FURY: A Rio Games Romance

C
opyright
© 2016 by Alison Ryan

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F
or my father
… Who taught me everything I need to know about being a champion in this life…and the next.

L
ogan Lowery was
Chuck Lowery’s daughter.

That’s how she’d always identified herself since she could remember. It’s what happened when you were the only child of the small town hero.

“How’s your daddy doin’?” the cashier at Hobby Lobby would ask her. “Does he think he can get you girls to state?”

Logan would shake her head and put on her best smile. “He aims to, ma’am. He sure does aim to.”

* * *

“
D
o you have a minute
, Denny?” Chuck Lowery was a bundle of nerves.

“Sure, coach, come on in.” Denny Jamieson, athletic director at Montgomery High School, welcomed Chuck Lowery, the school’s baseball coach, into his office.

“What can I do for you, Chuck?”

“I’ve been doing some thinking. What would you say to me switching from coaching baseball to softball?” There was a long pause after that sentence. Denny was waiting for the punchline.

“Are you serious?” he asked Chuck as he leaned back in the chair behind his desk.

“I am. You could promote Coach Jessup right into my spot. He’s great with pitchers and I think he’s ready to handle the program. Hell, we have six starters coming back and three of our best four pitchers. He could have a real shot at state,” Chuck explained. He’d been practicing this conversation on his own for two days.

“That’s exactly why I can’t figure you wanting to step down. I mean Mary works hard, but the softball team hasn’t had a winning record in years. You made it all the way to the regionals with almost all underclassmen. We’ll start the season ranked in the top ten in the state. What’s gotten into you?”

Chuck sighed. It was time for the pitch. “If I’m going to make the switch, I want to leave the next man up something to work with. That’s only right,” Chuck explained. “And I want to coach Logan. You remember how hard she was on her momma. We aren’t going to have any more kids. Logan’s it and I want to give her everything I’ve got.”

Denny recalled Chuck’s wife, Tracy. She’d had difficulties during the birth of their daughter, Logan. He knew how important family was to his old friend. He nodded in agreement as Coach Lowery spoke.

“But why now? Why not win a state title with these boys you’ve got, let Logan grow up a little bit, and see if she even wants to play softball? Or any sport for that matter?”

Chuck Lowery grinned. “She’s my daughter, Denny. With the genes she’s got, what do you think she’ll want to do?”

* * *

M
ontgomery High School’s
athletic department was salivating for any and all children produced by the union of Chuck and Tracy Lowery. Chuck had won thirteen varsity letters as a Montgomery High School Tiger. He’d started three years in football and basketball and all four years as a power-hitting third baseman for the Tigers’ baseball team.

Meanwhile, his high school sweetheart, Tracy Thompkins, was earning a pile of varsity letters of her own, playing four years of varsity volleyball and basketball. A state championship eluded them both, but college scholarship offers did not. Tracy stayed local and played college basketball at Wright State, while Chuck accepted a baseball scholarship to Clemson University.

After three seasons at Clemson, the Detroit Tigers drafted Chuck Lowery, and his inevitable ascent to Major League baseball commenced. Following two seasons in the minors, he reached the big leagues the same year he asked Tracy to marry him.

Life, as it’s wont to do, turned the tables on the Lowerys when they least expected it.

Trying to score from first base on a hit into the gap in right field, Chuck rounded third base and immediately pulled up. Stepping on the bag at third, he’d felt a pop in his right knee, followed by an explosion of pain.

Reconstructive surgery and long, painful physical therapy, with Tracy at his side, followed. By the end of the season, he felt ready to play, but the Tigers thought it best he wait until spring training the following year. In the off-season, Chuck and Tracy had their dream wedding in Hawaii, and by the time he reported to Lakeland, Florida for spring training, she was expecting.

Chuck’s knee felt good, his young bride was glowing, and life couldn’t be better.

But just like that, things fell apart again.

On a road trip to Seattle, after a game in which Chuck went 2-4 with a single, a triple, and two runs scored, the manager summoned his young star to his room to inform him that he was being sent home to spend a few days with his wife, who’d miscarried that evening.

