by Roy Exum
posted August 28, 2009
 Roy Exum |
Jake Logue, a handsome team captain who was so full of fun, was trailing on a play and – without being touched by another player -- suddenly crumpled to the ground. A 6-foot-4 linebacker, Jake had a history of heart murmurs, but had been cleared to play. But in this, his senior season after playing for five years, he died of immediate cardiac arrest despite being hailed a sure college prospect.
Jake was buried on Thursday following a huge memorial service in Kingsport on Wednesday night that attracted 1,500 people, including many football players from teams Sullivan South plays regularly. A statement from the family urged, “This is not the time to find fault or look for someone to blame,” because, quite clearly, Jake died doing what he most loved to do.
So let’s focus on Coach Carter, whose emotions have been rattled since school officials immediately canceled the remainder of Friday’s game through yesterday, when a casket painted Sullivan South Blue and emblazoned with a large No. 54, was lowered into the ground. Do you think he’s had a tough time, holding his team together as its players struggle to make sense of Jake’s death?
“I’ll guarantee you he’s in heaven right now making fun of me making a speech,” the coach said at Wednesday night’s memorial service, noting that he himself had seen Jake mimic “a mean Coach Carter face.”
So while friends and family remembered the linebacker for his great wit, his practical jokes and his magnetic appeal to everyone he met, the far greater view was that he was a totally committed Christian who used his faith to inspire those around him. One assistant coach noted that minutes before he died, Jake had led a quick prayer for a Knox West player who was hurt on an earlier play.
Another coach remembered Jake was a “puny guy” in the seventh grade but grew into a “mountain of a young man” who always was grinning. “He would fight. He had character. He had guts. You couldn’t outwork him,” the coach said in a story printed in the Kingsport Times News.
So following Thursday afternoon’s burial, it fell on Coach Carter to reassemble the Rebels, to sell Jake’s teammates on the idea they should be more determined than ever to have a great season, but that none of them should ever lose sight of Jake Logue’s strong Christian faith, something Coach Carter said is infinitely more important than football.
“God has put his hand on our football program to do something greater than football.”
My goodness, how strong is that? At earlier gatherings this week, all around Kingsport they have spoken about Jake Logue. His life has been wonderfully painted in the Kingsport newspaper and many who have never heard of the popular 18-year-old now know of his ability, his character, and his Christian faith.
“Help us make sense of this senseless loss,” Shane Smith, a pastor at Colonial Heights Presbyterian Church asked in prayer. The pastor later said the mourning was largely due to the fact “we were all so blessed to have known Jake.”
But somewhere we need to pray for Coach Carter, too. His burden of carrying on, of teaching his kids how to laugh again in the locker room after they win, of using Jake’s enormous example to enable his younger players to climb future mountains, is a heavy one.
But Coach Carter will do it. Yes, he will succeed because of one viable piece of evidence no one will ever dispute. When Sullivan South linebacker Jake Logue was laid to rest on Thursday, his earthly goal, according to his page on MySpace, was to one day become a teacher and coach “just like Stacy Carter.”
Carry on, Coach Carter. Yes sir, you play on.
royexum@aol.com
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