I got a nice surprise on Friday. It was the second time that the same thing has surprised me. Let me explain.

I had a terrific career as an educator of 38 plus years. During that time I coached a number of sports, but my favor was basketball. I liked the dynamics of the sport, the way the game flows, and the intellectual aspects of the game. Over the years we took teams to Australia, eastern Canada, and parts of the USA. The teams had won a number of championships and there were more wins, both on and off the court than losses.

At any rate the high school association that represents high school athletics in the province decided to honor me back in the early 1990's by naming one of their provincial championship trophies in my honor. It was a pleasant surprise to say the least. The irony in all this is that when the association decided to honor me and number of other basketball coaches all the championship basketball trophies had already been named. Basketball was the first sport the association hosted at the provincial level so they already had a long list of successful basketball coaches to name the provincial trophies.

But, the association had recently recognized another sport for provincial championships as a result they had a number of trophies they wanted named thus my name was presented and accepted. I am sure it was more for my contributions to the association, as I was an active member for over thirty years. At any rate my name sits on the provincial championship trophy for Tier II FOOTBALL!

Friday was the second time the Association surprised me when I opened my email. The provincial championship will be held very close to where I now live and they wondered if I would like to present the championship trophy to the winner! I told them I would be honored and began to think of what I would say. I thought of what one could say to the team that lost the game having been there too many times. I soon realized that the best thing I can do is to KISS (keep it simple, stupid) Make the presentation and let the winners begin the celebration! I will after that see if I can talk to the other team, if the coaches let me.

But like I said it's nice to be surprised and to have the same event do it twice in a lifetime is really special. Hope you all have a good day and some nice surprises along the way.