Bragging Rights

Youngest Eckardt adds to family golf tradition at KHS

By Mike Landis
Sports front page article from the Kewanee Star Courier, September 18, 2009


Kewanee, Ill. -

Scan the Kewanee High School golf results over the last decade or so and chances are an Eckardt was playing a prominent role in the team’s success.

That family tradition continues in 2009 as junior Michael Eckardt has emerged as the Boilers’ No. 1 player.

Eckardt nearly won the program’s first-ever Kewanee Invitational tournament Saturday, firing 77 at Baker Park to finish a shot out of the top spot. He eventually placed fourth, losing a scorecard playoff for third, but still played well enough to earn the Star Courier’s Athlete of the Week nod.

Michael is youngest of five Eckardt brothers to play golf for the Boilers. The eldest, Burnie, ran cross country for Kewanee but the next five — Andy, Peter, John, Joey and now Michael — have all played golf at KHS.

“It didn’t come from my parents,” said Michael when asked how the family golf tradition began. He credits Andy with infecting the Eckardt boys with the golf bug.

For the full story, click here.

Striving for the Mastery

"And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible."

The Apostle's well-known comparison of Christian life to the life of an athlete suggests that there is something enduring in the legends we watch from the sidelines and living rooms. There is something very adult and abiding in our desire to have heroes about whose lives off the field we don't have to be embarrassed.

Brett Favre is one such man, and he will be sorely missed.

I've been a fan of the Green Bay Packers ever since my childhood; I still remember the boyhood thrill of watching Herb Adderley return an interception for a touchdown, or of Carroll Dale in full stride, catching a bomb from Bart Starr. And I know that my own sons will always have the same kinds of memories about Brett Favre.

But I do think there's more about Brett Favre to remember than that, something that people who are not even football fans, much less Packer fans, can appreciate. It's rather as he himself put it so well today in a tearful good-bye interview: when he cheered, we cheered; when he cried, we cried; when he mourned, we mourned; and when he played, we played with him. He's one of us.

When in celebration he would run across the field, helmet held high, and playfully tumble into his teammates, or hoist one one his shoulders, you might say he was in the backyard with us, reliving our childhood dreams for us, right before our very eyes.

When he checked into drug rehab for the overuse of pain killers, we saw him as a man who makes mistakes, just as the rest of us do. And when he overcame that and moved on, we rejoiced with him, and gained encouragement to do the same.

When his father died, we all felt the pain, even in the midst of our cheering over that unbelievable Monday night game he played the next day at Oakland. Even the Oakland fans, I recall, were cheering for him. It was the best night of his career, and it was the saddest. It was a comedy and a tragedy, all wrapped in one. And we were there with him, experiencing every moment.

Today, as he bid the game farewell, he was, as ever, dignified and humble. In explaining why he felt it was time to retire, he said that he didn't feel as though he could give it 100% any more, so therefore it was time to retire; otherwise it wouldn't be fair to the team. Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Perhaps he felt that if he had reached the point that he couldn't do this any more, then he was unfit to remain as an icon and role model for his fans.

As he rides his John Deere lawnmower into the sunset, we can remember a lesson from St. Paul: the games at which we are spectators are microcosms of Christian life itself, with all its highs and lows, our own disappointments and challenges. Keeping the body under: maintaining self-discipline, and all the preparations and duties of faithfulness the Apostle bids us to maintain. It's like the preparations of an athlete. Maybe it's easier to grasp this when we watch an athlete like Brett Favre, since he has been so very easy to identify with; and so also, maybe it's easier to tell ourselves to live as we will remember Brett Favre to have played on the field--though not to obtain a corruptible crown, but an incorruptible.

John Eckardt Kewanee Athlete of the Week

Eckardt’s confidence high, golf scores low

Excerpts from an Article in the Kewanee Star Courier Last Week by Mike Landis, editor of the Sports page. Way to to, John (son #4)!

