Sports and loss don’t get easier with growing up

Joe Adkinson (right) and Jordan Meeks during little league baseball in Olmsted, Ill.

Losing sucks. There isn’t really a better way to put it.

Losing a loved one, losing a friend and yes, while not comparable in anyway whatsoever, losing a game, sucks.

The worst part, for the so very many of you under 21 that I’m sure are reading this column, it doesn’t really get better with age.

We like to think it does. We obviously want to mature as we get older and we do for the most part but losing something that was a meaningful part of who we are is hard.

A week ago, I lost my little league baseball coach.

But as most are, he wasn’t just a coach. He was someone that was also there when I was growing up and even in adulthood, every time I would see him out, I’d get a “hey T” and a hug. Every time.

I won’t get those hugs from Coach Joe anymore.

Joe’s son, Jordan, is my age. During the summer but more importantly during baseball season, I was at Joe and Jordan’s house sometimes even more than my own.

It was during a time where summers were truly spent outside all day long.

If you’ve looked at the picture to the right by now, you realize Joe and I didn’t look too much alike but Joe never cared.

Joe treated me like his own every single time. Now sometimes that also came with him getting onto me when I did some dumb thing that I did plenty of times when I was younger.

Now one thing about Joe is he hated losing, like most coaches. It’s one of the reasons my day could go sour if the Buffalo Bills don’t play too well that week — please do well tonight against the Bucs — but that, among all the others things he taught me is what I’m going to miss.

Joe was everything to me that a coach was but like so many coaches I’ve come in contact with on a daily basis, he did more. He did more than he had to do.

Was Joe a Saint? No...far from it. But he was good to me when he didn’t have to be.

I’m going to miss his hugs but more importantly I’m just going to miss my coach.