Written by Anthony Taormina on Wednesday November 30th at 6:30 PM
One year later,
It doesn’t feel like one year, it’s feels like it’s been yesterday.
I don’t choose to remember what happened that awful day a year ago, I choose to remember a young football player whose team at the time was 0-3, one JV football game in September, it didn’t matter what the record was, here they were, Varsity Football Players, playing pickup football playing together, I remember watching them, now yeah the starting QB was talking to Sam but at the same time, I thought, yeah this is what it should be about.
One of those players playing in that group was Tate Myre
I remember watching Tate play youth football, just like his brother Trent and Ty, I remember seeing all three Myre brothers go through youth football then middle school football then Oxford Football. When you think of Oxford Football, you often think Rowleys, Carpenters, Vivianos, Rebtoys, Lines, Keenists (okay that’s just me, Coach Keenist is an Oxford 06 alum), and Myres.
Tate was more than that,
He wasn’t just football and wrestling, when you think of Tate, just like Trent and Ty, you think of them as leaders, as mentors, just overall amazing people, even if our interactions were few and far between. Tate just like his brothers always put the team first, he always celebrated the team’s success rather than his own, just like his brothers. The way it should be.
Can’t give Coach Myre (Coach Buck) and his wife enough credit, they raised three wonderful young men and have mentored so many and continue to mentor even in times of challenge. It was nice to see Coach Myre on the Oxford sideline this year as a Coach, he makes not just a great coach but an even better mentor. I saw my brother briefly talk to Coach Myre after the game, it made sense for him to be the one to do it, when it comes to the patriarchs of the Taorminas, it is always been my brother.
Got to watch all three Myre’s grow (and at times get there last name confused while announcing lol), as my late best friend Steven Crowder told me, “Watch from a distance,” just like I would watch my Lake Orion kids grow, I watched Oxford’s kids grow as well, that included all of the Myres.
Tate loved to mentor kids, I saw it a few times, especially when he would go over to Oxford Middle School. He loved working with younger kids. One time, I had a track meet over at Oxford, he was mentoring a young man who wanted to get better in football, we nodded at the other, watching him being able to make a young man’s day. It was special. It really was. One of my Lake Orion kids who is friends with Tate told me that he loved to bond with Special Ed kids, obviously with having autism, I wanted to bring Tate and his family into my world, just I like I did with several other Oxford Families but I took the Steven Crowder approach of, “Let them come to you.”
Two days before that awful day, Tate followed me on Twitter, I was shocked, I thought he was following my brother, he has the football blog, he just wrote a wonderful article about Oxford Football, how they were playing with nothing to lose, everything to gain. I direct messaged Tate thanking him for following me on twitter, he responded the next day saying “Appreciate it.” I’ve kept that post and I always will.
I had a lot of plans for Tate, obviously we were going to talk about the upcoming football and wrestling seasons, not to mention pick on him over why in football pictures, he didn’t smile, even the picture where he had with the Double O Trophy, it was a happy picture but not a smile lol but I also was going to try and bring him and his family into Sam and my world. Keith Dunlap wrote a wonderful article about my brother and I back in 2020 that just like I did with a few of his Oxford brothers and their families, I had brought them into our world and they came out better because of it. I had planned to share with Tate with the hopes that he would share it with his family. In many ways, just like I did with other Lake Orion, Clarkston, and Oxford Families, bring the Myres into Sam and my world with the hopes that they come out better because of it. It is an autism term, “Bring someone in your world, they will come out better because of it.”
I hope and pray that Tate has met Steven in heaven, they both have a lot in common, both mentors, both well respected, both wiser than their years. You just don’t see that very often with people, you really don’t. I am thankful that Tate’s legacy will never be forgotten, the 42 Strong Program, so many people will benefit from the program, a lot of times when you think of Tate, it is his athletic success but more so success as a leader, mentor, and person who will never ever be forgotten.
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