Remembering Jeff Cocke

I have had an association with WKDE Radio in Altavista for about 10 years now. I think I started with basketball first in January, and started as a sideline reporter for the football team the next year, but honestly it's been so long I can't remember. Anyways, the first guys I ever met on a football sideline were Robert Duff and Jeff Cocke. Now, I am not a native of Altavista, but one thing that I respect about small towns is the close bond that the town shares, you know where everybody knows everybody. In my mind, Robert and Jeff are probably two of the best people I could have first met. I remember that first year doing games I was always on the sideline and I would wear khaki shorts a lot (that dates back to my days as a student manager at Jefferson Forest, kind of superstitious) and so would Jeff. So anytime after that when one of us wasn't wearing shorts, we'd give the other a hard time about it. I would stand and just look at him and say "What are you doing? Where are your shorts?" and other times if I didn't have them on, he would say (and he had a great voice, I can't explain it, you just had to hear it) "Where are the shorts at tonight?" and I would come up with some excuse as to why I didn't have them on. Later in my broadcasting career, he became the clock operator for Altavista's boys basketball games and when I saw him in the hallway before games, I would go into the shorts stuff.

We talked more about things other then shorts, but never deep conversations, just passing stuff, but I always felt like Jeff was a friend. Going to Altavista games is not going to be the same for me this year, when I look down from the broadcast booth, it's just going to feel different not seeing Jeff sit down there next to Ryan "Soup" Mitchell (Altavista's scorekeeper) and the father of Delano Douglas (I must admit, I don't know his real name, I just know him as Tootie.) to Jeff's left. Oh yeah, Jeff was also a very good umpire for high school baseball as well, as I would see him at various games I would attend during the days of coverage for "Talking High School Sports".

You know it's funny, I think people look at high school sports, and they see people that they know like Mike Scharnus, Mike Cartolaro, and other various head coaches around the area. But, there are a ton of people that contribute to games running smoothly, whether it be officials, administrators, or support staff like the clock operators, scorekeepers and so on.

My prayers go out to Jeff's family, including his wife Vickie, his daughters, Jennifer and Christy, their husbands Jeff Monroe (Head Boys Basketball Coach at Liberty High School)and Brian Murray as well as others including grandchildren and other relatives.

I will be making the trip to Altavista's gymnasium for the visitation tomorrow at 1 pm. The service starts at 3. Normally, I look forward to going to Altavista's gym, because it means a basketball game of some sort, but out of all my trips to Altavista, this is one that I wish was never happening.

I hope I see Jeff in heaven one day, so I can say "Where are the shorts at?"