Work can be good medicine

Sometimes work can be great medicine — which is a lesson I was reminded last week when I covered the Muleskinner Golf Tournament.

As some of you might know, I got my first dose of COVID-19 three weeks ago. About a week after the Semoball Awards, I started noticing my nose and throat feeling a bit scratchy. At first, I thought (and hoped) that it was just allergies or maybe a summer cold.

But by the evening of July 19, I felt absolutely awful. I got up the next morning and went to urgent care, where they tested me and gave me some antibiotics in case it was a sinus infection or upper respiratory infection.

By the time I got my test results back on July 23, my fever had finally broken and I had begun to feel better. That gave me hope that it was just a cold or an upper respiratory bug.

Wrong.

I got the call shortly before noon and found out that I had indeed picked up my first official case of Covid (or as I call it, Captain Trips — bonus points if you get the Stephen King reference).

The good news is, I only felt really bad for about three to 3 1/2 days (I didn’t even take a day off work, since I often work remote). The bad news was that the fatigue and brain fog lingered for more than a week afterwards.

When DC (sports editor D’Courtland Christian) asked me to cover the Muleskinner last Friday, I honestly wasn’t that excited about it, but I accepted the assignment.

And I’m glad I did.

As you might know, the Muleskinner is a major annual fundraiser for the Poplar Bluff High School Booster Club which often raises more than $20,000 for the club. But more than that, it’s an opportunity to see lots of old friends and maybe make a few new ones.

At least it was for me.

Last Friday’s field of 36 teams and 144 players included a who’s who of PBHS standouts from the last few decades. Among those on the links were James Hayes, who quarterbacked the 1993 Mules football team to the Class 5A quarterfinals and a SEMO North title. Also playing last Friday were several of Hayes’ 1993 teammates, including Joe Martin, Joey Clark, Bryce Huffman and Justin Shell.

They were joined by former Mules baseballer Steven Edwards, a 1996 PBHS graduate who later spent several seasons as the Mules’ baseball coach before heading to his current job at Dexter; Travis and Todd Tinsley, who both stood out on the gridiron for the Mules in the late 1990s and early 2000s; Chris Love, who was part of two state championship Mules golf teams in the mid-1990s; Ryan Hampton, a 2000 grad who later was a member of the Three Rivers College cheer team and Matt Schindler, a 2003 PBHS grad and member of the boys soccer team.

And the tournament field was not just limited to Poplar Bluff alumni. Also spotted at the Muleskinner were longtime area coach Jeff Boner and Jimmy Cornell, a 2006 Twin Rivers graduate who went on to play baseball for TRC and Southern Illinois University.

One of the biggest lessons I have learned with the end of the COVID-19 pandemic is just how much I thrive on human contact. Even though I tend to be a bit of an introvert, getting to see friendly faces has often been some of the best medicine when it comes to my mental health.

And last Friday was no exception to that.

Mike Buhler is a sports writer for the Daily American Republic. Contact him at mbuhler@darnews.com.