Greg Peters

As a parent, the best part about youth sports sure as hell doesn't have anything to do with if my kid wins the weekend tournament or makes the A team. If you're reading this and assume I'm the "all the kids should receive a ribbon" guy, you'd be wrong.

Watching your kids laugh and smile with their teammates can be a close second. Feeling your kid's disappointment when something doesn't go their way in youth sports, but they keep trying anyway and they learn perseverance, those moments rank high on the list, too. It's still not the best part.

You see, I'm one of those guys who’s been through it all with youth sports. If you've ever seen the movie, "Roadhouse," I'm kind of the Wade Garrett, the wily old crusty veteran, of youth sports. I've been in sixth grade "team draft" meetings where it was straight out of a Saturday Night Live skit. You couldn't make it up even if you tried. On the flip side, with three daughters, I've also been lucky enough to be a part of the best youth sports has to offer.

For the self-described Wade Garrett of the River Falls' youth sports scene, the absolute best thing youth sports has to offer is, without question, the life-long friendships you make with your kids' teammates' parents. 

As a veteran youth sports' parent, you'll be able to give Google reviews, in great detail, of western Wisconsin's best walking tacos in a Doritos' bag and then, just like that, it's over. 

Kids play youth sports for about 7 to 8 years at most, but the parent relationships can have more staying power than the permanent marker "X's" tattooed on the top of your hand upon paying the entry fee to a tournament.

I am a River Falls transplant and moved to town 2005, so many of the parents I've met through youth sports were my first friendships in River Falls. My oldest daughter began playing tee-ball right away as a kindergartner the second year after we arrived. Rick Flood and Paul Adermann were her coaches. Luck of the draw, those two guys are good friends to this day. When my oldest daughter graduated from high school, that same tee-ball picture was plastered up on the wall in our garage during her make-shift grad party mausoleum. It's still a mystery how Flood and Adermann willed their team to victory with a total of six kids on a tee-ball team.    

I first met Dave Gerrish sitting next to him in a lawn chair watching girls' youth soccer games. Our daughters played on the same team. Dave is an interesting character, an oxymoron of sorts, a perplexing conundrum if you're trying to read a guy. He's a Viking fan but he also loves the Badgers. He's meticulous with his spending and conservative in his job as a financial planner, but liberal in his politics. His musical tastes consist of hardcore heavy metal, but he also likes 1980's "new wave" British pop. You're not going to find too many guys with "Five Finger Death Punch" and "Pet Shop Boys" on their playlists. You're also not going to find too many guys who genuinely cheer for his friends' kids as much as he does his own. Dave is a "regular" on the River Falls Sports YouTube broadcasts and plans his evenings around watching friends' kids play high school sports.

It's for the very same reason discussed above; the parent relationships gained from youth sports has given him life-long friends and Dave definitely cares about his friends. His friends also care about him.

Dave was walking up his basement stairs this past Friday night to go to bed and was wearing socks. At the top of the steps, he pivoted to turn the stairwell light off and slipped on the non-carpeted steps. He took a bad fall. Maybe 99.9999 times out of 100, there would be some bad bruising or maybe a broken wrist. For a reason no one knows but God above, this particular fall caused paralysis, for now. It's still much too early to know any final outcomes, but there will no doubt be numerous trips to the hospital for his family, as a lengthy stay is expected. 

One of Dave's daughters is on the track team. His other daughter is on the soccer team. Dave has coached many of the current Wildcat softball players in youth basketball.  

The River Falls Sports Broadcasting crew will be streaming girls' track, soccer, and softball this week trying to help raise funds to help his family. The Venmo code is: @riverfallssportsbroadcasting.

100% of all proceeds from the three broadcasts and Venmo-ed donations will benefit the Gerrish family. The collective Wildcat parents are in shock right now and this is how they are helping a friend in need.   

I'm not really into "Five Finger Death Punch," but the next time I listen to them with Dave Gerrish, it will be music to my ears. The “X” in bold permanent marker we shared together on our hand at youth sports games marks the spot for a friendship that does not have an expiration day.