If I had to pick the best day of my life, it would be a warm Saturday in March of 2002.
My dad; nephew, Stuart Maddox; and I spent it in Viera at a spring training baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Florida Marlins.
Stuart was 9, a few months away from his 10th birthday. Dad was a healthy 69, still preaching full time with his 70th birthday seven months away.
That warm Saturday afternoon, we enjoyed all things baseball, from hotdogs and popcorn to the flow of a good game.
Like many boys that age, Stuart wanted to get some of the big league players' autographs. I told him the best way to do it, and then stood back and watched as he went about collecting names of players he knew nothing about.
I thought about that long-ago day March 14, on what might just be the best day of Stuart’s life.
Stuart is now 22 — soon to be 23 — and is finishing his education at the University of North Florida. The little boy at the spring training game now stands 6 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs right at 235 pounds. And believe me, it’s the lean 235 pounds of a champion athlete.
Although he tried his hand at my favorite sports, baseball and football, Stuart decided to take his own athletic path in wrestling.
Stuart was an all-state wrestler for DeLand High School. He spent a year wrestling at a Division III program in Iowa before making his way closer to home and enrolling at North Florida.
Stuart continued to wrestle at North Florida in the National Collegiate Wrestling Association. March 14 was the day he won a national championship, completing the journey that started his freshman year of high school.
It’s hard to believe the little towheaded boy I used to “fly” around the family room as if he were Superman now has the strength of the man of steel.
Stuart will graduate with a degree in criminal justice on May 1, and I couldn’t be prouder of him.
Stuart’s name was Dad’s middle name only with a slightly different spelling. Stuart and I share the middle name of Randle, that we got from my maternal grandfather.
Dad passed away July 30, 2013, so he wasn’t around to hear about Stuart’s championship, and he won’t be present for his graduation.
The passage found in Hebrews 12:1 of the Bible tells us that we are “surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses.”
I believe Dad is one of those witnesses that had a front-row seat to Stuart’s championship Saturday. Dad will be there with Stuart, cheering him on at graduation as well.
For Stuart and, I would like to think, for me, there are still plenty of best days left to celebrate.
EmailNews Bulletin Sports Editor Randy Dickson, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: SIDELINE OBSERVATIONS: The best day of my life