Coach Cook and inspirational guide on a bike and on a field.
Before going to the Peddin’ Pig Restaurant after a long day working, my bike was calling my name. The Blue Ridge Parkway is one of the nicest roads to ride on with unbelievable scenery to match. The parkway is as safe a road can be for road biking. Plus the road in like glass, an almost perfect stretch of asphalt making a road bike glide over the surface. Most folks who are driving their cars are going a little slower and sight seeing, which also keeps commuters off the parkway. The parkway is 469 miles long stretching from North Carolina up through Virginia.
The parkway has solid climbs and descents and the views are second to none. Biking is interesting. I am a solo biker. The reason I ride by myself is due to my clydesdale like frame, basically I am slow. Like turtle slow when climbing. Will I climb, yes. Did I mention slow? I am very self conscious about not keeping up. But the climbing and the mental test and anguish that comes with pushing myself up a climb makes the downhill, oh so rewarding.
The reason I do this ride and feel very in touch with the Blue Ridge Parkway is due to my connection with my old football coach, John Cook. Coach Cook coached at our school from 1959 to 1986. I don’t have proof, but I believe he was the winningest high school football coach in North Carolina after his last season. He was a football pioneer who never settled with the same system. He was always learning and changing his systems to match his personnel.
Coach Cook did not get to be successful without complete understanding of his craft. He was extremely creative in his game plans. So lesson to be learned is whatever field of endeavor you are practicing in, know your business. Go to others to learn, as I know Coach Cook did. Football has a legendary history of passing on knowledge between fellow coaches. Clinics and seminars have existed for years teaching younger coaches how to coach and older coaches how to get better. Get with others in your field and learn from them to make your business better. Learning is a constant in any field of business. Don’t think you know it all, if you do you are getting left behind.
The next crucial part of Coach Cook’s success was his belief and trust in others. He put coaches into the right position to allow them to use their strengths to be the best they could be coaching. He also evaluated talent and moved players to positions to make the team better. Know your talent and how to place them within your organization to make your business succeed. The last piece of his success puzzle was his ability to communicate with his players. He was a teacher first, and he taught us about life and the game of football. We respected his knowledge and trusted his skill, and he was able to convey to us what we needed to know to be successful.
Coach John Cook had an awesome hobby and this hobby was riding his bike. His non football stoke and passion was to ride everywhere, when I was in high school. When we weren’t in school we would talk to each each other and see if we had a Coach Cook sighting over the weekend. He rode his bike all over Charlotte, North Carolina for years and years. We’d get a good laugh saying we saw him in some remote part of town. After riding as much as I have, I know these rides were his stoke.
Coach Cook at the beginning of the summer football practice would tell us of his rides on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and you could tell how happy these travels of challenge and solace made him. He would ride over 1500 miles a year, and he was no spring chicken. Coach Cook loved his bike.
In fact after our senior year football season, we gave him a new bike. He would ride and ride that bike. The following summer, he would have a heart attack on that bike riding the Blue Ridge Parkway. We always figured, he died doing what he loved on one of the most beautiful roads in America
I have ridden the Blue Ridge Parkway several times over the years, and I completely understand Coach Cook’s inner peace he has when riding this awesome highway. The ride up to Grandfather Mountain from where I had started outside Newland is a solid uphill pull. I am a huge fan of uphill first descent second. Needless to say I am not the lithe guy on a bike you see on the Tour de France. I would be a leader in the bike division known as the Clydesdales. Biggest of the big.
For us Clydesdales there is a fear factor of descending and then not having the energy to get back up to the top from where you came from. The scenery was flipping into spring and the winters brown was giving way to various shades of green after a very wet beginning of spring. Flowers and Magnolias were beginning to bloom which added even more color to the scenery.
So peaceful! Very few cars. The Blue Ridge Parkway didn’t disappoint. The overlooks are awesome. Find the right mileage for you and go get it. The beauty of riding the Parkway is you can go for any length you want to do. I do know in the summer, if you get up early, the highway is pretty empty and is a great ride. Go get your ride on! Let Coach Cook show you the way.
