A hazard of my job has me on social media for large hours of the day. Considering that what I do is largely fueled through various social media platforms, that’s not any type of History Channel level revelation.

 

While most of the time I just parade by posts on places such as Facebook and Twitter, there are a few that catch my eye. One of those posts was by a lady I don’t know – Judy Schueneman. Turns out we have one mutual friend and she tagged that friend in a post about him that was, well, just beautifully written.

 

The friend in question was Dan McNamee, the 1998 Bridgeport High School graduate. Turns out that Judy was a friend of Dan’s mother, the late Caroline McNamee. For those who don’t know, and I’m sure almost everyone reading this already does, Dan was paralyzed playing football as a sophomore at Bridgeport High School in the mid-1990s.

 

The post in question talked about the man Dan has become since that day. As I read it, I couldn’t believe it had been 20 years since it happened. Considering the impact Dan McNamee has had on many in the way he has dealt with adversity and the fact people to this day still ask me how he’s doing, I was upset with myself that I missed that 20-year time frame.

 

I quickly reached out to Dan – via social media – and told him how much I enjoyed the article. I then told him I couldn’t believe it had been 20 years.

 

“It’s actually been 21,” Dan told me, but was humbled nevertheless by the post.

 

It was 20 years ago last September. This year, on Sept. 1, it was 21 years ago that for reasons only God knows, Dan McNamee went from making a tackle on the field at Magnolia High School to spending his time since in a wheel chair.

 

Please don’t take that last sentence as a call for pity or sympathy. The one person on this earth that doesn’t want it, or need it, is Dan McNamee. While so many, myself included, wonder what Dan could have done without the injury, he’s beyond the point of acceptance of his situation. He’s to the point of seeing hidden blessings in places where most of us would only find darkness and demons.

 

It’s the Dan McNamee I’ve got to know since he left BHS, went on to Marshall and today is a married man with his wife Nikki (seven years) and he’s just turned 37 years old this past week. It’s the Dan McNamee that has 16 nieces and nephews and is beloved as “Uncle Dan” taking in as many of their events on every front as time allows. The same guy that has a pair of degrees from MU and currently works at the Pikeville Medical Center in Kentucky as a reimbursement specialist. Kentucky is also the place he now calls home.

 

“People may not believe it, but I really do feel blessed, particularly for God to plant Nikki in my life. She’s definitely my rock that helps me with everything,” said McNamee.

 

As it often does, our conversation turned to football. If we’re chatting on social media it’s usually about football – WVU, the Indians and the fact we both love the Steelers. Dan’s football roots go well beyond that and his family roots are deeper as his brother Chris coaches at Pikeville High School. His brother Pat is still in town. His father Jerry and stepmother Marry Anne are also in the neighborhood, while brother Tim is just up the road in Belfry about 20 minutes away.

 

Only his brother Joe is out of the area. His wife is the head coach at the University of Albany’s women’s program and they’re actually in Lexington this weekend as Albany opens up at the University of Kentucky.

 

I may have gotten some of the family’s current status wrong or left someone out, but understand it was a good talk so I wasn’t at my premium level of taking notes . Eventually, we talked a person that had a huge influence on McNamee’s life. In fact, Dan talked almost in reverent terms of a man he simply calls “Coach” to this day.

 

Coach is H. Wayne Jamison. The owner of four state championships and with legendary status that casts a shadow a mile long.

 

“My freshman year I had him for physical education, but I wasn’t playing football because of knee surgery I recently had. My older brother had recently just got into coaching high school football in Kentucky and Coach Jamison would ask me frequently how he was doing,” said McNamee. “After class friends would ask me, ‘what did you do? What did Coach talk to you about?’ I would just answer that he was asking about my brother. They would say, ‘that’s it? You’re not in trouble?’”

 

McNamee, who had moved to Bridgeport, came to learn what everyone else already knew. Jamison was a larger than life figure and everyone wanted a chance to play for him. For the coach to talk to the big and still lanky freshman was as Dan put it, “a big deal.”

