WAKE UP! (AND EAT LUNCH) ON ETBLITZ | Remembering Michael Kusheba, preseason polls
EDITOR’S NOTE: Wake Up! is a daily feature on ETBlitz.com where we update everyone on local sports happenings, what might be coming up here on the site, and just items of interest in the East Texas community. If you have something you think should be in Wake Up!, you’re welcome to e-mail Mitch Lucas at mlucas@etblitz.com, and let me know about it. In the subject line, go ahead and put WAKE UP! in big all-caps, so that I know what we’re talking about. By the way, Wake Up! is presented each and EVERY day by Cozy Coffee Station. And if you’re traveling in Allen, you can find ‘em there. But luckily, you don’t have to go all the way to Allen – they’re in Kilgore, at 110 Midtown Plaza, and in Gilmer at 755 Highway 271 North. Check out their menu, which like my knowledge of college football is vast and impressive, right here: Home | Cozy Coffee Station. And if you want to see them on their socials, well, here you go. On Facebook: Cozy Coffee Station-Kilgore, and Cozy Coffee Station-Gilmer. On Instagram: @cozycoffeestation_kilgore, and @cozycoffeestation_gilmer.
Farewell, ‘Doc’
Today, Wake Up! is late – hey, man, working on all this volleyball and football.
But we’re beginning Wake Up! on a somber note.
Got some sad news this morning that a friend of mine, a friend of a lot of people, has passed. And I’m ashamed that it’s been a couple of weeks and I wasn’t paying attention. I was too busy in my own life.
Y’all give me a few minutes and let me talk about my friend.
Michael Kusheba, who for 40 years taught computer science at Kilgore College (1979-2019), died on July 2, and his wife Ruth informed many of us via email today.
It’s difficult for me to refer to him as “Michael,” because I never did – to me he was ‘Doc,’ just a nickname that I used for so many years when he would visit me at the Kilgore News Herald office on so many occasions to talk sports, and so much more. But for memories’ sake and yours, I’ll do so.
Michael was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, went to high school in Midlothian, Virginia, and did undergraduate work at the University of Richmond. He earned so many accolades in the field of education that I dare not mention them here – the list is so long that some of you might stop reading and that’s the last thing I want right now, when I’m paying tribute to my friend who deserves it, far more than I ever will.
Michael arrived here in the late ‘70s and he and Ruth remained here beyond his time teaching on Broadway Street at KC, well after his retirement. He had an email list of at least 37 friends, relatives, former teaching colleagues and people like me, whom he would send out humorous items of note just about every day.
It’s important for me to insert here that I am from Alabama, went to the University of Alabama, met my wife there and have a son who’s a current student there. And Michael, who taught for over 50 years, had one particular stop of interest: Florida State University, of which he never let me forget. 😊 Even though Alabama has beaten FSU in football in countless occasions (there’s my parting shot, Doc 😉) he would always remind me that the programs didn’t play in the 1990s or the 2000s, when ‘Bama was down. And he was right on that.
He loved track and field, loved it. On his website, where you can see all sorts of things about his family, his life, his career, you name it (Kusheba.com), there’s some of his track accomplishments: 23 feet, 8 inches in the long jump; 44 feet, 4 inches in the triple jump; 22.8 seconds in the 220-yard dash (don’t correct it – not the 200 yard dash, but the 220, and you’d better not correct it! 😊); 39.1 seconds in the 330-yard intermediate hurdles; and 4 minutes and 39 seconds in the mile and not one half-a-second longer.
When I got Ruth’s email this morning, now I know why I hadn’t heard from him. I’m so ashamed I didn’t write to inquire. Mrs. Ruth, if you’re reading this, my heart goes out to you and your family. Your husband was loved, so much, by so many people. And that’s why I’m writing this now.
Doc, it’s just like you to have left us a website. I’m glad you did.
This note: Alabama and Florida State open the 2025 football season against each other on August 30, in Tallahassee. I can hear that laugh as if he were standing over my shoulder as I write this. “We’re gonna get you, pal,” he’d be laughing.
The polls
I’ll close with this: because it’s summer and I know LOTS of people are busy, I’ve got the Dave Campbell’s Texas Football statewide preseason poll back up on the site today, for you guys to peruse, all of the classifications. We originally ran them July 5, and they’ve been on the site. But now they’re easy to access again. In fact, here’s a link: ENCORE VERSION | Preseason high school football polls, for those of you ‘summer-ing’.
Also, tried to put the preseason high school volleyball poll up, but apparently, it’s not out. The one we use is the Texas Girls Coaches Association state poll. As soon as I confirm that it’s out and it’s legit, I’ll have it up, because volleyball play dates are just about two and a half weeks away.
Y’all have a rockin’ week.
