What’s in a name?

Gene Steinmeyer

There are certain years of coaching and certain events that never leave your memory. Those events don’t always have to be championships, but they can lead from turmoil. On the surface, there wasn’t much turmoil in the 1982-1983 school year for me at Wilber-Clatonia High School. I had returned to my hometown to coach the girls’ basketball team. I taught junior high math when my mind wasn’t on practice schedules and scouting reports. It should have been a great year, but things started rocky.

After my third year at Wilber-Clatonia, I applied to become the athletic director. It meant a bump in pay and would take me out of the classroom. My teams had won and been ranked statewide most of those three years, but we had never qualified for the state tournament.

That fact had led to opposition from a couple of teachers to my becoming the athletic director. I lost that job to the biology teacher who hadn’t coached in more than 20 years. That one hurt. Then the superintendent informed me if we didn’t make the state tournament, a coaching search would begin.

I returned everyone from a successful 1982 season, so I was pretty confident. Everything stayed upbeat until just about this time 33 years ago. Brenda Florian, one of my reserve players, found she had a form of bone cancer. They immediately amputated her leg in hopes of stopping the cancer.

That sad event galvanized the team. Instead of fighting for individual glory, they bonded to form team success to honor Brenda. With Brenda on the bench, we swept through our schedule, playing on March 5, 1983, in the state tournament championship game.

We were undefeated and Omaha Cathedral, our opponent, had no chance. With Brenda as our motivator, the game was never close. However, it takes more than motivation to accomplish a state championship. Our star player was a 6-foot senior, Angie Miller. Angie set the class scoring record which included a 40-point game in the semifinals.

Angie scored 28 points in the championship game that was broadcast by television channels throughout the state. It was a noon game. In a small town by the Nebraska/South Dakota border, a young couple was hanging around the house. The wife was ready to have their first child. With nothing to do but wait, they watched our basketball game.

Immediately after the game, the young mother-to-be went into labor and had a girl later that evening. When it came to picking a name, they both agreed the only name for their new girl was Angie, named after my star basketball player.

They wrote Angie Miller and told them about their daughter. For the next several years, Angie Miller sent birthday cards to her namesake. I wonder what the younger Angie is doing today?

Significant sporting events inspire names on newborns. Back in the 1920s and 1930s, a baseball slugger by the name of George Herman was the most famous man in sports. After one productive season, he was awarded with a salary more than the president. When asked how he felt about making more than the president, he said, “I had a better year than the president.”

Babies weren’t being named George Herman, but this slugger’s nickname of Babe. Babe Ruth caused a lot of men to carry around the first name of Babe thanks to his legendary home run power.

It doesn’t take sports to inspire babies’ names. The popular HBO show, Game of Thrones, had that effect. In 2013, 1,315 babies were name Arya. I’ll bet those babies will really appreciate that strange name when they hit junior high.

Last year, Emma was the most popular girls’ name because of the movie star Emma Thompson. The tough guy, Liam Neeson, caused a spike in that first name among male babies.

I suspect the same phenomenon will hit area hospitals in the next nine months or so. Babies will be named Lorenzo, Salvador, Eric, and maybe even Moose. The Kansas City Royals have caught our imaginations and caused anxiety and loss of sleep the last three weeks. It was all worth it.

You couldn’t go to bed early because the Royals outscored their opponents 51-11 in the seventh inning or later. That broke the old record by 15 runs. Seven times the Royals came from two or more runs behind. It was only fitting that Sunday night’s final game went extra inning after a two-run, ninth-inning rally.

Finally, in the 12th inning, Christian Colon, in his only World Series appearance, drove in the winning run. If I were to have another boy, I think I would name him Christian.