A friend, a father, a son, a coach. These are some traits that characterized one of my friends named John. John was a man who was a good friend to my family and me. He was a great father to his two sons. He was an excellent son to his parents. He was a great coach to all his players.

John was always on the sidelines of all of the games that his sons played in. One of his sons plays on both my soccer and basketball teams. John always cheered on whoever was playing. He didn’t really favor his son over others. Well, he did a little because his son is his son. He treated everyone, whoever it was, fairly and never mistreated anyone. He was always smiling even after a loss in a soccer or basketball game. He always was in good spirit no matter what. John always gave people nicknames too. My nickname to him was “Flash” because of my speed on the soccer field. He called his son “Champ” because in his eyes, his son was a champion.

From what I heard, John was always well-dressed when he was young and was intelligent when it came to sports. He knew a lot about basketball. He actually played basketball through high school and was one of the best where he lived. He even taught me a thing or two about some tricks that he learned back when he was in high school. He always encouraged me to do my best and never give up. I will always listen to those words of advice from John.

John also had many, many, many friends. His basically knew everyone who lived in the town that I live in. He knew the people at Starbucks where he got his coffee every morning, he knew everyone in the basketball league that I played in, he knew people’s family members, and he basically was the mayor of the town.

I could go on and on about John, but the rest is all personal, and I don’t think that he would like me sharing about his personal life. There is one more thing that I can tell you. John was diagnosed with cancer in September 2010, and has survived cancer for 8 months. On May 1, 2011, John was killed by cancer. His legacy will live on forever.
(If you were a careful reader, you would have noticed that I was using the past tense of words.)
R.I.P John.