 

Of course, not playing football didn’t mean you weren’t going to get a coaching lesson. As the year progressed and McNamee’s knee was on the mend, he was in PE class dribbling between his legs and shooting 3-pointers.

 

“Coach walked over and asked me why I kept doing that. I said because I was trying to beat my guy off the dribble,” said McNamee. “He just pointed at the goal and said ‘You know the basket is right there. Instead of going between your legs 10 times why don’t you try going there?’ He was showing me it’s better to go directly from point A to point B.”

 

I wasn’t there, but I can hear it better than I see it. I can hear that drawl from Coach Jamison that was just loud enough to let you know that it was best to listen to what he had to say. And as history has shown, it served those that listened on his football teams extremely well. McNamee said the comment resonates with him to this day – a comment that took place before he ever played a down for Jamison as a coach. That changed in 1995.

 

“I was talented, but lazy and out of shape. He was on my back all of August. I never did anything right in his book. Play after play I could hear ‘Macnameeeee’ in that Coach Jamison voice. I would just think, what? What this time? I knew it was a run block because that is all we ever did,” said McNamee. “How could I get it wrong again? I could hear him tell me ‘get lower, drive, move your feet’ Now I was the kid who was scared to death if he came and talked to me.”

 

The fear would soon be replaced with admiration and love and never leave. It wasn’t long after those August practices that McNamee went in for a tackle and injured his neck on that day in New Martinsville. The toll on McNamee, his family, the community is documented. They rallied around Dan and Dan, in typical McNamee fashion, didn’t let anyone down.

 

“I know it hurt coach about as bad as it did me, but he would come visit me in Pittsburgh almost every weekend (during rehabilitation). It was a freak accident. It was nobody’s fault and it was God’s will. I truly believe I am living a better life now than I would have if not,” said McNamee.

 

One of those blessings is that McNamee, although still calling him coach, also considers Coach Jamison a friend. He said lessons learned are lessons he uses to this day.

 

“As I have gotten older, I have been able to see how much of an impact Coach made on me. I watch football today and I turn into Coach Jamison more every day. Why do these teams want to throw every down? Three yards and a cloud of dust plus a hard-nosed defense is how you win at football. Point A to Point B,” said McNamee.

 

I know Coach Jamison is proud of Dan McNamee. We’ve talked in the past and keeps tabs on how he’s doing. I hope he reads this and knows that one of his favorite players and young men is still doing just fine.

 

“This is my life and it is how I know my life to be, more than any other way. I still have good memories of when I could walk, but I have better memories since then. It’s my part of life and I deal with it,” said McNamee. “What I do now is so routine that I can’t remember the way it was before.”

 

Of course, McNamee said he still remembers the date. Every September 1 he recalls that day, that moment that changed things forever.

 

“When that date pops up and I have to type it on something at work, it brings back some memories, but that’s about it. I don’t really do anything special on that day, but I just distract myself and the best way to do that is to find a football game to watch,” McNamee joked. “The fact is that I could be worse than I am. I could have stayed healthy and never achieved anything as a student or a person. I focused on my academics and it took me places and brought my family closer together than I could ever have imagined.

 

“That’s what I mean when I say this has been a blessing, 20 or even 21 years later,” he continued. “Maybe people can’t comprehend because they’re not living it. But it’s the truth. I have no regrets where I’m at.”

 

Where he’s at today is firmly at Point B. He got there directly from Point A. It was just the way Coach Jamison told him to do it.

 

“I really want to thank him for helping mold me into the man I am today … I am eternally grateful,” McNamee ended.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows Dan McNamee talking with Coach Wayne Jamison on the field that bears Jamison's name, while the second photo is of Dan and his wife Nikki. In the third and last photo, a look at Uncle Dan enjoying family, while he's shown in this early 1990s photo as a member of the BMS basketball team (Dan is back row middle, under the "A" in Braves).