Gerald's Questions

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Gerald's Questions

It was a pretty good week for Cobber sports. Several wrestlers and track athletes turned in good individual performances. And the Lady Cobbers, winning two road games, rose to No. 1 in the year's first NCAA Division III coaches poll before losing to No. 5 St. Thomas Saturday night at home. The loss ended a six year, 54- game home winning streak in conference games.

The week's events, here and elsewhere, inspired many questions. And the questions helped remind some of us that we were supposed to be teachers. That reminder is a huge comfort when the scoreboard is telling us we're having a bad week as coaches, athletes and entertainers.

Some were harder to answer than others. Our Lady Cobber players' questions about Vietnam and the draft, for instance, were answerable. Others were less so, like whether we should play our games when a war is on. My answer was that I had played my entire high school and college career, 1964-1971, while a war was on. Our players didn't find much comfort in that.

As is usual when things go poorly, my 11-year-old son's questions helped frame the week. When we sat down to an early supper on Wednesday, he began to grill me on our team's Monday-Tuesday road trip, a 96-66 win at St. Mary's in Winona and a 69-66 win at Gustavus.

Gerald knew I had missed the St. Mary's game to scout Gustavus and St. Thomas in Minneapolis. He also knows I am supposed to be in charge of the offense.

"How did your team score 96 points without you, Dad?" Gerald asked.

"Pass the salt, Gerald."

"How come your team scored 27 points less on Tuesday when you were there?"

"Pass the butter, Gerald."

"How can Concordia be ranked No. 1 when St. Thomas is 13-1 and you guys are 12-3?"

"Let's watch the news, Gerald."

"Is there going to be a war, Dad?"

Tom Brokaw was talking nervously about many planes having taken off. We switched to CNN.

"I think it's starting now." I answered.

Gerald paused in his questions to listen as Bernard Shaw began to describe the lighting of the sky over Baghdad.

"Do you think a lot of kids are going to get killed by those bombs, Dad?"

Later that night, as I tried to get him to sleep, he asked, "Dad, how do we know there won't be bombs here tonight?"

I tried to explain the range of planes and the miles involved but he countered with talk about mid-air refueling. I told him not to worry. "But, you don't know for sure, do you, Dad?"

When I came home on Thursday night, Gerald was waiting.

"How was practice, Dad?"

I told him it was ugly. The team needed sleep and many had stayed up late watching the war.

"Did you get mad at them for that, Dad?"

As we settled in for an evening of televised war, the questions continued.

"Do you think the St. Thomas players are thinking about the war?" "Do you think there could be a terrorist bomb at the game on Saturday?" "Isn't it kinda hard to think about basketball now?" "What's a scud?" "What's a patriot?"

On Friday night Gerald was still full of questions. "The regular TV shows are back on. Does that mean the war is almost over?"

"Ted's team is really going to want to win tomorrow, aren't they Dad?" He was talking of Ted Riverso, the St. Thomas women's coach. "They think they can win here now don't they?"

Gerald has long followed the rivalry between St. Thomas and the Lady Cobbers, a rivalry in which the Tommies have had to play the role of being good, but not quite good enough.

After Saturday night's 55-47 loss to Ted's team, Gerald came up to me, shaking his head. "Nice offensive plan, Dad. When was the last time you scored just 47 points?"

Tactfulness, it seems, is an inherited trait.

On the drive home, Gerald asked, "Was Ted really happy?"

As I turned the radio dial in search of the latest news, I assured Gerald that Ted had indeed seemed very happy.

A radio reporter began recounting the day's exchange of weaponry. Gerald became quiet. As we entered the driveway he said, "It was kinda nice to not have to think about the war tonight, wasn't it Dad?"

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