Home at last

Thoughts on the team BBQ on Saturday: Always great to see everyone in the middle of the summer. The family atmosphere of the program lends itself to heartfelt hugs and reunions, even in our Social Media Age where teammates and close friends can stay connected on a minute-by-minute basis, 24-7. However, I guess there is no replacing good old-fashioned face-to-face contact. We would have loved to see more of our track brothers and sisters, but alas schedules did not permit it to occur this time around. There was a smattering of recent alums, and as always we welcome them all. Special thanks to Mr. Edsall for working up a serious sweat and manning the grill so our athletes and families could enjoy hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken.

After the team departed, the tables and chairs were broken down, and all the leftover food was packed away, there were just a few of us lazily hanging out by the river on a pleasant summer evening. The clouds rolled in, a welcome relief from the stinging summer sun, and no one was in any rush to leave. In particular, a handful of recent alums were wistful in their longing for this old school home. Indeed, after a few years away from the shores of the Hudson, they felt they were, in the words of the classic SteelyDan song, “Home at Last.” Sometimes it takes the lens of a few years’ away to realize how special it is to be a member of a close-knit collegiate team, and to long for those days of yore. Hopefully, our current athletes can realize this, and cherish every moment of their relatively short time together – like a midsummer afternoon in the sun with some food and drink and a lazy river in the background.