Dave Diving at Tam High School
Marianne Wilke and I led the graduation procession at Edna Maguire Junior High. She was the shortest girl in eighth grade and I was the shortest boy.
My diminutive stature posed two problems for a freshman boy entering Tam High School in the fall: what sports could I play and would high school girls be interested in a 4 foot 10 inch freshmen?
Perhaps thinking I would solve both problems at once, I decided to join the freshman football team. I was assigned to third string quarterback, where I worked on memorizing the plays. Mercifully, I wouldn’t see any action. At the end of one game, a lost cause, the coach put me in. However, I couldn’t see the receivers when the offensive line stood up.
Football Coach Hector, seeing my dilemma, pulled me aside, “Forrest, you are too small for football, but come out in winter for the wrestling team. In wrestling, you compete by weight.”
Tam’s first preseason match was with McClymonds High in Oakland. Wrestling order was determined by weight, from the lightest to heaviest. So, I was the first Tam wrestler to walk across the mat and shake hands with my 95-pound opponent.
It was six minutes of screaming, the fans in the auditorium yelling for the small McClymonds wrestler. At the side of the mat my teammates were hollering for me. The three periods were a blur, but in the end, I hung on to win a close decision 3-2.
Apparently my McClymonds opponent did not agree with the referee’s scoring and back in the locker room he angrily confronted me, “We are going to finish the match in here,” he yelled, shaking a cake cutter comb in my face.
Behind me I heard the voice of Tam’s varsity heavyweight wrestler Charlie McBride. “Hey little buddy,” he said to the irate McClymonds wrestler, “how many lights on your auditorium’s ceiling?”
“I don’t know,” my adversary snarled.
Charlie broke into a big smile, “well you should know, Forrest had you on your back long enough you should have been able to count them.”
And with that, Charlie put his huge brown arm around my shoulders, saying “come along Lil’ Forrest” as he whisked me toward our team bus.
Wrestling gave me a feeling of accomplishment and belonging at Tam High School, however the workouts were grueling. In spring I joined the diving team to see if I had any of my dad’s natural talent. Compared with wrestling practice, diving workouts were pure joy.
The winter
rains had given way to warm spring days. After school, I gathered with the
small band of springboard divers. While our swimming teammates swam endless
laps, we catapulted ourselves into the sunshine, flipping in the air, before we
dove into the cool, deep water of the diving pool. After our practices, we
would dry ourselves and relax by lying on the warm cement.
I earned varsity letters in both wrestling and diving at Tam High my freshman year. I had found sports for short people. My next high school project would be to find those girls.