As Sam Sees It

An article in Saturday's newspaper brought a lump in my throat and tears to my eyes. It also brought word of the passing of an old and cherished friend. The loss was not mine alone. Every coach, athlete or fan of high school sports lost a friend when Barry Sollenberger died on Thursday.

Barry was the unofficial historian of Arizona high school sports long before he accepted a position with the Arizona Interscholastic Association that gave him more time and freedom and some financial reward for the job he was already doing so well. If I happened to be working on an article and needed to know some obscure fact about high school sports, a phone call to Barry usually produced the answer.

The publications Barry produced before becoming affiliated with the AIA were top quality. They weren't just programs for one event. They were collector's items for people who had a real love of high school sports.

Barry became a personal friend soon after I came to The Winslow Mail as its sports writer. That friendship has grown over the years. He and my brother, Jerry, were also good friends and, if memory serves me correctly, Barry accompanied Jerry's Shadow Mountain Matadors team to an important tournament in the mid-1990s.

There is a huge vacuum left in the ranks of those who love Arizona high school sports. No one alive has the knowledge that died with Barry Sollenberger. The man was a treasure chest of memories about his favorite subject. He also related well to the athletes he photographed and wrote about.

My friend Yvonne Bonds, wife of the great Winslow High School basketball player Isaac Bonds, called on Saturday to wish my wife and me a happy anniversary. She was nearly in tears as she asked if I had read the article about the death of Barry.

Among his many publications was a Phoenix Metro Basketball Magazine which contained a large and excellent feature article on Isaac. He probably appreciated the feat Bonds accomplished in setting the 40.6 point per game scoring record in 1964 more than most ever could.

The article on his death records that Barry Sollenberger was an accomplished track athlete, good enough to have competed at Arizona State University. He was mostly though, a man who dedicated himself to high school sports the way no other has or could. There are many who have spent their lifetimes coaching or officiating or serving our youth in similar manners. We should appreciate and salute them. They are doing good and important work.

Barry Sollenberger did something unique. He created a high school sports history where there really had been none before. He gave sports writers like myself a source where we could go and be confident we were getting the truth. He gave each group of athletes who came along a record keeper who would faithfully record their accomplishments and leave a record for history.

Every time one of the people I have met in my "retirement" job of sports writing has passed, there is a vacuum left. That was true when Joe Black died and true again when Jerome Blanton passed a year later. Not many have touched me the way Barry Sollenberger did.

Sometimes, words are not adequate to express the gratitude, the sense of loss and the love we feel for someone. This is one of those times.

If there ever was a writer great enough to have said those things well and sufficiently, he was probably Barry Sollenberger. I am proud to have known him and to have called him my friend.