Family good news day

I've got some "hot off the press" information to share today, and, in one case, that's pretty literal stuff. Yesterday must've been one of those good kharma days for the family because within a three-hour period of time, I heard about two rather nice achievements.

The first occurred in Coeur d' Alene at the annual Idaho State Horse Judging Contest. My sisters took their team of four judges and one individual, who'd already swept the local contest in May. After a hot day of judging several halter and performance classes and presenting their oral reasons at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds, the kids took first place team in the state. Two team members also won first place individually in their age division.

I enjoyed a bit of a personal satisfaction learning about their victory because it came precisely 30 years after my two sisters, one of the team members moms, Kim Lewis Cox; along with Janice Wood Schoonover took first place team in that same contest which was held in Southern Idaho in 1977.

I coached that team and will never forget the unbridled excitement we all experienced when they announced Bonner County as the first place team winners. In fact, it's amazing those bleachers are still standing because we were pretty wild as we hugged each other and screamed with glee.

Just like this year's team will do in October, we advanced to the Arabian Nationals in Albuquerque that year, where they took third place among the 4-H divisions. That year's success helped launch decades of horse judging achievements for young people from our county. Barbara and Laurie have coached these teams through most of those years.

As I recall, the Arabian Nationals was held in August of 1977, and, at the time, I was a new mom with a four-month old son named Willie. While I accompanied the team to New Mexico, he had to stay with my friend Marilyn Chambers.

Well, that son is now 30, and he had some good news of his own to report last night. Willie learned yesterday afternoon that he is now the assistant sports editor for the Idaho Press Tribune in Nampa.

That means he's now salaried instead of hourly, and it also means that his direct responsibility for coverage is the high school sports scene throughout the Treasure Valley. That includes Boise, Nampa, Caldwell, Eagle, and a whole lot more places I could probably never name. He says the coverage features 20 schools.

"We'll be busy from now until December," he told me. There's a new sports editor also, so they'll both get immediately immersed in the myriad of details that go into providing daily coverage of athletics in the Treasure Valley. Willie knows it's a daunting task he'll be assuming, but just like my sisters who live, breathe and dream horses, Willie does the same with sport.

When moments like this happen with Willie and his sports-related journey, I'm always taken back to a day at the Meneely household in Kootenai when Willie was just over a year old. We were there for the afternoon because of the need to get things organized for an upcoming drill team performance.

While Jan, her daughters and I worked on the Ponderette outfits, Jim Meneely watched football in the living room. And, while Jim watched football, Willie played an active game of imaginary football on the Meneely's living room floor. In his young world, he had figured out all the moves---as a quarterback, receiver or whatever position required getting the job done.

That day demonstrated an inherent passion that has remained for three decades and led to our son pursuing the career he truly loves and studies every day of his life. So, I guess the message resounds once again this morning with both my sisters and my son: follow the work you know and love, and much good can come from it.

Congratulations to the youth judges to my sisters and to our son, Willie. You all "done good."