Farewell to summer

By Ed Piper

During the last three weeks, filled with preseason practices by La Jolla High fall sports teams, I was attending four, even five events a day on several weekdays--and having a glorious time.

As I loaded short video clips over the weekend from my new toys, a trio of no-longer-available Kodak Zx5 Pocket Videocameras I got this summer through Amazon's eBay-like independent merchants, into my external hard drives, I had up to eight different subjects in a single day.

I will miss the time, though my wife told me yesterday, "I never saw you." But she was good-natured about it (I think).

The summer was also meaningful as I performed my granddaughter's wedding on the beach one (not-too-hot) afternoon in July in Solana Beach. Late in the summer, I received the results from my DNA sample from Ancestry.com: No one in our family had an inkling that we were part Scandinavian (31 percent for me).

A special treat each morning the past three weeks was driving early to either DeAnza Cove or Fanuel Park for the Viking cross country team's 7:30 a.m. run. I didn't go on the runs, having feet that just won't allow it anymore. But I was able to "hang out", chat with student athletes as well as coaches, take some still photos and video. Even more glorious was just to absorb the setting: early-morning quiet, cooler temperatures before the heat of midday, the hush as people in Pacific Beach (in this case, at Fanuel) went by jogging, biking... One climbing high up a tree to retrieve his belongings he had stashed up there, as another gentleman stood at the base of the tall tree looking up for quite a while. A sight I have never seen before.

Another image I remember is the bevy of 20'-30's fitness enthusiasts gathered by the entry to the southern parking lot of the DeAnza Cove park area. Several men were there, but I also remember a woman, quite fit, performing slow lunges while holding weights. It was impressive. If I were back in my 20's, I would have been interested in some of the exercises they were doing.

All of this sight-seeing was possible while I loitered, waiting as Viking cross country runners were dropped off by their parents at either site in advance of assistant Joni LeSage (the first two weeks) or head coach Mandy Benham (this past week) calling them to order to stretch as a group.

There are an intimacy and a trust that are built up as one shows up at practices--no spotlight here, as at games--and coaches have a chance to chat in a way they wouldn't during competition. They're more likely to show some of their humanness at early-morning or evening practices (the boys water polo coached by Tom Atwell, and the field hockey team coached by Amanda Combs Warford held some preseason workouts at night), as well.

The coaches see you're willing to be there when no one else from the media is around.

It's just a special time that had to come to an end, with the start of school requiring a different practice schedule, and team rosters having already been finalized after tryouts. I'm back to substitute-teaching today (Monday, August 27) in a different district.

Chloe Kim, a sophomore who golfs for La Jolla's varsity, put into words some of what I was feeling during the late summer. She said about golfing, "It's relaxing. You're on a beautiful course, and your friends (teammates) are nice." She said it with her ever-present smile.