Coach has made a difference in her life

Being 19 years old, I have already had the joy of experiencing some of the greatest moments in my life. Many of these memories involved family, friends and the many adventures we shared together. However, along with the good memories there are always times in which you remember failing, or stumbling along your road to success. For each of us there is one person in our life who was the most influential in our success. For most people the first person that comes to mind is generally a parent, however, think harder, who is the one person in your life that you can remember always being your biggest fan? Who is the one who rooted for you when the rest of the world had turned their backs? Who was the one person who truly had the greatest impact on your life? The one person who you can say with every fiber in your body changed your life, for me that person was Hallie Turner Blunt.
Some of my greatest memories to this point in my life have been on the basketball court. In fifth grade I began playing YBA basketball, I can’t forget the excitement I had on the first day when I met Coachie (Hallie) and the rest of the Meeker High School basketball team. They seemed so famous, and the feeling I had that night was one that has been surpassed by few events. Then again in seventh grade, I can remember playing my heart out at the Craig Annual AAU Tournament. Few times in my life have I been so tired, or laughed so hard. As a senior in Meeker High School I made a memory that will never be forgotten or replaced, a memory that will be frozen in time, and will always give me the same feeling of excitement and passion, my memory of the 2009 Colorado State Basketball Tournament is the greatest that I have ever made. All of these memories are stained with moments of success, and equally moments of failure, and all of them have one thing in common. In all of my great memories, when I think of who was standing behind me I see Hallie.
Now it has been brought to my attention that Hallie’s job as the Meeker High School basketball coach is being challenged, I cannot express the amount of sadness and disappointment that this makes me feel. For a person who has changed my life, as well as many others, and a person who has more passion and love for her players and the sport than anyone I have ever known to have to fight for the job she loves is sickening. I have heard of the problems and conflicts that have arose over the years, and I will not say that at times I wasn’t equally disappointed in the actions of Hallie, however, this time I am not sure what was done to cause the challenging of a true hero’s job.
I felt as though the season went smoothly, as though Hallie had made many beneficial changes and become the coach that Meeker High School needed, so I am taken back to hear that her job may be in jeopardy. How is it possible that Meeker has become a place where a small handful of people make the decisions, and that votes of so few decide the fate of so many? In politics, an authoritarian government is one in which political power is concentrated in leaders whom are typically unelected, who possess exclusive, unaccountable, and arbitrary power. Is it possible that Meeker is becoming a place ran by many small authoritarian governments? If so count me out. I believe that decisions to change lives should be based on honest opinions and the votes of more than a simple handful of people whom hold a personal vendetta. If the decision to end Hallie’s coaching career can be supported by evidence that she is not the best for the job, than I would like to hear what this evidence may be, and if there isn’t any, what are you personally gaining from this decision?
Megan Ridings
Meeker