Macons loss

The Macon sporting world has suffered a huge blow this week with the loss of one of the better coaches in the area.
No he didn't die, he just left the profession.
Although death and not coaching anymore is almost the same thing.
I know I know, I have to get over this, but on a personal level this one is difficult to handle.
I mean seriously, I lost Prince and Jamie Dickey in the same week
How will I recover.
When I first saw Jamie Dickey at a Stratford basketball game, my first thought was wow, Stratford dresses the team manager nicer than the coaches. Wow why is the team manager standing during the game and yelling at his players and calling plays? This must be some training program that Stratford is using to motivate goofy looking young 16 year olds.
But that goofy looking 16 year old was Jamie Dickey, and he wasn't 16, he was like 27. He was the head coach at THE academy.
Jamie is a reader, a follower and s strong supporter of my blog. He has been the brunt of my humor on here on several occasions, including my make believe golf tournament, and I have commented on his clothes several times.
Jamie is a bit of a pretty boy.
Let me tell you how Jamie uses the media to his advantage. The man is smart way beyond his years. Since he is not coaching anymore, I can tell some of his stories.
Jamie always looked at my top 15 list of basketball and football players. Jamie asked me to keep a player off the list to motivate him. Guess what, the kid went nuts and had the biggest game of his career. The guy actually came up to me after the game and asked if he had done enough to make the list now. And there is Jamie Dickey, with that Opie Taylor grin looking back at me. That was all Jamie.
Jamie always, always, bargained to get his kids any kid of press he could. I mean , he bargained to get me to write about his players even on my blog. Publicity is publicity after all. I am guessing I could have got money out of the guy if I wanted to , because he would do anything for his players, but I never really took advantage of it like that.
Jamie shared information with me that was very helpful and we even talked on the phone like once a week during basketball season. I know he was schmoozing me, but that's ok. I mean the world needs schmoozers. I know he is genuine with it, and I know he is genuinely a nice man.
I will miss the baby blue pants with the white sports jacket and preppy shoes. I will miss the smile that is always on his face when he talks to you. I will miss the frustration when his team didn't quite win, I will miss his texts on what's going on at Stratford, I will miss all the little things he did to assist the press in getting what they needed. I know Mark Farriba will hire a great head coach, but he has his job cut out for him, because folks, Jamie Dickey is one of the special ones.
Like I said, losing him and Prince in the same week is almost too much to bear. I think I will go buy a raspberry beret and hope for some purple rain.
Farewell Jamie, you were one of the best.
Oh and by the way, I am glad you aren't going to be far away in case I need to text you