I know that coming here when you do, you’re looking for what’s going on when it comes to the sport we focus on this time of year.

This week, it’s going to be a little different.

With what has happened in Pike County and Nashville this weekend, I wanted to take a little bit of time to remind us all (myself included) what we should be doing on a consistent basis.

Pike County Pirate Dylan Thomas passed Sunday night. He was 16.

Peach County and Pike were playing Friday night and the game had to be stopped after Dylan collapsed on the sidelines. Accounts vary, but the gist of it was that: after a play, he left the field doing what he has done many times before playing for his high school, lost feeling in the left side of his body, collapsed, was airlifted to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, had surgeries that tried to do as much as they could to help in recovery and stability -- but to no avail. 

So, a family both in name and in feeling, has lost someone very special way too soon.

Can I comprehend a loss that tragic? Not by a longshot. All I can really do in this case is send my love to a school, towns like Zebulon and Williamson that instantly rallied around the Thomas family and the Pirate program, and to a family that has an absence that is all too raw right now. His teammates want to go back on the field and play for their fallen brother -- and that’s understandable considering what that can do for someone touched in a situation like this. It gives you a chance to release. It gives you a chance to remember. And it gives you a chance to recall what your brother meant to you in a work-sense and in each teammates’ day-to-day run of interaction. It gives you a chance to have a little bit of “normal” in a whirlwind of emotion that you can’t corral.

It’s like being in a rainstorm trying to catch the drops with your fingers held apart. Most of the water falls through, but a few pieces hang on to your fingers for a second before they proceed. And when you remember you can cup your hands together, more of it hangs around for a while and you can change its focus as you get soaking wet. The water works with you instead of around you and over you for a change -- if only temporarily.

When you listen to a senior captain like Jake Patterson have the courage to keep it together for folks like us in describing Dylan at a gathering of hope and when you have your county School Superintendent say Dylan is a “Pike County Pirate through and through,” it reminds us just how fragile everything is around us. People have to grow up too quickly these days and we all face things that we shouldn’t long before our time. 

I certainly have (and still do) and I know you, Dear Reader, are as well.

Pike County football is at the midpoint of their schedule right now at 4-1. And the only thing set in stone is their schedule for the rest of the regular season. There’s an away game this week in Macon at the Ed DeFore complex against Rutland before they’re set to return home for a region game against Central-Macon in two weeks. As I type, I don’t know how the team is going to proceed in an on-the-field manner. I don’t know if games are going to be juggled because of things that are far more important, but if you’re around the Pirates on a game night for the rest of the season, I would ask that you let them know what you’re feeling.

If you pass them in the street, let them know. Honk a horn. Shake a hand. Give a hug.

If you see them in the checkout line, let them know. Pay it forward.

If you have a phone number, let them know. Even a short one.

If you have them as a part of your social media channels, let them know. A smile goes a long way…

And the same thing applies to those closest to you.

Tell everyone that matters what you’re thinking these days. Don’t wait for a holiday or a note on a calendar. 

I was told at a very young age that you can’t choose your family. I would steadfastly disagree. Your family takes forms that you may not anticipate when you grow as a person and it expands to a place that helps when you need it most. Don’t ever think you need to hold something back for later.

I hope the request made today was a simple one but I know that, sometimes, the hardest thing to do is tell someone something for fear of being mushy. I don’t worry about that anymore.

Dear Reader, neither should you.

Play it safe everyone … we’re all Pirates today.  

#DylanStrong