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Tony Vlahovic vividly remembers sitting in a bed in an Allentown Hospital ward, peppering the doctor with questions after emergency surgery.

“Can I play sports?”

“Can I have kids?”

The terrified teenager had no idea what had happened to him.

Decades later, Vlahovic understands fully.

“What happened was…actually, football saved my life,” he says.

We are sitting at a table at the Newtown Starbucks, during the after-school rush, rehashing every twist and turn of Vlahovic’s remarkable life. His diagnosis of testicular cancer at age 14 — which came a few months after he was hit below the belt in a freshman football game, then woke one night to discover he couldn’t move his legs — was just one harrowing stop on his road less traveled.

He made a full recovery, and now, as a father of two, a rehabilitation specialist, high school baseball coach and Special Olympics baseball crusader, he credits that one hard football hit with helping to expose the cancer growing inside him, before it was too late.

If not for that hit, all the lives Vlahovic has touched since his athletic career ended in the mid-1980s – another harrowing story we’ll get to in a minute – might have been quite different. Continue reading “‘Coffee Convo’ #1: Athletic dreams dashed, Tony Vlahovic goes pro in giving back” →

I’m not yet sure if my new part-time job – which, actually, could end up being full-time, because Shady Brook Farm does a TON of business this time of year, and I can basically sign up for as many hours as I want, now that I’ve officially been hired – allows employees to wear hats that are…off-brand.

But I love that my new work shirt matches my new favorite hat – the Carharrt/47 Brand Bears hat. Ain’t she a beaut, Clark?

I do know that yoga pants aren’t allowed on employees, so I am going to have to run out and buy some professional pants tomorrow. Read: I need new jeans. Considering I have basically been eating and drinking everything I want for a few months now, and I have a 40-year-old metabolism, this is a concerning development.

But, anyway, yes, I have a job at Shady Brook, which is a local institution here in Bucks County. It’s a family-owned-and-operated working farm that has expanded – or, really, exploded – over the past 20 years or so, into a multi-faceted destination for locals and tourists alike. I went on a tour today with one of the managers, and while I knew about some of the farm’s offerings, I couldn’t believe all the ways that the very smart owners have found to expand their sources of revenue. Continue reading “Part-Time People Person” →

One thing about me: I’ve always been athletic. I played three sports in high school – stopping with basketball after sophomore year so I could focus on pitching and club volleyball in the winter – and walking on to the Northwestern University softball team for a Big Ten experience (yes, as a bit of a scrub) that I wouldn’t trade for anything.

In adulthood, I’m partial to the “sport of fitness,” and while I no longer consider myself a serious, competitive CrossFitter, I still belong to a CrossFit gym and do CrossFit-style workouts in my basement nearly every day I’m not working out over there.

My unofficial duty in the gym is to post the Quote of the Week on the board. OK, it’s a duty I more or less bestowed upon myself, but no one else seems into it, and I just love it. Say what you want about inspirational quotes and their triteness or lack of true value in terms of motivating people or effecting change, I love anything that makes me think. Well, maybe not ANYTHING. There are some things I actually would love to stop thinking about, but I digress.

This one spoke to me. I’ve never been a follower. I’ve always done my own thing, and I gravitate toward people like that. In this next phase of my life, where it looks like I’m going to have to hustle my ass off and create my own opportunities rather than just sitting back and doing what is required by a company, day after day, year after year…this resonates especially loudly.

It stinks that I’m listening to the Cubs giving a press conference about an alleged domestic abuser who’s in their employ. This isn’t the first time my favorite team has faced scrutiny because they’ve harbored a bad dude in their clubhouse.

I have been following this story closely since it broke, way back in 2017 when Addison Russell’s now-ex wife first brought to light the issues in their relationship. Today, I read Melisa Ready-Russell’s entire blog, from start to finish. I also followed the Aroldis Chapman domestic abuse story back in 2016.

(Link to Melisa’s blog post: https://lifewithmelis310373032.wordpress.com)

In NO WAY do I have Cubbie-blue blinders on, nor do I hold the behavior of their players against the franchise. As a lifelong sports fan & long-time sports reporter, I know this stuff is equal-opportunity. There are bad dudes everywhere, from high school sports to college sports to pro sports and everywhere in between. I’ve witnessed it firsthand, from casual misogyny to outright offensive behavior that’ll…put hair on your chest? Poor treatment of women is a societal problem. We know this. It’s only magnified in sports.

You idolize these professional athletes, or hold them to a higher standard, at your own risk. You don’t even realize how much negative shit is perpetrated by your heroes that never sees the light of day.

Let me pause to say, no one knows what really happened in the Russell relationship. I’m not here to demonize this particular guy, or convict him in the court of public opinion. I want to make a statement about women standing up for themselves, in general, and making changes in the way the world sees us. You don’t have to have been actually physically abused to feel deeply affected by this topic. Continue reading “Bravo, Melisa: Good WILL come from the Addison Russell saga” →

For the last few years, as a video journalist for the Bucks County Courier Times and Intelligencer – it’s so much easier to just say, “Game On” – I have been using my professional Facebook page to archive my video stories. Now that I’m a free agent, I eventually want to create my own website. My ultimate dream is to do what I did before, working for myself, and somehow make a living that way.

This is only the beginning.

Stay tuned for personal blog posts and occasional “Coffee Convo” profile pieces with interesting people in our community.

Thanks for sticking with me.