Kewanee’s John Eckardt chips on the 10th hole Wednesday at Canton Country Club. His round of 32 on Baker Park’s front nine last week earned the KHS senior the Athlete of the Week nod from the Star Courier.

Baker Park brings out the best in John Eckardt.

The four-year varsity Kewanee golfer fired a career-low 32 last Thursday on the front nine at Baker Park to lead the Boilers to a triangular win over Geneseo and Hall. Eckardt’s 3-under effort on the flats earned the KHS No. 1 player the Star Courier’s Athlete of the Week honor.

“That’s my best,” said Eckardt, noting his previous low nine was 34 on Baker’s back side.

. . .

“The first time I thought about it was my second shot on No. 3 when I was 2-under,” said Eckardt of shooting a low number. “I came up short on that shot, but I wasn’t nervous for the chip. I just had to get it close and I did.”

He closed the round with a two-putt birdie on the par-five fourth for 32. The performance spurred conversation of the all-time low nine-hole round in KHS golf history. In talking with previous coach Chris Gustafson, Eckardt said the two decided it was likely the best round in 25 years by a KHS golfer.

Current coach Kirk Fristad says Eckardt’s dedication to the game in the summer pays huge dividends during the high school season.

“He’s on the golf course all the time. If he’s not at summer basketball, he and his brothers are out there all the time,” said Fristad. “One time I saw him this summer, he was out on the driving range in the rain. You don’t see many other kids doing that.”

The close of Eckardt’s junior season let him know that he could play with the top high school golfers in the area and across the state. After advancing at the regional tournament, Eckardt was part of a three-way tie for first at the Monmouth-Roseville Sectional with 76 at Gibson Woods. While he lost the playoff to Peoria Christian’s Jonathan Hauter, the round let Eckardt know he could play with the big boys.

“I think it gave him a lot of confidence, more than anything else, that he could play with those kids,” said Fristad.

At state, Eckardt fired matching rounds of 85 to finish in the middle of the Class A pack at Prairie Vista in Bloomington. He hit 12 greens in regulation the opening day at state, but a balky putter kept him from jumping into contention.

“At state, I felt like this is where I should be at because I thought I could play that well,” said Eckardt. “That helped with my confidence for this season.”

. . .

While he’s the No. 1 player for the Boilers, on some days he’s not the best player in his family. He’s joined on the KHS team by two brothers, Joey and Michael.

John credits his brother Andy for circulating the golf bug through the Eckardt family — five of the six boys played golf at Kewanee, with eldest Burnie opting to run cross country.

“Neither of my parents have played very much,” he said. “They’re not very good at all. My mom never plays and my dad has played his whole life, but not a lot and not very well.”

Basketball Hero

OK, so your humble columnist was never very good at basketball. I used to be the guy they picked last, one of the scrawny kids they’d put in at the end when the game was out of hand. My basketball shorts were a little too big.

But now let me tell you ‘bout my youngest son. I haven’t even talked to him yet myself, but this is what I heard from his brother Joey.

Today, at an away game (I don’t even know who they were playing, because we don’t go to away games), the Kewanee Steamers pulled off a miraculous come-from-behind win, in the manner of the stuff that legends are made of, courtesy of one fabulous Michael Gabriel Eckardt.

As one of the shortest members of the junior high school team, Michael’s only claim to fame is that he is pretty good at making three-point baskets, which is just what the team needed in order to pull off a stunning victory.

Down by six points with 25 seconds left to play, they got the ball to Michael, and he put in a three, “nuthin’ but net.” Then his team stole the ball just a few seconds later, and managed to get it to Michael a second time, who obliged them with a second three point basket to tie the game. The other team still had a few seconds left on the clock, and drew a foul as they brought the ball down court. One free throw went in, and the heroic effort seemed to be for naught, because now, down by one, they had to inbound from the baseline with only 2.5 seconds left in the game. On a wing and a prayer, the inbound pass was heaved nearly full-court to this day’s best outside shooter in the world. Michael spun around at the free throw line and got off a shot at the buzzer.

Swish.

Pandemonium.

Proud papa.