A Fairy Tale Gone Tragic

Rev. 2/14/07, & 4/21/08

The football coach arrived at the field early before the final home game of the season. Good natured, he planned to see if there were any things needing last-minute help in order to insure everything was complete and ready to go for that evening’s game. As he entered the gate and surveyed the field – the coach stopped and just stared. To his amazement, the field was not lined, the markers were not out, the sidelines had not been roped off, the trash cans had not been emptied, the scoreboard was not on, the benches were missing from the sidelines, the ticket takers were absent, as were the referees, linesmen, police security and the bathrooms and concession stand were locked up. Sprinkler pipes were still on the field, and it was obvious that it had not been mowed any time recently.

The coach was stunned! “How could this be?” he asked himself.

Always before when he showed up, everything was always ready. All he had to do was put the med kit on the bench, look around, nod his head, and feel the satisfaction of having joined the set-up crew as it completed its work.

He looked around. There was nobody there. The athletic director probably was asleep, and the scoreboard operator would be lucky if he showed at before the game started. The coach was completely alone.

Before the coach could walk around exploring to see if he could determine what had happened, several of the football players showed up. They too looked around and were bewildered as to why the field was not ready. At the same time, two school buses pulled into the nearby parking lot, and the visiting football team and other membes of their student body started to unload.

As the coach started to walk over to the bus to talk to the visiting team’s head coach, he stumbled over a pile of teeth. Of all things, there had been a stack of teeth four or five inches high, now kicked and strewn about the 20-yard line. Looking down, the coach noticed that there were actually about another half dozen piles of teeth placed about two yards apart. Now the coach was truly perplexed.

Suddenly it all made sense. When he looked back, he realized that he should have seen it coming. There had been hints, but it was just too outlandish to seriously consider, and he had to admit that he had always pushed the notion away – refusing to give it any serious credibility.

Yet now, the telltale signs could not be denied. The set-up work had not been done, and piles of teeth had been left behind. His worst fears had to have come true. Obviously, he had overlooked the signs of stress and fatigue despite having noticed an increase of errors and omissions. But his coaching staff and players had been able to cover over the mistakes so that nobody else knew what was happening.

And then it occurred to him, if piles of teeth were being deposited here, what was being left under pillows in hundreds of children’s bedrooms? Surely, yardline markers, footballs, medical kit ice packs, and/or walkie-talkies weren’t being deposited in various homes throughout the county. Yet deep down, he knew that could very well be the case.

Who knew the cause, or at what point it could no longer be hidden? What caused him finally to snap – to lose touch with reality? And further, was there any hope of returning things to the way they were? Because if not, how in the world would the field be prepared for future games? If the athletic fairy continued to lose touch with reality and revert back to his previous position as a former regional tooth fairy – there would be no way that the football field would ever be ready for any future games – ever again.

Well, unless maybe the coaches, players, volunteers – along with the athletic director and field manager – worked together to prepare the field before the game – as well as also helping with the clean up afterward – maybe, just maybe, they could actually still get the fields ready. But actually, that was just “crazy” thinking – the coach quickly regained his senses and concluded that the athletic fairy simply would have to be cured – there just wasn’t any other realistic option for getting things done other than with the usual magic by the athletic fairy.

With the basketball season quickly approaching, it was obvious to the football coach that the basketball program would simply have to do without until the athletic fairy had had time to recover and once again was back to his old self! But first, the football needed the athletic fairy to hurry and get the football field ready – now! After all, if enough people simply wanted it to happen – how could any truly good fairy withhold the magic?