A sad Friday night

It's been a pleasure to share a lot of laughs and fun conversations with Rolling Meadows head football coach Doug Millsaps through the years as he turned a moribund program into a perennial playoff qualifier and Mid-Suburban East contender. So when I started to hear the news about his father Henry's death after he collapsed in the stands at Meadows' game on Friday night I was hit with a feeling of tremendous sadness on what should have been another joyous evening of high school football.
We're not supposed to get too close to those we work with in this business - but one of the great things about high school sports, especially when you have worked WITH some of these coaches for nearly 20 years, is you do get to know them on a more personal level than you do at the college or pro levels. About three weeks ago, just before my son Dillon's sixth birthday, he got sick and the left side of his neck swelled up, which resulted in a four-day, three-night hospital stay to figure out what was wrong. Fortunately he was fine and was taken care of with anti-biotics but it made for a long week where I was also fortunate to get a lot of cooperation from the football coaches I work with via e-mail to get my preview work done.
The morning Dillon came home was also the Thursday night Meadows played at Fremd. And before the game, Millsaps came over to find out how things were and how my son was doing, which I appreciated tremendously. And I'm sure many people will be reaching out to Doug and his family in the coming days over their tremendous loss.
Please keep him and his family in your prayers.