The sports pages have given rise to many thoughtful treatise on the human condition. Books and movies have chronicled the exploits of those who take up a sport. Sports have even been described as a substitute for combat or a reason, in the case of the Olympics, to halt wars.
This article from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin is a reflective examination of how former US National Food Ball League coach Jerry Glanville went from Iraq to coaching the defense for the University of Hawai'i football team.
In March of 2004, Glanville and eight others went to Iraq as part of a "NFL Alumni Association trip..., traveling to three, four camps a day, all day, late into the night. Visiting thousands of young United States servicemen, seeing them operate under pressure in the field in the middle of a war."
Coming out of the experience, Glanville felt impelled to get involved with what he calls "the greatest generation in the history of the world." A generation of young people who are willing to go anywhere and do anything they are asked of.
Thus began his quest to start coaching again. It didn't matter to him where, just as long as he could work with this generation of young people he had gotten to know and admired so much.
