Much has changed in seven years

On the day of Sept. 11, 2001 I was awakened early to learn that two planes had crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City.

After getting my bearings, I think I uttered something like "Hey, that was no accident."

Of course it wasn't. It was the worst terrorist act in the history of our nation.

Back in those days, I did most of the pre-Friday night football stuff for The Sun. That included the "Game of the Week" where we previewed one game each week in great detail and 6-7 prep football capsules that were also very detailed.

But 9-11 threw a wrench into my mundane little routine. My task for the next day or so became calling every athletic director or coach I could find and asking if they were going to cancel their game. As I recall, some canceled, but many went ahead and played. A common theme among coaches seemed to be "those terrorists aren't going to upset our lives."

One especially poignant photo I recall that ran in The Sun was a Rialto High School player leading his team onto the field at Arrowhead Credit Union Park while toting an American flag. How things change in seven years ... Don Markham was coaching Rialto back then. Now he is the coach/athletic director at something called American Sports University, which is located at the old Sun building. Who could have predicted all that?

Other head coaches back in '01 who have since moved on: Dan Finfrock (Arrowhead Christian), Tony DiThomas (Arroyo Valley), Dan Smith (Barstow), Robert Kistner (Bloomington), Rich Imbriani (Cajon), Tom Hoak (Eisenhower), Jeff Strycula (Fontana), Shawn Bell (Granite Hills), Jeff Green (Hesperia), Dave Booth (Hesperia Christian), Doug South (Lucerne Valley), John Tyree (Miller), Chuck Pettersen (Pacific), Dick Shelbourne (Redlands East Valley), Sam Stahlheber (San Bernardino), Tony Barile (San Gorgonio), Doug Spencer (Silver Valley), Paul Golla (Silverado), Pete Delagardelle (Sultana) and Jim Taylor (Yucaipa).

Silver Valley's Spencer died of cancer several years ago. He was originally from the Bay Area and I used to enjoy talking to him about the San Francisco Giants and 49ers.

All of this goes to show is that nothing stays the same forever in this world of ours - as we learned so painfully seven years ago.