A Night With The Vet

From 2000 to 2009 (ten years) I coached boys golf here at Edgewood; you might say it was the best and worst of times. I got to spend a lot of time each year with different young men that were aspiring to be good golfers…now I’ve said many, many times that golf is different than any other sport in that it will quickly teach you more about yourself and more about a kid than will all the other sports. You might ask why and the answer is simple; in golf you can cheat…if you want to…and many do! When you walk the fairways with these young men…and do so over the course of four years; you will quickly start to see a pattern. You will see the ‘true character’ shine through.

One such golfer was Grant Minnemeyer; from the very beginning I knew that Grant wasn’t going to be the best golfer on the team (even though he was all conference twice)…Grant just carried himself differently than did many of the others. He took time to react. He thought things through and his actions were always of the highest quality. Never, not once, did I see or hear him do anything that I thought was questionable…and believe me when I say I really kept a close eye on my golfers.

While Grant didn’t have the best set of skills on the course…he made intelligent decisions; he chose to play to his strengths. He still is today. Grant left Edgewood and went straight to Purdue to their Veterinary School. If you know much about PU (leave all basketball comments aside) then you know that they don’t take dummies into their Vet program; any of you that knew Grant know that he was a top student here and also while at Purdue.

As things tend to happen, time flew by and a couple years back Grant made his return to the Ellettsville area. He met a wonderful young lady named Colleen and they have hence settled down and now have a ten month old son named Myles. Grant has done well locally with his large animal practice; he and Colleen purchased a nice home and piece of property just a couple miles from where I live. Now this just wasn’t any old property…it had a nice 2 or 3 acre lake/pond which you might be able to guess was music to my ears.

The first time I ever fished the lake there wasn’t anyone at home…so I pulled my truck down to the dam, unloaded my float tube and within a few minutes was atop this tree lined beauty. I had my 3-weight rod and a crayfish fly tied on…I was making casts towards and under the trees when I felt a big tug. I still remember that for a few minutes I didn’t know what I had tied into; ultimately I landed a 5 ½ pound catfish that was a tad over 25 inches long…not a bad start for new water!

This past weekend I decided to make the quick drive over to Grant’s and fish a bit for….well, anything that would eat my flies. As usual Grant and Colleen were gracious; in a few minutes I had my 4-weight rod and a white spider pattern in the water. I can’t give you the exact numbers but in under an hour I caught and landed enough plump bluegill to have completely torn up the fly. I was about to tie on another pattern when I saw Grant easing his way towards me in his Creek Company float tube.

I decided to tie on a small size 8 popper and gave Grant a few of my spider flies to try; in about two minutes I looked over and we were both hooked up with nice healthy bluegills on the other end of our fly-rods. I snapped some photos and continued to catch one fish after another (as did Grant)…this however wasn’t the highlight of the night. As I sat there and chatted…all while casting and catching fish…I couldn’t believe what an incredible man my young golfer had turned into. It was ‘good medicine’ for the old coach, knowing that our future is clearly anchored in the hands of someone as fine as Grant. Clearly I never had any doubts about his future or success…but to sit there amidst the beauty, having a quality conversation…well, it took me back to those many days walking the fairways of southern Indiana. There is no replacing good parenting; Charlie and Debbie simply got it right with this young man and I am just glad that I had a chance to be a part of and watch who he has become.

These couple hours proved that it doesn’t take lots of money to have a great time…I probably had about 50 cents in the couple flies I used! Nature is funny that way; seems like all we have to do is make our way outside and keep our eyes open. Oh…and before you are completely ready to give up on younger generations, do yourself a favor and be patient, for there are a number of good ‘young prospects’ just like Grant ready to change your mind. The good and bad with coaching golf came with lots of good; once again it all played out one early August night as I completely Enjoyed the Great Outdoors.