Fortunate to have him as a father....

As the son of Dale Meddock, it was not always an easy situation to live up to his expectations and sometimes remains difficult to this day. The lifetime lessons that many of you have mentioned in phone conversations or on this site were also lessons that he taught his three sons. At times, as I am sure some of the athletes can relate, we wanted to rebel against those lessons.

The one comment that I always hear from his former student/athletes is that he always made them strive to do better and that they didn't want to let him down. As a son, I can guarantee you that I had and still do have the same feelings. The reason that I have been able to achieve some of my goal is because of the guidance of my father and this man who means so much to everyone. Of course, my mother also deserves credit in our upbringing, but since this is a tribute to my father I will stay focused on the subject at hand.

As a young boy, I can remember the countless hours in the youth programs of gymnastics and my admiration of my father and all of his gymnasts. They were my heroes and some of them even received letters from me as a small child (i.e. Gemelas, Sinchak) if my memory serves me correctly. If not, they were my heroes and role models. Their dedication, strength and commitment were evident to me as a young boy. I was in the gym watching practices quite often. I wanted to be like them. It is a shame that more youth do not have the opportunity to be around people like these men. I believe my dad knew what he was doing when he had me attend those practices as a small boy because he would talk to me about their dedication etc. He was molding me at a young age as a man not a gymnast. Gymnastics was not to be and I can still remember when my father told me that I had to choose another path. I was not a gymnast, I would be way too tall and my focus needed to be in a different direction. I was devastated and cried all night. All I wanted to be was like my heroes and he was saying I could no longer pursue the dream. I fought it. I even despised my father for squashing my dreams. In retrospect, I reflect at how difficult that conversation was for my father. I am sure he would have enjoyed coaching one of his sons but he knew that we were not physically able to be gymnasts. Many of you can probably attest to my father being frank and honest with you. He would not mince words. He stated the goal and what it would take to accomplish the task. His honesty was something that I will always admire regardless of the fact of how much it hurt you. In reality, it probably hurt him more but he knew how to refocus your energies to something you could succeed at doing.

Honesty. It was never more evident than when my 1st team as head Ambridge Basketball coach started out 10-1 and everyone was excited. We then went 1-12 in the backstretch of the season and my father came down into the coaching office after a rough loss and he stated, "Son, I know how you feel." I fired back, "How do you know how I feel, you were 181-1!" With calmness and frankness he stated, "Well, I felt like you did once." The tension was busted and everyone laughed. He had the ability to put things in perspective even at the most difficult times in your life.

When I was in high school, my dad was spending hours doing PE grades and asked him why he spent so much time on grades. My dad had grades for different weight classes (i.e. a 200 pound student would need to do # of sit-ups for an A). This was well before anyone even talked about benchmarks or rubrics. His response, "Son, you give an honest days work at everything you do. You never give 50%." To this day, I have tried to live my life aspiring to that lesson.

Honesty, integrity, and dedication are all words that could describe my father. However, the main characteristic that I believe everyone will agree impacted their lives is simple. He cared. He cared about people and did everything in his power to help them achieve their goals.

In our daily lives, we may be fortunate enough to have someone like him as a teacher, coach, or friend. Those people come and go in our lives but their life lessons leave us a foundation to build upon. We are fortunate enough to have him on a daily basis and his impact has molded our lives. In my mind, I will always strive to be my father but at the end of the day there is always more to do. The countless lectures, at times annoying, have shaped my life. Thanks for doing this for him. I owe him everything.