Mid-September, our Notre Dame community learned that our head football coach, Scot Bemis, had been diagnosed with cancer, and in a pretty bad way. Immediately, the school - administration, parents and students alike - rallied around Coach Bemis and created Team Bemis to support and help Coach Bemis and his family during this time in any way that we could.
Every Monday, twice a day, all are invited to pray the rosary for Coach in the school chapel. On Thanksgiving day, the first annual Bemis Bowl was held and teams comprised of students, alumni, friends and supporters of Coach Bemis competed against eachother to be the first winner of what will likely become an annual event. A pancake breakfast is in the works, meals have been scheduled, prepared and delivered now for months, and thousands of dollars in donations are being received to help Coach Bemis offset the costs of his treatment.
The outpouring of love and support for Coach Bemis and his family during this time has been awesome to witness, a true testament to the goodness and generosity of our school and its faculty - but also to the incredible compassion our children are capable of, a trait I sometimes think we do not always give them credit for.
Today, Team Bemis in conjunction with Crossfit Magna put on a little friendly competition that they called 'WODS (workout of the day) for Bemis'. The competition was open to all and promoted in the local crossfit gyms and through facebook. All in all, sixty-one people competed today in three different divisions, and you know what? Not many of them even knew Coach Bemis, they simply showed up today to dedicate their workouts to a man going through a really tough time. To support him in the only way they knew how.
A special division was even created for our high schoolers to give them an opportunity to compete and to allow them to dedicate their workout to the man that has helped coached so many of them over the years. I think I mentioned that Frankie has been doing crossfit the past month or so and when she heard about the event - without a seconds hesitation, she told me she was doing it.
Personally, crossfit has given me so much confidence and helped me develop strength I didn't even know I could possess, and now it is doing that same thing for Frankie and I couldn't be more excited for her. Well, and maybe just a teensy big proud. My girl took third place in the girls' high school division! ;)
Today, I am grateful to count myself among the crossfit community and even more so, to be able to say with certainty on behalf of Crossfit Magna, Crossfit480 and all the crossfit gyms represented today...
WE ARE TEAM BEMIS!
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