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As the years go by, you start to reflect on your life and how it has turned out. You wonder if, in some small way, you have made a difference.

If you are honest with yourself, you know you could have done more. Even the people we look up to, the ones who have dedicated their lives to helping others, say they could have always done more.

That being said, I admire those who have given what they could for the betterment of our world. Those who may not have had much to begin with still go out of their way to try and make life better for those around them.

Those are the real heroes in our world. Those are the people, and I include first responders in that group, who have dedicated themselves to helping those in need. They do it without regard to their own personal safety at times. Some give all and are buried in cemeteries around the world.

The word “heroes” gets tossed around so much these days that I feel people have forgotten what it really means to be one. Some people I consider “heroes” are teachers, coaches, volunteers, and even journalists.

Now, before your blood pressure starts to spike and you start screaming at your computer screen or your printed newspaper, let me explain why I feel some journalists are heroes. I am not referring to the talking heads we see on national television, but the “real journalists” who are out there in the trenches, bringing us the stories that need to be told. And despite what you have heard, not all news is “fake news.”

I grew up in the world of great journaments, both in print and on television. People like Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Edward R. Murrow, Hunter S. Thompson, Walter Cronkite and Morley Safer on the news side, while there was Grantland Rice, Ring Lardner, Frank Deford and Jerry Green on the sports side.

These journalists all had one thing in common: we trusted them. Unfortunately, today, we cannot say the same about our national news and sports reporters. The world has changed, and if you do not have the story first, you have lost, so they skirt things like honest, deep-dive reporting to get all the facts before going on the air or to print.

They brought us huge stories like Watergate or the Chicago White Sox scandals. They provided us with the truth about stories like Viet Nam. They enlightened us, and they kept governments and individuals honest with the reporting.

But enough about journalists. Let us take a look at the even bigger heroes: the educators and coaches.

Like journalists, some of them have gotten bad raps. Others have earned those bad reputations with their actions. The ones I am talking about have left indelible impressions on the minds and helped their students become better people before sending them out into the real world.

Obviously, I have a lot of favorites when it comes to coaching, but there are just as many teachers I have come to admire throughout my education, as well as those I have met throughout my profession.

I will tell you a quick story about three of my favorite teachers from high school.

I went to Decatur Jr.-Sr. High School. I was a good student, and I was a respectful one as well. But these three teachers, who I will not name, helped shape my life.

The first one used to decorate his room for Christmas every year. It’s hard to believe these days with all the rules regarding such things, but when I say decorate his room, I mean from top to bottom and side to side. It was a Christmas wonderland.

If you were one of his “lucky” students, you got to take part in decorating his room, which I did one year. I had never had so much fun inside a school building. And when it was done, I could not have been more proud of what we had done.

The second teacher taught a couple of classes that crossover in a few chapters. I love history, and Michigan history piqued my interest even more. I am a little fuzzy on how this happened, but because there was a chapter in two of his history classes that were very similar, I got to teach the class for that week.

The kicker was my grade for that week was based on how well everyone did on the test at the end of it. Let me tell you, I had a new-found respect for teachers after that week. I never worked so hard in my four years of high school.

Then there was my British Literature teacher, who once told our class we would all end up being “ditch diggers” because she did not feel we were taking the class seriously enough. She was a no-nonsense kind of teacher, and only after I had graduated did I realize who driving us to work harder and focus would shape me for the rest of my life.

There are too many coaches to name in this space, but I have had the great fortune to work with some of the finest people, not just coaches, throughout my career. I am even more fortunate to call most of them friends.

Coaches and teachers give so much of themselves. They work countless hours in preparation; they spend money out of their own pockets to help make the experience of their players and students memorable. They take undo criticism from parents and fans, but they continue to push forward.

That is what true heroes do.

 

Scott Novak is sports editor for Leader Publications. He can be reached at scott.novak@leaderpub.com