The fall of 2010 would be a busy time. The store was busy as usual getting ready for the holiday, Nick was preparing for college visits and was participating in several school plays where he was in the orchestra playing his Alto Saxophone. I must say that he was pretty good! Joey was fitting in great with the older 16AA hockey players and finally enjoying himself playing the game he loved. The new private school was different to say the least. The Academy of the New Church in Bryn Athyn, PA, was an entire private educational system that was a self contained ecosystem and covered Grade school through four year College. The Community and school were centered around the writings and rants of the son of the medieval head of the Lutheran church in Sweden. Emmanuel Swedenborgen’s twenty written volumes of his personal discussions with Jesus Christ…ok…we’re the gospel and centerpiece of their religion. Joe was one of 24 freshman boys in the high school. Specifically recruited to play hockey, the school was also well known for its Nationally ranked Basketball program. Joe was a top player for their hockey program. The school had its own ice arena that was semi covered and outdoors. It got mighty cold in the winter there. The hockey season didn’t get rolling until the beginning of November since the weather needed to be cold enough to help freeze the ice in the rink. Since there were so few students in the school everyone needed to play multiple sports. I picked Joe up after school everyday after athletics and tutoring on my way home from work. One day he advised me that he was now the Quaterback of the JV football team. Wow! What a surprise that was! He was an excellent athlete. Now I got to go watch him play football too. I loved it. Luckily, it didn’t interfere with hockey so he was going seven days a week full blast. School, football, hockey. In addition, all JV players had to play Varsity football too since they were needed as backups in case of emergency or it was a blowout game. He got to get into a Varsity game against Lower Moreland, a hockey player, who never played organized football, playing Varsity QB as a freshman. Never imagined I would see that. Either did he. Pretty funny, but he did ok.
The hockey season started for ANC and all was going great there too. Joe was third in scoring as a freshman and lighting it up every game. The IHL was a league made up of Private High schools in the tricounty area and the competition was not bad. He was loving the athletics and they him but all was not well. Joe has always had some learning issues and with some subjects he had a tough time. His concentration skills were a challenge and over Christmas break we had to meet with the school Principal about grades. Joe would need to see a student tutor to help him get through a few classes, which he agreed to. When the new semester started, after the New year, he met after school with his assigned tutor and began trying to better his grades. We were seeing some improvement but the Principal wasn’t happy. He called another meeting to discuss Joe’s progress. He also felt that Joe should have an assessment for ADHD and counseling with a professional to talk about his performance in the classroom. This would be on their behalf. We agreed to move forward.
Appointments were arranged to have Joe go through a series of cognitive and behavioral tests over a short period of time to assess his situation. Additionally, we began meeting with a sports psychologist who spoke with Joe about his goals and expectations for the future. The sessions were both interesting and productive. Lori and I met with the testing team and the doctor to confirm the diagnosis that Joe definitely had ADHD. This would explain a lot and help us move forward with a plan to help him succeed. This was not an extreme condition but one that would need to be controlled with behavioral exercises and potentially some medication. Meanwhile, the Principal felt that Joe should take a break from the hockey team for a bit until his grades improved. This did not go over well. Joe had specifically agreed to attend ANC to play hockey. He had left his schoolmates in Central Bucks for this purpose only. After the Principal told Joe this, Joe decided that he would immediately walk home, only about twelve miles away. My friend John Charaszyn called me to let me know that he picked up Joe on York Road about eight miles from school. Ok then. The next morning we went back to ANC and had meetings with the Athletic Director, Basketball coach, Hockey Coach and Principal. Since Joe was an “outsider” to the Swedenborgen community, no mercy, the Principal refused to give in. Either did Joe. Joe was having an issue with many of the religious leanings that were interjected into the science courses, history courses and even math courses that were in his curriculum. He had no clue as to why subjects they learned would even have religious answers to questions in them. This apparently was a problem with many recruited students. As parents we also had to take classes to understand and be oriented with their religion before Joe could attend. It was indeed a unique situation. One that Joe would not give in to and would leave ANC for the CB public school system mid year. He began to thrive again in his classes at Tamanend Middle School and began to work with the ADHD issue at hand. Another new beginning.
I was feeling great about my new-found health situation. The blip that was my discontinuing my medication last year had but a minor impact on my well being. For the last eight months my blood counts have been great with no signs of Leukemia. Ten years now on Gleevec and besides the minor side effects, I feel well. I felt that a ten year old car should and would be a very nice gift to myself for this ten year milestone. When I pulled into the driveway with my new blue 2000 Chevrolet Corvette, Lor just shook her head. What could she say? It was sweet. I also narrowed my Florida search down to a beautiful golf community on the West Coast near the Gulf of Mexico. Tara Golf and Country Club in Bradenton FL. That would be my next project. Blue Corvette, Blue Water….I deserved it. Things were looking up.
Next up: Two Juniors and a Really Bad Call