A Senior Day from a different perspective

You’re a sports fan like me – you’re reading a sports website after all. And let’s face it – Senior Day is one of those moments that gives us all the feels.

It’s a great moment to give one final tip of the cap to those who have done so much for the teams you follow.

My work through the years has put me in some unique positions on Senior Day: as a university administrator working behind the scenes to help organize the event, embedded in a broadcast production when the ceremony ran woefully long and earned the home team a delay of game penalty, or sitting courtside or high above the action with other members of working media covering the game.

Work is one thing.

Wednesday afternoon, I take on a completely different role for a Senior Day: Dad.

My son Jacob, the lone senior on Brother Martin’s bowling team, will be honored following the Crusaders’ home match against John Curtis Christian at Colonial Lanes in Harahan.

I’ll take a step back and watch. It will be his day, as it should be.

Jacob deserves every tip of the cap he gets today for what he’s accomplished the last four years, with three matches and the postseason remaining: Team captain this season, three-time team state champion, three-time all-district selection, outstanding bowler of the 2022 state championship match, USA TODAY All-American, twice a top-10 finisher in the state singles event. And that’s just on the lanes.

He’s also an honor student ranked in the top 15 in his class, a member of the student council executive board and involved with several other organizations, including National Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta and CSPN, the student-run streaming organization.

Others have accomplished more, but to have a front-row seat to watch his story play out every day since he first enrolled at Brother Martin in eighth grade has truly been special.

Speaking of special, Wednesday marks 31 years to the day of the most memorable Senior Day of my professional career.

On that afternoon Uptown, a unique senior class would play its final home game at Tulane. These were the seniors who had re-started a men’s basketball program in 1989 and done what had never been accomplished before in the history of college basketball – go from no program to a conference championship and an NCAA Tournament berth in a three-year span, with another soon to follow.

The seniors who were part of that magical run are honored in perpetuity today inside Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse with a banner retiring the number 93.

About two hours after that ceremony, one of those seniors, Anthony Reed, hit the final shot of his home career to become, at the time, the all-time leading scorer in Tulane history. He too had his jersey, No. 55, retired that day.

I can still see Reed, moments after leaving the game to one final ovation from the Green Wave faithful, going into the stands to hug his family.

There have been plenty other unforgettable Senior Day moments over the years – Joe Burrow and his “BURREAUX” jersey at LSU in 2019 certainly comes to mind. I also can’t forget, more than two decades apart, the letters Larry Gibbs wrote to his sons on their Senior Days at Tulane.

Part of what makes Senior Day so special is it gives everyone, particularly those closest to the program, the opportunity to reflect on that young player’s development, on and off the field of play, over the last four years.

It’s not just someone improving from a key reserve to a starter, or adding a couple more inches or a few pounds, or stepping up as an upperclassman to become a leader of his or her team. It’s the development of the entire person over that time, something that is very hard to quantify.

As a father, it’s a lot more than a high school career to reflect on. It’s a lifetime.

Depending on what high school or university you attend, some Senior Days are different, and more memorable, than others.

Twenty-nine years ago this month, the Indiana men’s basketball program had a Senior Day unlike any other in Bob Knight’s coaching career. His son Pat was one of the seniors honored that day inside Assembly Hall.

“I look back over the players we’ve had,” said Knight, who would traditionally take the microphone to talk about his seniors as part of the ceremony. “I love Alan Henderson. (Calbert) Cheaney, (Mike) Woodson, there are a ton of them. But, I leave you with this thought: Patrick Knight is my all-time favorite Indiana player.”

I have watched literally thousands of bowlers compete in my lifetime – professionals, friends, family members – and I can tell you, I completely understand where Bob Knight is coming from.

So, with a doff of the cap to the late Coach Knight, I leave you with this thought: Jacob Vangilder is my all-time favorite bowler.