A sad, sad day

This post is only tangentially about sports, though it involves one of the greatest athletes Newbury High School has ever produced. He rushed for more than 1,000 yards his senior year, was a starter on the Black Knights basketball team that went to the Ohio Division IV elite eight that year, was a fine pole vaulter on the track team, and in his younger years, was a pretty fair baseball player in summer leagues.

His name was Mike Gerber, and he was a classmate of mine. I'm proud to say I was one of the offensive linemen who opened those holes for him in that 1,000-yard season of 1988, and I'll never forget some of the plays he made for that great basketball team. But Mike was more than a great athlete. He was a bright, talented guy in many areas, and he was friends with everyone who knew him.

Most of you undoubtedly can figure out where this is going, as I keep referring to Mike in the past tense. And you're right. Mike died on April 24, after a decade-plus-long struggle with drug addiction. It was a heroin overdose that got him. I attended a memorial service yesterday for Mike, and it was so very sad. I heard dozens and dozens of stories about him, both from the days when I knew him, and from the years since graduation. He apparently took a lot of fellow addicts under his wing, helping them to beat the demons that he himself ultimately proved unable to overcome.

There are two lessons in this tragic tale. The first is obvious and has been illustrated over and over again by all the famous people who have suffered fates similar to Mike's, but it bears repeating: Stay away from the drugs. They can kill you.

The other lesson is also an important one. I'm sorry to say I hadn't seen him or spoken to Mike since graduation, 19 years ago. When you're in your 30s, you always think you'll have more opportunities to see the people you grew up with. So I guess that's the second lesson. You just can't take that for granted.

At the memorial service yesterday, and at a subsequent impromptu gathering last night, I saw a lot of people I hadn't seen for a long time, and it was really great to be able to catch up with them. Eleven of us from Newbury's class of 1989 sat up into the wee hours, sharing memories of our high school days and chatting about our lives since then. It was fantastic. But I'd trade it in a second for the opportunity to see Mike Gerber, alive and well, at our 20-year reunion next year.