It’s important to remember

Gene Steinmeyer

Saturday, my 16 year-old son Sam and I went to the Northwest football game at Washburn. Sam and I were by ourselves and we went to the 50-yard line on the Northwest side of the field. We found an empty bleacher pretty close to the front.

Just behind us were Sherri Reeves and a couple of her friends. Sherri was the assistant athletic director and senior women’s administrator when I came to Northwest in 1999. Conversation is never a problem when Sherri and I run into each other.

Besides enjoying watching the Northwest football team stay undefeated by blasting the poor Ichabods, we talked about a wide range of topics. I’m not sure Sam or Sherri’s friends could say a word without putting a muzzle on us.

I was telling Sherri about P.J. Sanders and the stories he told during my early days of coaching at Northwest. P.J. was a manager I inherited from Wayne Winstead, the coach I followed at Northwest. P.J.’s grandfather was Jimmy Jones’ best friend. Jimmy, a life-long resident of Parnell, earned his fame as a horse trainer.

Jimmy trained Triple Crown winner “Citation.” He had horses that won two Kentucky Derbies, four Preakness, and one Belmont Stakes. The stories P.J. told me were the personal experiences of his grandfather’s and his with Jimmy after he retired to his home in Parnell.

Sherri made a statement that stuck with me long after Northwest had secured a No. 1 seed for the football playoffs. She said that stories like that need to be told and written down so people wouldn’t forget them.

Jimmy died in 2001, and I’m sure many younger people have no clue that the most famous resident of Parnell ever resided there. Another thing that should not be forgotten is Sherri Reeves’ contribution to women’s athletics at Northwest.

Sherri is right when she said some of the stories need to be written down. Despite some earlier health problems, Sherri travels far and wide to see her beloved Bearcats. I’m not one to give away a woman’s birthday, but Sherri just celebrated one that is divisible by 10.

When I came to Northwest, I was pretty sure Sherri didn’t like the hire. At the time, I wrongly assumed that Sherri wanted to promote a woman to the head women’s basketball position. Sherri never told me this, but I now realize that whatever Sherri does is out of loyalty. Northwest didn’t hire someone who had Sherri’s loyalty, so anyone else just wasn’t the same.

Thank goodness I was able to win Sherri over. I think Sam had a lot to do with it. She might not have thought much of my hiring, but she never failed to get a birthday present for my son. She will still come out in the summer to watch Sam pitch on his summer league baseball team.

I named a basketball event the Winstead-Reeves Classic after Sherri retired from Northwest. By that time I understood her importance to Northwest women’s sports. I also understood that Sherri is very unselfish. It was important I found a way to give her a little recognition.

As I write about Sherri, I’m not 100 percent sure of my total accuracy, but I’m close. Go way back to women’s basketball of the 1970s. The NCAA wasn’t involved in women’s sports. Instead, the governing body was the AIAW. All women’s sports were in one division in the AIAW.

Sherri coached women’s basketball. She made sure the women had athletic scholarships, something not common at any university. Equality in women’s sports was something in the future for most schools. Sherri made sure Northwest had an early start.

Her teams defeated many of the Big 8 teams, as well as the teams now in the MIAA. About the time her team was ready to claim championships, Sherri stepped aside and handed the coaching reins to another coach.

When one of her teams was inducted to the Northwest Athletic Hall of Fame, every player gave Sherri credit for their success, even though another coach had benefited from Sherri’s hard work.

If you see a white-haired lady in the crowd of any Northwest sporting event cheering like she was the athletic director, it probably is Sherri. This is only a blog and my words are limited, but I hope some of Sherri’s accomplishments are now in print. It’s important.