Ode to Father’s Day

Our annual Father’s Day project is complete, and it’s one of my favorite things we do all year. A two-page spread with local athletes and coaches and personalities talking about their dads.

My favorite element is the photos. They all are home photos; we took none of them. The photo of Gerald McCoy, smiling wide with his dad. U.S. Grant soccer player Lori O’Neil making a silly face while her dad grins in the background. Chickasha baseball player Kennedy Winn at what must be the age of four, sitting with his dad. Al Eschbach lounging by the pool with his dad.

This is our 10th year for the Father’s Day project, and what what I like is how athletes will call us, wanting to be included. Tulsa U. basketball player Kara Vaughan and Tulsa U. softball player Lauren Lindsay contacted us this year; it makes for a great Father’s Day surprise.

This will be a different Father’s Day for me and my brothers. It’s our first without our dad, who died last August. Father’s Day always has meant going to church in Purcell with Mom and Dad, eating well and then watching the U.S. Open on Sunday afternoon.