I haven’t made it home much since joining the Army. By home, I mean where I went to high school and college. I guess I made back to Virginia quite a bit while stationed in Tennessee, but I always miss my friends up north. Shortly after moving to Texas, I got a notice in the mail that Augsburg College was having a 10 year reunion of the MIAC championship football team. It was a short reunion that would feature a tour of the new athletic facility, a formal dinner with a few speeches, watching the Auggies take on Northwestern College and then having a ceremony at halftime with us running onto the field, being announced, and then retiring the jersey of my buddy Scott Hvistendahl.

I just got to my new unit and didn’t want to take leave, but I thought, I am supposed to get off early on Friday so I bet I could fly up on Friday and come home on Sunday. So, I got permission to leave the area and bought my ticket.

I flew up on Friday, rented a car and drove the 2 1/2 hours north to Hayward, WI. I made plans with a few high school friends Paul Meyer, Katie Dale, Andy Gillis, and Scott Keller. I got to Paul’s house and after some talking, went to the Old Hayward Eatery for drinks and darts and more talking. It was great to see the guys again after so long (Andy and I learned Korean together in California while he was in the Air Force, but I hadn’t seen Scott, Paul, or Katie since 2000). Before leaving, I also got to see Lora Swanson who I hadn’t really seen since probably high school graduation in 1996. Afterwards, we went to Scott’s house where, just like the old days, Scott didn’t want us to stop drinking. Scott, Andy and I all have military time as a Marine, Airman, and of course Soldier. We compared the military life with playing sports in high school and kind of marveled that we were all together again, not in Iraq, drinking beer in Scott’s backyard. The last time we did this was senior year, we decided to hop in my car and a cop just happened to be hanging out next to where I parked. Luckily, they cut us a break. We stayed up way too late and like usual, Andy passed out and I had to wake him up early with him still being drunk. But I had other plans, I had a breakfast with my family to attend!

My uncle Arnold also lives in Hayward and we invited all of my local aunts and uncles to have breakfast together. It was a great morning and we had a wonderful meal. It was good to see the family again. I hadn’t seen them since the summer of 2004 when Holly, Ben and I drove up for my uncle Arnold’s wedding. But, the visit was short because I had a lunch date at Augsburg College with some of my closest college friends.

I drove Andy back home to Hudson, WI, where he was (is?) living with his brother and that gave us another 2 hours to catch up. Afterwards, I made my way to Augsburg and met up with my former roommate Seth and close friends Mary, Adrianne, (Adrianne’s husband), Aaron and Aaron’s wife (who I met for the first time in 2004 during our visit). We caught up with each other and I also stocked up in some Augsburg College gear ($250 in sweatshirts, pint glasses, pens, and a hat).

Then I made my way over the athletic building for the reunion. Right off the bat, I was so amazed to see all the guys again. Some had changed so much and others were exactly the same. It was great to see the skinny, athletic guys get a little pudgy… it made me feel a little bit better about how I’ve aged. Outside of the broken body and buzzed hair from the Army, I think I was about the same. We did the dinner, had some laughs and made our way out to the game. At halftime, we threw on the football jerseys and had quite the laugh at how they didn’t quite fit us anymore. I think I fared ok though. We were introduced, had a good recap of our season by campus pastor Dave Wold and then retired the jersey of Scott Hvistendahl, the first jersey to be retired at Augsburg. Scott Hvistendahl was our two-time all-american wide receiver who not only let our team to the championship in 1997, but also broke Jerry Rice’s all-NCAA record for career receiving yards. He broke the record on the last game of his senior year, a matchup with Concordia-Morehead at the Metrodome in November of 1998. It was a good presentation and well deserved honor to see the #30 jersey hanging from the ‘cage.’ After the game, I got some pics with the old roommates and coach and spent the night at Scott’s house where we continued a time honored tradition from our days living together… we watched Sports Center.

I was up at 5am to catch my flight and go back to my home in Texas.

See the pictures here!