When I was 14 years old, I tried-out for my high school golf team at Mt. St. Joseph near Baltimore. It was the early stages of the Tiger Boom, and a lot of kids showed up to Rolling Road Golf Club for the two-day, 18-hole tryout. There were just a few spots available on a team loaded with older, more experienced players than me. I had little idea what it meant to be on the golf team, but I knew that I wanted to be on it.
My first day was mediocre -- a 43 or 44. I knew I would need to be better on Day 2 to have any chance at making the team.
The second day was magical. I had never broken 40 for nine holes, but I had a chance to do it with a birdie on the ninth hole. Practically everyone on the team and coach Mike Dooley were watching on the hillside behind the short par 4 as I tried to hit my second shot with a wedge from the fairway. I skulled it. Badly. It was heading on a line drive out of bounds, into the parking lot and with a full audience to boot. Fortunately, the ball hit the tree under which that gaggle was standing, bounced softly backwards and landed to about 7 feet for birdie. Knowing how unlikely it was that I should have that birdie putt and figuring that making the team was probably riding on making the putt, I nervously coaxed it in.
Coach Dooley offered me a spot on the team. I couldn't believe it. I had no idea what that commitment entailed. What I also didn't know was that I was getting to know one of the best people I would ever meet.
Mike Dooley passed away over the weekend, shocking our golf and school community. Part of the class of 1966, Dooley was -- and still will be -- an important fabric for a community of people who probably can't fully understand just how hard he worked for so many people he had no obligation to help.
I played varsity golf at Mt. St. Joe for four years. I didn't play much in our matches. Our season started in late winter, and I rarely seemed to figure out my form in those few months. Lucky for me, golf had become so popular that our league started a junior varsity level for the sport. Coach Dooley led that, too, and he let me go out in those matches as an underclassman for a season and get some wins.
When I graduated and moved on from St. Joe in 2001 and away from competitive golf, I was genuinely grateful to Coach Dooley, but I really had no idea how much work he put into our team. Two decades later, when I started coaching sports, I finally understood. The hours can be immense and thankless. Kids know you're working on their behalf, but they mostly just care about having fun -- and, eventually, winning. They don't care so much about what goes into it outside of what happens on the field or court or course.
Coach Dooley arranged for us to have a place to play almost every weekday at Rolling Road. Our 9-hole rounds were in groups of four, and we played fast, like the ethos of our generous host club. He set us up to attend the club's rules seminar night every year so we could learn how the game was actually officiated and how the Rules of Golf could be our friend in some situations. When we couldn't play at Rolling Road, he set us up with driving-range sessions and time with a teaching pro who could help us fine-tune our swings. He preached game management -- a strategy I admittedly still rebel against to this day -- so that we could be better in the match-play situations we found ourselves. He set lineups, made sure players had rides to and from our practices and away matches, and he encouraged us to work hard outside of his purview both on our games and in our studies. He even helped provide resources to kids who wanted to play on the golf team but weren't quite there yet. He did all of this for 32 years, mostly while working a full-time job. That level of commitment is staggering, and he's been impactful in hundreds, if not thousands, of lives.
Mr. Dooley was also tremendously important to our school's alumni relations and activities. He loved St. Joe as much as anyone could, and he wanted it to be as great for future generations as it was for him. Any parent who has been on a PTA or HSA board knows how involved that work is. I see it secondhand now through my wife. It's rewarding, but it's a no small commitment -- and it can easily go unnoticed or underappreciated. For people who get involved, the joy comes from seeing other people happy and feeling like they've made their community better.
I've come back to St. Joe on an annual basis to speak to our school's journalism class, headed by Ed Schultheis, one of the greatest friends I made thanks to St. Joe. Ed signed on years ago to help Mr. Dooley in coaching the golf team. Spending that kind of time with someone with a joint emotional interest in a team can make you bond quite quickly. I have no doubt Mr. Dooley took great joy in Ed's company, helping him become a better coach, teacher and person, and, in some ways, preparing him for the day when the team would be his.
One spring visit, I made the drive over to Rolling Road after my talk. I had made that drive so many times in high school, often too quickly. And this time I couldn't wait to get there either. Coach Dooley was there, and I couldn't wait to see how he was doing. We had stayed in touch over social media over the years, and he would send notes of encouragement for what I was doing personally and professionally. He didn't have to make any kind of investment in me after I had long gone and long been largely worthless to St. Joe's golf program, but he did. That touched me so much. I knew he was doing with me and so many others what he always did as coach: quietly observing and endlessly rooting for our success. We could have -- and he would have -- talked all night. He wanted to hear about my family, to show me what Rolling Road had done in an incredible renovation, to ask me what I thought of the kids now on the team that were going through just about the same things I was when I was on the team. He brought me back in, all over again, just like he had done some 25 years ago.
I will never forget the fun I had playing golf at Mt. St. Joe. I still think about how intimidating that first tee shot was in that tryout. I think of that fateful ricochet whenever I get a fortunate bounce on the course. I further appreciate the work Coach Dooley did for us whenever I get to help a kid learn a new skill or get better at a sport.
We need more people who are willing to step up without showing off. We need more people who love in everything they do. We need more Mike Dooleys in the world.
