Here's a sad but encouraging story of a high-school football player who is going to have to shelve his playing career due to a spinal deformity he's had since birth. Young Matt Beyer never quite got to signing a recruiting letter of intent, so the news means no sports schollarship to his favored Oklahoma.
Though Beyer is done playing football, he is not done with the game. He has become a volunteer coach for San Antonio Reagan.
"I call him Coach Beyer now," Wetzel said.
Beyer is helping mentor the younger offensive linemen for the Rattlers and said that has helped him still feel like part of the team.
San Antonio Reagan? Yes, Ronald Reagan High.
In the early to mid-1990s, San Antonio, like many Sun Belt cities, experienced explosive growth in its suburbs - particularly affluent areas formed by migrants to the city. This was particularly the case in the area north of Route 1604 between the Blanco Road and US-281 corridors known as Stone Oak and Sonterra. The growth caused severe overcrowding at nearby Winston Churchill High School - at the time the farthest-north school in the North East Independent School District - ultimately resulting in a student population of 3,500 at a school designed for not more than 2,500. The NEISD recognized this problem, and as a part of its 1997 bond issue, the district included an allocation to build a new high school in this area.
After voters approved the bond issue, construction commenced on the 84-acre (340,000 m2) campus. The property had been purchased prior to this bond issue from descendants of rancher William Classen. Spaw Glass was the general contractor of the project. The name "Ronald Reagan" was chosen by future students of the school (those currently in attendance at other North East schools) from a list selected by the NEISD Board of Trustees.
That has a feel of some sci-fi piece, where the infrastructure gets named for current politicians who have become part of history in 2050 or whatever. However, we're already a quarter-century out from Reagan's presidency. Time does fly.
One the main bridges out of Vancouver [B.C.]is named the Alex Fraser Bridge after a former Socred provincial highways minister. Mr. Fraser attended the dedication ceremony IIRC.
Posted by: Rick Hiebert | September 29, 2012 at 12:27 PM