Losing the baby was hard on the young couple, and Chuck struggled at the plate once he returned to the lineup. After going 0-3 in the first game of a home doubleheader against the Twins, he came to the plate in the second inning of the nightcap. He drove a ball up the middle and took off for first base. His sprint beat the throw to first by an eyelash, but as he jogged back to the bag, pain shot through his surgically repaired knee. He was replaced by a pinch runner, and as he limped to the dugout, though he didn’t know it at the time, he was walking off a major league field as a player for the last time.

Another surgery followed, more physical therapy, then a third operation on the same knee, and finally a realization that it was never going to heal quite right. The Tigers reassigned him to the minors and he spent a season riding busses, staying in cheap motels, and struggling with a knee that never felt quite right.

Tracy graduated Wright State with a degree in secondary education, and with Chuck’s athletic career appearing to be finished, she encouraged him to complete his degree and join her in the teaching profession. He’d have a foot in the door toward coaching, and he was certainly qualified to mold young athletes in a number of sports.

Teaching positions became available at their alma mater, Montgomery High School, first for Tracy, then Chuck, and when the ex-major leaguer applied for the open baseball coaching position, it was a no-brainer.

The Lowerys struggled to conceive a second time, but when news finally came that Tracy was pregnant again, Chuck couldn’t have been more thrilled. The idea of coaching his son, helping him achieve the big league dream that ended so painfully for his old man, gave Chuck’s life the equivalent of a second wind. His enthusiasm for coaching, teaching, and his marriage, exploded.

As Tracy began to show, Chuck prayed fervently each night – a prayer of thanksgiving and of hope. Thanks for giving that baby inside his wife another day. That tiny heartbeat getting stronger. And hope for another day.
Just one more day
. Make it through tomorrow and worry about the next day when his head hit the pillow that night. He thanked God for all he’d achieved, all with which he’d been blessed, and offered it all up if his baby would be allowed to live just one more day. Another miscarriage would be too much.

When the news came that the baby wasn’t going to be Charles Lowery Junior, it hit Chuck hard. He’d never stopped to consider that he might have a daughter, rather than a son. He was one of three brothers and Tracy’s three siblings were all boys.

What did he know about raising a little girl?

Any trepidation, disappointment, or concern vanished, however, the first time he held his daughter in his arms and stared into her bright blue eyes. She was a big baby, nearly ten pounds, not an ounce of which was hair. She was as bald as an egg. She was the most beautiful thing Chuck Lowery had ever seen. He wept as he held her, and both sets of grandparents had to wait a good, long while before they got a turn with the new arrival.

The delivery was tough on Tracy, and she spent a week in the hospital after hemorrhaging and enduring an emergency C-section. During her convalescence, the new parents agreed not to tempt fate by trying for more children. They’d guard their blessing jealously and raise her the best way they knew how.

Logan Grace Lowery, named for Chuck’s mother’s maiden name (Logan) and Tracy’s mother’s first name (Grace) would never lack for love.

* * *

B
ut Denny Jamieson
didn’t know most of this. Chuck had to somehow really convince him on this one.

“The reason I’m so pumped up for this, to start coaching softball, is that it’s going to be an Olympic sport! Can you believe that? My baby, in the Olympics? Hearing that anthem playing and watching her wearing a medal in, what would it be, 2012 or 2016? Hell yes. There can’t be anything better than that.” Chuck sold the dream to his athletic director with his customary exuberance.

Denny laughed at his new softball coach’s excitement for the athletic future of his newborn daughter, and then raised his hands, showing his palms in surrender.

“I can see there’s no changing your mind on this, Chuck. Let me talk to the other coaches and the administration. I’ll get it all worked out. But you have to tell your team. They’ll be crushed. But if you’re being called to do it… If it’s for Logan… Well, then I understand.”

“Thanks, brother. Make some room in the trophy case for some softball hardware.” Chuck Lowery had never been more excited.

The two men embraced, parting with pats on each other’s backs.

Logan Lowery, the golden child, was destined for softball glory, first at Montgomery High School, and then in the Olympics.

Until she wasn’t.