Just a horrible, horrible story about Wake Forest's basketball coach, who died on July 26 at age 56.
Winston-Salem Journal sports columnist Lenox Rawlings -- ever so skillful with the quill -- makes the analogy between a basketball season's end and the end of life.
"Seasons always end.
"Seasons seldom end on 10-foot ladders cutting down nets or on makeshift stages hugging trophies.
"Seasons usually end in concrete hallways and dank basements and steamy locker rooms. Seasons usually end with showers dripping and tears dropping and someone moaning in the next room, overwhelmed by swift finality. ...
"Across the far-flung basketball universe yesterday, thousands of people shared Coach Prosser’s seat. They slumped on sofas and leaned on friends in bewildered disbelief.
"They closed their eyes and saw Prosser spinning on his heels in front of the Deacons’ bench, his strawberry hair and coattail blowing in his personal breeze. They saw his right arm gesturing and his lips puckering and his beet-red head shaking defiantly, every ounce of his considerable energy conveying one simple message: You guys missed that call. ...
"Dino Gaudio, a Wake Forest assistant, worked with Prosser at Central Catholic High in Wheeling, W.Va. In the early stages of a season that ended with a state championship, Prosser’s team lost a game in Ohio.
" 'The kids were in the showers in the locker room chatting a little bit,' Gaudio said years later, 'and he felt they weren’t taking the loss hard enough. He walked into the shower. It had a curb on it holding in this much water.'
"Gaudio held his hands 6 inches apart.
" 'I’ll never forget when he walked back out. His shoes were soaked, and so were his pants, up to his ankles, but he got his point across to those kids that we don’t take losing like that. He’s always taken it incredibly, incredibly hard. I think he takes it hard because he always blames himself. You’ll never hear him, anywhere he’s been, blame the kids.'
"Nobody blames anybody today, but lots of people take losing Skip Prosser very, very hard."
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