By Mike Pound
mpound@joplinglobe.com
If Mark VanSlyke is looking for some sort of proof that he’s making a difference on this earth, he probably doesn’t have to look much further than to Jacob Khan.
Jacob graduated last year from East Newton High School, where Mark works as a teacher and track coach. Jacob now is a freshman at Missouri Southern State University and a member of the school’s track team. On Wednesday, I grabbed a few minutes of Jacob’s time as he was hoofing it to track practice.
“Coach VanSlyke is the primary reason I’m running track (at MSSU),” Jacob said. “He’s going through some tough times right now, and I want to help him. I know he helped me through some pretty tough times in high school. This is the least I can do.”
What Jacob is doing is organizing a basketball tournament at East Newton, with the proceeds going to help out the VanSlyke family. Jane VanSlyke, Mark’s wife, has been battling breast cancer for some time now.
“She’s putting up a good fight,” Jacob said. “I just hope we can raise some money and ease their worries a bit.”
I don’t remember much about my freshman year of college. I remember I worked more than I studied and probably played more than I worked. I certainly know that I didn’t take the time to organize a fundraiser for anyone.
Jacob, as a student athlete, is taking a pretty full class load while spending several hours a day at practice. He said track practice normally gets under way with meetings at 2:30 p.m. The meetings are followed by conditioning drills and weightlifting sessions.
“I’m usually not finished until 5:45 or 6,” he said.
Sounds like a full day to me. It also sounds like the sort of day that would find a student searching for some downtime instead of putting together a benefit basketball tournament.
Jacob made it clear that he is not having to carry the whole load. Several of his former East Newton classmates have stepped up to help, as has Jake Holt, who also coaches track and teaches at East Newton.
“Coach Holt asked me if I needed some help, and he’s stepped in and taken on a lot of the responsibilities too,” Jacob said.
The basketball tournament is set for Friday, March 19. Teams should plan on showing up for registration at 4 p.m. The cost is $30 for a four-person team. The games will be played in a three-on-three format, and there will be brackets for men and for women.
If you would like to enter a team, you can call Jacob at 417-389-5951, or you can send him an e-mail at Khanj001@mymail.mssu.edu. The advance phone calls or e-mails, he said, will allow him and the other volunteers putting on the tournament to get a feel for how many teams to expect and how to set up the brackets. Winning teams will receive trophies and “bragging rights,” Jacob said.
So far, he said, 15 to 20 area teams have committed to playing in the tournament. He also has heard from teams from Springfield, Lebanon and beyond who plan on playing.
“The response, so far, has been tremendous,” he said.
I really don’t know Jacob, beyond what I picked up chatting with him on the phone. But he sounds like a pretty good kid. He sounds like a kid who realizes he got incredibly lucky in high school and wants to make good on that luck.
During our conversation, I asked Jacob what he is majoring in at MSSU.
“Physical education,” he said.
See, Jacob wants to be a coach when he graduates.
Just like Mark VanSlyke.
