unsung heros

It's time to mention some of the people who I like to refer to as "the hardest workers in high school sports". I'm not talking about players, coaches, officials, athletic directors or fans.
No, I'm talking about soccer sideline runners.
At just about every high school game you will find a small number (typically either two or four) of sideline runners, whose job it is to follow alongside the play with a spare ball should the game ball go out of play. If that happens these diligent souls must quickly and accurately toss another ball to the player making the throw-in, often with that player in a hurry to catch the defense by surprise. The runner must then chase down the lost ball, which is not always easy, particularly at Berlin's Sage Park where it often rolls either under the stands or over a seven foot high fence along the entrance road.
These runners are very often youth soccer players in town, or younger family members of the players. I remember Brian Webster, who works for the Future Fitness training facility in Rocky Hill and once played for the Terriers, telling me about the first time he was approached by then legendary coach John McVicar to see if he would be a runner for that afternoon's game. Webster, at the time, was a junior high school student and was only too eager to be a part of the big kids' game. I assume it is the same for many of today's runners.
At yesterday's Newington-South Windsor girls game, the ball runners wore youth jerseys bearing the names "Kowalski" and "Johnson". For 80 minutes they ran the sidelines and got the ball to players faster than fans could even see it went out of bounds. They were, as always, not announced over the loudspeaker. When the game ended they received no applause.
This is it.