SACCO: It’s all about passion

Did someone give Jerry Carter a magic Greg Maddux shirt?

Mad Dog, after all, is his favorite pro athlete, and with the way Carter appeared and disappeared at high school events, there had to be some sort of T-shirt trickeration.

This fall sports season, Carter was everywhere. At football games, at volleyball matches and, on most days, at both.

Which is why I shouldn’t have been surprised seeing him plugging away at his laptop in a hotel parking lot after Stuarts Draft’s playoff loss to Northside in Roanoke.

It’s why I wasn’t surprised when he showed up next to me on press row for the Group A volleyball Final Four at the Siegel Center in Richmond.

It’s also why I wasn’t surprised to learn that after that Friday semifinal, he was high-tailing it to Cumberland to watch Buffalo Gap play football.

The reason this guy travels all over the state, on his own dime, was enough to inspire even the most curmudgeonly of high school sports writers.

He did it simply for the love.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself,” he said Monday, “now that volleyball and football are done.”

Knowing Carter, we’re pretty sure he’ll find something. Knowing Carter, high school sports in the Valley are that much better off.

Heck, the guy loves all sports. His “Around The Valley in 60 Days” blog (http://www.aroundthevalleyin60days.blogspot.com) is a mishmash of volleyball (college and high school), football and follows his adventures enjoying one of his life’s passions — cheering on high-school-aged athletes that play for, simply and very cliché, the love of the game.

I’d met Carter a few weeks into the 2008 football season when I was sent to write a column from the Spotswood at Stuarts Draft football game. Carter, who also does color for the ESPN1240 Augusta County Football Game of the Week, was hiding from the rain under the U.S. Army tent with play-by-play man Chip Crabill.

Heck, if it weren’t for Crabill standing there and waving me over for an invite to go on the air, I probably wouldn’t have met Carter.

Boy, howdy, I’m glad I did.

No matter how many miles he logged on any given day, Carter was quick to smile. He was even quicker to laugh and made every game or match more enjoyable with his stories.

Most of all, however, he reminded me that it should never be just a job.

Sports writing should always be a passion.

We protect our print and Internet musings like they’re our own children, which, in effect, they are. The difference, however, is some of us do it for a paycheck that, in our current economic climate, seems to be dwindling.
Carter, who pours his own money into gas, tickets and even a book written on Strasburg’s 2007 undefeated Group A champion volleyball team, does it simply because he loves it.

He’s not a controversial man, he told me. He’s not a negative guy and doesn’t like writing about the bad things in high school sports.

“I’ll leave that to you,” he told me.

Thanks for that, Jerry.

Which is what this whole column all comes down to – thanking Carter.

Why?

It’s simple: No matter what your career of choice is, there are times when you always need a kick in the butt to get yourself going again.

Watching Carter at work, for a Web site he makes no money off of, was nothing short of inspiring this season.

The stories we shared were nothing short of fun.

On volleyball championship Saturday he rolled into the Siegel Center after nearly 24 straight hours on the road watching high school sports and college volleyball. He bought a razor and gave himself a quick shave in the bathroom at the Virginia Commonwealth University book store.

“You don’t look like a guy who has been on the road for the past few days,” I told him.

Then I leaned in a little closer to make another point as the crowd grew louder around us.

That’s when I caught the only thing that gave his travels away.

“But, boy, you sure smell like it.”

It was definitely time to give that magic shirt a wash.