it until none of them are left behind. The people who filled that stadium were in tears, and that is what it looks like when a community finally gets to say thank you out loud. At the end of the night, Coach told Mike that he had put an exclamation point on this end of his life. Ninety-four years old, and the man is still being put in the game.
The afternoon I finished writing this, the phone rang. A junior high football coach named Shawn from Biglerville, Pennsylvania, called and wanted twenty-six copies of my father's book, Life Is Tremendous, so his entire team could read it together. I asked him how he had heard of us. He said a friend of his, a pastor and a coach, used to run up and down the field telling everyone to be tremendous, and when Shawn finally asked him where that came from, his friend told him about Charlie 'Tremendous' Jones. Twenty-six copies went out to Biglerville that day. My father has been gone eighteen years, and he is still kneeling in the grass with a football team.
Colonel Sanders said there is no reason to be the richest man in the cemetery, because you cannot do any business there. The returning years and the confirming years are the business years. Learning and earning were never the point; they were the warm-up for the part where you give it all back. So here is my question for you this week. Who changed the trajectory of your life decades ago, and what can you do to honor them today? A phone call counts. A letter counts. Showing up counts. Somebody once knelt in the grass or in the locker room and believed in you, and there is a good chance they are still around to hear about it. Whose life are you going to put an exclamation point on? Put me in, Coach. I'm ready to play.
Sixty years after his last game for Coach Binkoski, Mike was back at Kemp Memorial Stadium.
