I lost a good friend the other day. As I have said here before in “Guns and Cornbread,” I know that I am not alone in this. It finally dawned on me that after you get to a certain age, you are just naturally going to start losing some of those whom you know.
It is just life, I guess; the math will eventually catch up with us.
My friend John was someone special. He was a teacher and coach here in Fayette County, West Virginia, for 34 years. He coached at Fayetteville Middle and High School for football, basketball, and track and field. In his time, his teams won more than 100 middle school football games, 150 basketball games, and he served more than 30 years as the track and field coach. He directed more than 200 track and field events in southern West Virginia and won 25 Fayette County Conference Championships for boys’ and girls’ teams.
John was honored as the West Virginia junior high coach of the year for 1996-1997, along with many other awards and accolades. To John, it didn’t matter if you were that “good,” only that you went out for the sport and did your best.
He served his community in many ways, including being a proud member of the Fayetteville Lions Club. He was a patriotic man who often encouraged his students to “do it for America.”
John was a big sports fan and would travel all around West Virginia to attend various football, basketball, and track and field events. He supported the young athletes on the field whether he was coaching or not. John was a proud Marshall University alumnus and attended sporting events for the Thundering Herd, along with all of the high school and middle school events, plus a lot of NCAA Division II college games. (I am told he kept a record of this and attended more than 800 of these college games.) He was often on the road for this.
My friend John also did something else that I don’t think as many people knew about. He was a grouse hunter. We have talked a little bit about this in the past, but I have always thought grouse hunters were different from most other hunters and are special in their own way. When talking about grouse here, we are talking about the ruffed grouse, once found in great numbers over much of the eastern United States.
Coming from an athletic background and being athletic himself, John was well suited to join the ranks of those pursuing the ruffed grouse. Grouse hunters you see probably travel more, walk more, and cover more territory than any other hunter in America. This is not taking away from any other form of hunting, but grouse hunters don’t get in a stand and sit all day hoping to see a big buck.
It is just two different types of hunting.
Grouse hunting, just by its nature, requires the hunter to travel long distances to find the birds. And remember, we are talking about hunting in the Appalachian Mountains, where there is not very much level ground. Strong legs and endurance are required, and John certainly had all that.
In talking to a few of his old hunting buddies, I heard that he had the drive to pursue the type of hunting that he loved in his beloved mountains. One of them told me that if he would call John, kind of spur of the moment, and ask if he wanted to go hunting, he would always, always say: “Yes, let’s go right now!”
I got to hear some of the wonderful stories from friends and family about his long days in the woods, lost dogs (Coach kept and trained Brittany spaniels) lost hunters, missed Christmas eve dinners, and all of the things that went with this uniquely American type of hunting.
Several years ago, the grouse population started a steep decline. There are so many theories about this, and no one really seems to know why. We don’t have near the grouse or the grouse hunters we used to have, and sadly I fear that we never will.
My friend John Arritt is gone now, but I hope to see him again someday. We don’t really know just what heaven will be like, but I hope to see him high on a ridge somewhere, and maybe he will take me to one of his favorite covers that will hold a bunch of grouse.
I hope I can keep up with him and not shoot too badly and embarrass myself.
Godspeed, Coach. See you later.
“Guns & Cornbread” is written by Larry Case, who lives in Fayette County, W.Va. You can write to him at larryocase3@gmail.com.