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When we start to play, we think about having fun and becoming the best athlete we can be, whether it's an individual sport or a team sport.
For the lucky ones, sports' lessons can be felt for many years, often guiding the way we live our lives.
That was the case for many of the basketball players who got to play for Dave Althouse.
In 16 years as the boys' basketball coach at Warwick High School, Althouse saw the victories pile up.
Counting the impact his tutelage had on young lives would be harder to do, but consider it significant.
That's why Althouse was named the 59th recipient of the George W. Kirchner Memorial Award, which he received Tuesday night at the Lancaster Old Timers Athletic Association banquet at Lancaster Catholic High School.
The honor is voted on and presented by the Lancaster Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.
Upon retiring from coaching, he told sportswriter Gordie Jones:
"Anybody can get the knowledge to be a coach. There are enough films, clinics and books that anybody can glean enough knowledge to understand the workings of basketball. The more important thing is the workings of a human being."
Jack Hurd, Althouse's most accomplished player who went on to play at Division I La Salle, saw Althouse's compassion firsthand and long before he would set scoring records at Warwick.
Hurd tells the story about being in the seventh or eighth grade when he started getting into trouble. His parents were getting a divorce so it was a difficult time for him.
So, Althouse made Hurd come to his office every day after school for about a half hour, to sit and talk to him. Sometimes, they wouldn't say anything.
"He encouraged me to talk," Hurd said. "It's something he did when he saw kids in need and that had an impact on me, the way he cared about kids.
"It was like, 'I want to teach these kids lessons, I want to help them out. I want them to leave Warwick, go on to college and take something with them, even if they never play basketball again.'"
That caring for his players stretched to the basketball floor. Althouse turned medium-talented players into great team players. And he made everyone on the team feel they were part of the team's success.
Another story from Jones.
"I have this memory of him after games, huddling with his players, reviewing his plus-minus chart with them. Understand, this was not a hockey plus-minus, but rather a chart attaching a certain point value to drawing a charge, making the extra pass, doing the little things it takes to win.
"So, he would go over this, and when one player or another had a particularly good score — especially if it was an unheralded player — he and the rest of the team took great joy in that. You could see that he wanted everybody to understand they mattered, and that everything they did mattered."
Maybe that's why so many of Althouse's teams overachieved.
When he retired in 1990, his record was 332-112 for a .748 winning percentage. His teams won eight section titles, three Lancaster-Lebanon League titles and one District Three title.
At one point in the mid-1980s, his team won 69 consecutive league games.
He was voted the L-L Coach of the Year five times, including three years in a row.
"He was very knowledgeable but I always thought the key for Dave's team was he got his everyday players to play very hard and you could expect that out of any of his Warwick teams," said former McCaskey coach Pete Horn.
Althouse, 66, had a interesting start to his career as varsity coach.
"The first year we were coaching, the district's teachers went on strike," remembered assistant coach Tom Clausen. "We couldn't practice and we couldn't get uniforms. All of a sudden, we had our first game. We went to Wilson and they scored the first 21 points of the game. Although we eventually lost, we got that game into overtime."
In a story written by former New Era sports writer Harold Zeigler, Steve Wisler, one of Columbia's legendary basketball coaches, said Althouse was "worth 15 points just being on the bench."
Upon hearing that quote, Althouse quipped, "I sure wish they would post those points at the beginning of the game."
Points and wins are one thing. They are easily measured. Not so easy is tracking the impact a coach can have on his players.
"Coach was the single most important factor in my success on and off the basketball court," Hurd said. "He's at the top of the list. First, family and then Coach.
"The way he taught us to approach basketball, it just carries over in so many ways to life. Things like being on time, or being early. Lombardi time is what we used to call it. He'd say, hey, that's the way you should approach life."
GEORGE W. KIRCHNER MEMORIAL AWARD WINNERS
1951-Charles Mayser; 1953-Leon Duckworth; 1954-Tom Floyd; 1955-Pete Flick; 1956-George Gerlach; 1957-Barney Ewell; 1958-John Pucillo; 1959-Ira Herr; 1960-Dave Shank; 1961-James Neely; 1962-Boyd Sponaugle, Woody Sponaugle; 1963-Shober Barr; 1964-Bing Conlin; 1965-E.E. "Hooks" Mylin; 1966-George Kirchner; 1967-Bill Haverstick; 1968-Dick Bevilacqua; 1969-Dick Boyer.
1970-Anthony Souders; 1971-George Crudden; 1972-Charles Henry; 1973-Charles Siegel; 1974-Elmer Kreiser; 1975-John Hauck; 1976-Dave Brandt; 1977-Glenn Horst;
1978-Don Wert; 1979-W. Roy Phillips; 1980-E. Jerry Brooks; 1981-Dr. Joseph Grosh; 1982-Gene Kruis; 1983-Stanley "Whitey" Von Neida; 1984-Ted Rupp; 1985-Harry Schaeffer; 1986-Wally Walker; 1987-Tick Hurst; 1988-Jane Hoover; 1989-Gene Garber.
1990-By Kintzer; 1991-Bill Iannicelli; 1992-W. Austin Bishop; 1993-Leon Heller; 1994-Homer Mylin; 1995-Milt Finefrock; 1996-Jack Yohe; 1997-Yvonne Kauffman; 1998-Tom Herr; 1999-Gordie Kraft; 2000-Elmer Dixon; 2001-Gene Carpenter; 2002-Art Harrington; 2003-Henner Weaver; 2004-Tom Gilburg; 2005-Bill Fisher; 2006-Andy Amway; 2007-Gordie Groome; 2008-Birch Davidson; 2009-Dave Althouse.
