Press Box
Missing a man we never
cared enough to knowDON'T let any of us tell you otherwise. We start out as sportswriters and become journalists later (maybe) through a combination of experience and necessity. Unlike other reporters, we get into this business to be close to the games we love because we reached the point where we weren't good enough to continue to compete in them and we wouldn't go away.
We get into this with the delicious idea of getting into games free and hanging with our heroes. Almost the ultimate scam, second only to valet parking at the Playboy Mansion. But eventually, before we realize it, it all changes. Our heroes all retire and our job mostly consists of feeding a parking meter, going to a desk and wondering if someone will drop a dime about June Jones' contract today so we can break a big story ... a big, boring, business story about how much a coach is going to get paid.
Then Mike Sheldt changes everything again, and reminds us this is not always about how much fun we should be having. An 18-year-old kid who loves the water dies in a swimming pool because his heart is too big. A guy I never met, whose teammates won't talk to me, makes me think about the way I look at things.
I'd covered a few athletes' deaths before. But I always had met the person, written about him previously as an athlete, not a victim. I was not perceived as an intruder after their deaths. Not so with Mike Sheldt, and that's why I felt like an ambulance-chasing vulture the other night.
If I was one of Sheldt's teammates, I wouldn't have talked to the media, either. We were never around this season while they were breaking records, only when tragedy hit.
It's not that the local sports media is negligent; it's just that most sports fans in Hawaii aren't very interested in swimming (strange as that might seem, considering this is a state surrounded by water that has produced Olympic champions in the sport). If you need proof, consider that a UH fan forum on the Internet yesterday had around 10 postings about a Warrior football player's girlfriend being a contestant on "Are You Hot?" compared to two about Sheldt's death.
Insensitive? Not necessarily. Who knows what makes people care about what they care about?
Life and death almost always makes for an interesting story, for obvious reasons. Everybody acknowledged how sad this was, but the burning question was cause of death. The thing that surprised me was the lack of people wanting to know more about Mike Sheldt, the person.
I'm going to try to tell you, anyway, based on what I've learned talking to Sheldt's coaches and his friends in Charlotte, N.C.
Sheldt sensed when spirits were down, and brought them back up with a joke and a goofy smile. He owned the room, but made individuals feel good about themselves. He was talented and serious, but not overly so about himself.
His teammates will verify this -- that Mike Sheldt was a great guy -- for us tonight as they compete for NCAA qualifying times at the same aquatic complex where Sheldt met his tragic fate.
They don't have to say it in words if they'd rather not. Their courage and their determination to continue on will tell it all. It wouldn't be right to quit when Mike Sheldt didn't get his Last Chance meet.
Dave Reardon, who covered sports in Hawaii from 1977 to 1998,
moved to the the Gainesville Sun, then returned to
the Star-Bulletin in Jan. 2000.
E-mail Dave: dreardon@starbulletin.com