Shared Stories from Drew Vandermeer on Tony Banner

I find it appropriate to give a little intro into Drew's passages because I think it is important that everyone understands I did not ask for him to write these. He chose to do this out of the kindness in his heart. My hope is that this will inspire more people to share their experiences with my father, life coach, best friend, Tony Banner. Enjoy!

I was sitting in church on Sunday, listening to Rev. Larsen's message and something that he said just hit me with this idea and that I should write this. It is amazing how God works, even at times we may hate him, but there are other times that what He wants us to do is truly special and I thank Him everyday for blessing me with another day on earth because as we have both witnessed in our lives, we never know when He is going to call our number. I have really enjoyed writing this, even though at times it was very difficult, because it has allowed me to put down some of my memories of the great times I had with your Dad. I have a whole new respect for the blogs that you have already written and HOPE that you keep writing them when you find the time.

Love ya man!

As the weather has reached a suitable temperature in western Pennsylvania, I decided I would pull out the golf clubs a few days early and went out before the course was even open yet. A year ago I was doing the same thing, except I had the pleasure of doing it with Andrew Banner and the Clarion University Women’s golf team. This will be relevant very shortly. So as I was out at Clarion Oaks playing the front nine, I reached number eight, a short par three. As I stood on the tee box I was trying to remember what club I used on this whole last fall, and trying to think back to the last time I was on this hole. And that is when it hit me . . .

The last time I was on number eight was last fall when I was helping the Women’s golf team as they qualified for their next tournament. I was sitting down by the green wait for the girls to hit when I felt my phone vibrate. It was a text message from Andrew, who lives in Dallas, Texas now, and so I thought he was just texting me to see how things were going, since we do not get to see each other everyday anymore. I looked at the message and since that moment, my life has been forever changed. It was not the message I was expecting, at all. The message said, “Dad just had a heart attack and he is probably not going to make it.” I sat there for at least two minutes in just complete shock and did not know what to do. The next week went by pretty fast and much of it was a blur.

But as I stood on the tee box the other day, it occurred to me all the great memories I had with Mr. Tony Banner and the valuable lessons from him that I have tried to incorporate into my life as much as I can over the last six months. Whether it was in sports or how to treat someone with respect, TB always showed the best way to do represent yourself.

Memory 1: It was the summer before Andrew’s senior year and the basketball team was coach-less, so the person that he was, TB volunteered to take the team to summer camps until a coach was hired. TB was always about putting others first and in this case he put his son and his team ahead of him. He even took us to a team camp at Penn State and stayed in the dorm rooms with us, stayed up with us each night, just like he was a camper himself. Later that summer he coached us at the Clarion University team camp, if you read Andrew's previous post you will know what happen. It was what Coach Banner said to us after that game what I really remember from that day. He sat us all down and explained that the actions that we chose to partake in were unacceptable and that we were more mature than what we showed. Sometimes you just have to be the “bigger” person, even if you are the smaller or younger person, and figure out a different way to handle a difficult situation.

Memory 2: It was the spring of Andrew’s senior year and we were done with basketball after a tough playoff loss, that TB would always give his very firm opinion of how that game went. But it was the time of year for the state finals of high school basketball and TB wanted to take a couple of the players over to Hersey to watch the finals. There was no one specific memory from that trip that I remember but the whole memory of the great time that we all had together will never leave me. Mr. Banner was a lover of all sports. If there was a good game, with good competition, in Western Pennsylvania, you could guarantee that you could spot him and his wife, Mama Banner, somewhere in the crowd with their fold up bleacher chairs.

Memory 3: It was July of 2011, 5:30 a.m. and TB was loading my bag into the back of his car, as we were getting ready to leave to make the 1,282-mile journey to Dallas to visit Andrew. The first experience on this trip that showed the kind of person that TB was when we were at a gas station, he paid with a gift card and the lady running the cash register had messed up his bill and it took her at least ten minutes to get it straightened out. Mr. Banner could have easily gotten frustrated with this lady and flipped out on her for messing things up and taking so long to figure it out, but that is not who TB was. Instead he stood there patiently and waited for her to get everything straightened out. Every time the cashier would apologize, Mr. Banner would just say it is fine and not to worry about it. It was ironic timing when this happened because on the drive down I was reading a book about Coach John Wooden and the chapter that I had just finished reading was about how Coach Wooden never got upset about things that were out of his control. Right before my eyes I was witnessing exactly what the author was talking about, except I was witnessing it with Coach Banner. He remained calm and just let the lady resolve the problem and soon enough we were on the road again. The event on the trip though that will never escape my memory happened when we were less than fifty miles away from the Texas border. We were on a pretty busy, two lane highway and we came up on this semi-truck that was just sitting in the one lane of the highway making all the traffic form a signal lane to get around him. What we found just ahead of the truck was a car with its rear end smashed in. When Mr. Banner saw this and noticed that no one was stopping to help this guy out, he immediately hit his brakes and pulled off the road. He got out of the car and went to check on the people involved in the accident to make sure that everyone was going to be okay. We waited around with the victims until the police and ambulance showed up. It did not occur to me right away that day, but as I look back on that even now I realize just the kind of person that TB was.

TB was always willing to help those out who needed help, whether it was his son’s basketball team or a complete stranger on the side of the highway, Mr. Banner always had time to help others. Coach Lute Olson said this about Coach Wooden, “John Wooden has morals, ethics and spiritual beliefs and as a result, he sees what life is really all about. Because John is so personable he makes you feel comfortable in his presence.” As I read that quote I could not help of think of Life Coach TB and the great person that he was in Clarion community and to everyone that knew him. TB may not have had the national recognition that Coach Wooden had but I am willing to bet that the two of them were both cut from the same cloth. I can just picture those two are now both up in a greater place, watching down on all of us, talking not only about basketball but all the other aspects of life where they both touched so many people.

-Thank You Drew Vandermeer for Sharing!