Thanks, Mom: Q-C athletes get plenty of help from their mothers

Font Size:

By Sean Moeller | Saturday, May 12, 2007 11:55 PM CDT | () comments

There is a reason why, when the TV camera scans down a sideline or a baseline at a college or professional sports event that the athletes mug for the camera and deliver an emphatic “Hi, Mom.”

It never is “Hi, Dad.” Dads often are No. 2.

Dad might throw batting practice or shag rebounds, but it is Mom who slices the oranges, makes sure the team never is hungry, washes out the grass stains, is the main source for positive reinforcement, has a perfect attendance record at every event on the schedule home and away, and is the never-failing chauffeur.

She is there when practices and games begin, as well as when the whistles go quiet and the lights go dark.

Aledo wrestler Clayton Rush is among those who knows and appreciates that. After winning Illinois Class A state wrestling titles each of the past two years, he immediately bolted from the mat to find his mother, Gail, for a hug.

He zipped up the courtside steps of Assembly Hall in Champaign, Ill., to the walkway between the lower and upper bowls, then took a quick right turn before sprinting to his mother’s seat.

“I’m considered to be a momma’s boy,” Rush said.

He’s certainly not the only one. There is nothing like the unconditional support of a mother.

Professional golfer and former North Scott High School athlete Beth Bader had one of her best athletic memories at the 2004 Michelob Ultra Open, an LPGA event held at Kingsmill in Williamsburg, Va., over Mother’s Day weekend. Sue Bader stayed in a condominium with her daughter, and it was the last Mother’s Day they spent together.

At the age of 53, Sue Bader died of pancreatic cancer in December of that year.

“My mom was very inspirational to my career,” Bader said. “I think about her a lot, especially coming up on Mother’s Day here at Kingsmill.”

Sean Moeller can be contacted at (563) 383-2288 or at smoeller@qctimes.com.