LETTERS: COACH WEBBER: A REAL TEAM PLAYER

To the editor:

The Southeast Missourian's sports pages recently included an article and photograph about a coaching legend in high school athletics in Southeast Missouri. I'm referring, of course, to Coach Paul Webber, who died Oct. 11 at the age of 53. Webber's accomplishments as a coach in the Jackson High School athletic program are well-known to sports fans in the area. I too have a memory of Paul Webber, but mine occurred more than 30 years ago when Paul was a member of the wrestling squad at Southeast Missouri State College. What I witnessed that day stands out as a wonderful example of one of the things that athletics purports to do for those who participate.

Because the incident that so impressed me did not occur in an athletic contest in full view of the fans, I expect that very few are aware of Paul's contribution to the wrestling team. But first, I need to provide a little background. In the late 1960s, I was a faculty member in the Earth Science Department when the wrestling coach, Dr. Ken Tillman, who was also head of the Department of Physical Education, invited me to come to Houck Field House and watch the wrestlers practice. As an undergraduate student at Penn State, I had observed intercollegiate wrestling and had enjoyed the matches. So I accepted Coach Tillman's offer. I already held the opinion that college wrestling and modern professional wrestling are a different as day and night. Coach Tillman's workouts did nothing to change this opinion. Observers at practices can be found in many varsity sports when it is permitted by the coach. However, this is rarely the case in wrestling. For one thing, the wrestling room is kept incredibly hot.

At SEMO, Paul Webber had the misfortune of wrestling in the heavyweight division at the time his teammate, Walt Fuller, was conference champion of that division. It is not the dream of many wrestlers to be second stringers and attend daily practices in an overheated room where the first stringer perfects his skills at your expense. These first-string wrestlers aspire to win, or at least place, in the conference championship in March. Only those winning the conference championship earn the right to compete in the National Wrestling Championship, which typically would occur a week or so following the conference matches. For those not winning a conference championship, the wrestling season is over. Paul Webber, a second stringer, didn't even get to wrestle at the conference level. On the next practice day after Fuller won the conference championship in the heavyweight division, I was present at the wrestling practice room in Houck Field House. Paul Webber was there as well, and I heard him tell Fuller the he would be his wrestling opponent in the practices until Fuller left for the national championship matches. What a magnanimous offer, I thought, for Paul to extend his own season in order to help a teammate fulfill his dream. Later that day I realized that I had witnessed a wonderful demonstration of what it means to be a team player.

ED WILLIAMS

Cape Girardeau