Memories to forever save

NBA reporter has proven to be the job of my dreams ... but I also had an amazing gig for the past 10-plus years that is really, really hard to let go of: Goalkeeper Parent

Maybe it's the reflective mood that inevitably took hold once it sunk in that this Newsletter Tuesday marked five years to the day that the NBA abruptly shut down in the face of COVID-19 and amazingly played a key role in making the whole world stop spinning.

Maybe it's because I'm still rebounding from a literally league-shaking NBA trade deadline that lingers like no other.

Or maybe it's the most likely scenario: This nostalgic sap just couldn't resist writing about my latest (and possibly greatest) source of wistful sports longing.

The resulting output, whatever the justification, is a departure from the usual Tuesday Newsletter Extravaganza fare, but I think you'll understand. I feel a strong need to talk about high school soccer and fatherhood and some recent sporting endeavors that, if only on this scorecard, were right up there with Luka Dončić and Jimmy Butler and De'Aaron Fox all getting dealt to new teams.

On Feb. 10, Dončić played his first game as a Los Angeles Laker. And I was there chronicling the event for DLLS Sports:

Also on Feb. 10, my son Aaron played the final game of his high school athletic career as a goalkeeper for Greenhill School after an all-league season in volleyball in the fall as a libero.

So I could not be there for that 2-1 victory over Dallas Parish Episcopal and still haven't quite gotten over it.

Of course, Aaron being Aaron, he's the one who insisted the loudest at Stein Line HQ that I absolutely had to get myself to Tinseltown to be present for Luka's unveiling in purple and gold. He actually demanded it, which serves as a handy illustration for what Dončić means to the typical Dallas teenager.

The video above captures his return from a terribly timed left shoulder injury that sidelined him for a career-high seven games, My fears that he would be deemed too rusty to be thrown into either of the two playoff games on the schedule that loomed after his comeback match ultimately proved well-founded, but Photo Editor Aaron was aghast at the mere suggestion that I would skip Luka's bow in Lakerland.

He might have even been right in the end, but I'm not sure even he understood — moving as his lecture to me was about how this work assignment was "too important for your career" — how agonizing it would be for Dad to be 1,500 miles away.

Even a simple goal kick from November, in photo form, stirs emotions for The Nostalgic Sap. (📷: Javi Johnson)

Please understand: Ten-plus years as a Goalkeeper Parent are gone — just like that. And I'm simply not ready. I can't believe how fast it went. Even after complaining about how fast it was going the whole time.

Goalkeeper Parent was one of the most stressful and also most intoxicating jobs that I've ever had. The years in club soccer when, in the absence of a regular goalkeeper coach, I had the privilege of running Aaron through an array of warm-up catches, throws and kicks before every game ... I can honestly say that was the job I looked forward to more than any other.

I'm still not quite sure what forces pulled Aaron into the goalmouth, but I do know that A) they had exceptionally strong pull going back to when he was as young as 5 or 6 and B) watching him play the loneliest position in team sports for so long changed the way I watch soccer forever.

Suddenly I had sympathy for goalkeeper errors even when they helped my beloved Manchester City. I could stomach nothing but hypervigilance and instantaneous whistles from referees when it came to protecting any keeper from fouls because, well, keeper karma. Every pro game we went to demanded college-class-intensity study of the pre-match practice routines. Viral keeper moments on Soccer Twitter, as much as fancy goals or mazy dribbles, dominated the family text chain.

There would be no storybook ending for the Greenhill Hornets this season — they were beaten 3-0 in the Southwest Preparatory Conference 4A championship game by Houston Episcopal after a fine season that featured three derby wins in a row over near neighbor St. Mark's — but the past few years have been an incredible ride. The arrival in eighth grade of a goalkeeper who clearly had NCAA Division I talent could have ended Aaron's varsity career before it started, but he wound up playing quite often across three seasons, teaming up with Noah Piper — who wound up choosing gridiron football as his college sport and is headed to Yale in the fall as a kicker — to form a wonderfully stingy duo.

I miss it all already. Re-living every save in the car after the match. Breaking down everything that happened in front of him and comparing how he saw things tactically to what I saw as a spectator. The challenge of quickly flushing mistakes, which is one of those crucial-for-real-life skills that keepers have to get very good at very quickly.

I will miss everything down to Mom's intricate post-match washing and drying station for his gloves (as shown above). We certainly became a volleyball family over the years, too, but goalkeeping tended to be all-consuming for the whole house.

Much like Luka himself.

Aaron was so fortunate to have two Greenhill coaches (Greg Krauss and Paul Field) who entrusted him with so much. Ditto for one FC Dallas youth coach (Paul Pritchett) who shaped a defense around him when he was 9 or 10 to truly put him on this path. "If Aaron can reach it," Coach Pritchett used to say, "I know he'll save it."

I will miss how often Aaron proved that observation true.

I for sure wish I could have been a more chill Goalkeeper Parent, as opposed to giving in too frequently to my usual Incurable Worrier self, but watching my son fly around to prevent goals rather than score them unexpectedly but unquestionably proved to be one of the absolute joys of my life.