I got an unexpected call Tuesday morning from John Kashner, the Flowing Wells High School football coach from 1988-96, asking me if I could meet him that afternoon. I hadn’t talked to Kashner for 15 or 20 years.
“I attended the Arizona High School Coaches Hall of Fame banquet last week and I have a plaque for you,” he said. “I’m driving down from Casa Grande.”
I met Kashner mid-afternoon at Costco on Tucson’s south side. We talked about his rise from a pair of 2-7-1 seasons at Flowing Wells to a strong finish, 8-3 and 10-2, before he moved to Casa Grande, where he was a coach and high school athletic director the last 25 years.
He said this would be his last year as athletic director at Vista Grande High. “I’m 74,” he said with a laugh. “You never have a free minute as an AD with all the sports going on. I can’t wait to go back East and see my grandkids this summer.”
I thanked Kashner. Can you imagine the quality of a man who would drive 90 minutes to deliver a lifetime-achievement plaque to an old sportswriter he hadn’t seen for 25 years?
Tragically, this didn’t turn out to be a happy occasion. Kashner unexpectedly died of a heart attack a day later in Casa Grande. There will be no trip to Maine to visit his grandkids.
The man from the Coaches Hall of Fame proved he is that and so much more, first class all the way.
