March 9, 2026 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Our American Stories listener from Iowa, Roger Rench, shares memories from his time playing various competitive sports throughout his life that are sure to put a smile on your face.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we returned to our American stories. Up next, we'll
hear from our regular contributor in Iowa, Roger Wrench. He's
here to share with us some memories about his time
in competitive sports, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Take it away, Roger.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
I think it was around fifth or sixth grade when
my interest in sports began, and that interest would grow
into a lifelong love. Before that, I was a chubby,
clumsy kid, not very fast or strong, and in the
summer between sixth and seventh grade, I shot up six
inches to six feet tall, denned out and got pretty
(00:51):
strong and coordinated. I went to Grace Lutheran School, and
we had a great sports program and a network of
Lutheran schools in Kansas City in eastern Kansas. I played
flag football and basketball, and I was the star center
on our team. I also liked baseball, and the summer
after seventh grade, my mom signed me up for Little League.
(01:12):
At our first practice, I didn't recognize a single face.
Not only was I the new kid, but the rest
of them had played together for years. The coaches had
coached them since they were little. I was a rookie
on a team of experienced Stars. The next summer, I
(01:32):
played in a different league on a team with friends
from my school, and I had the opportunity to shine
as one of our two starting pitchers. I had never
pitched before, but I had this wicked curveball that couldn't
be hit. It moved about a foot and as the
batters would see it coming at them, they'd back up
off the plate, afraid to get hit. Then it would
(01:52):
curve back over the plate, often for a strike, and
I got dozens of strikeouts that summer, and it felt
great to be a star again and be able to
show what I could do. In ninth grade, things changed
as I went to public school for the first time.
I went from a small private school with about eight
kids in my class to West Junior High, where I
(02:13):
had hundreds of classmates. And when it came to sports,
I was in the big leagues now, with a lot
more competition and bigger, faster and stronger athletes. First came football,
I wasn't very fast, but I could catch anything thrown
near me. I was tall at six foot two, so
they put me at tight end. I was also the
(02:33):
punter and could kick it at good forty yards pretty consistently.
And I have two standout memories from that season. The
first happened at practice one day and I must have
dropped a pass, flubbed a punt, or did something else
to upset the coach. Because we had this drill where
one guy would line up against two other guys and
try to fight his way through. Coach called my name,
(02:54):
and then he called the names of the two biggest
and meanest guys on our team to double team me.
Charles was the toughest guy on our team and could
not the snot out of people, and James was our biggest,
heaviest guy, and I knew I was gonna get killed.
So I did what any scared, skinny string being would
(03:15):
do in that situation and got creative. When we lined
up and Coach blew the whistle, I dove straight down
to the ground in the space between them and tried
to crawl through. Now, when we did this drill, the
whole team was watching, and boy did I earn the
comedy laughs for my efforts. The coach even enjoyed the entertainment,
but unfortunately he made me do it again and faced
(03:38):
my fear, and this time Charles and James were licking
their chops to get to me. I prepared for launch,
and sure enough, when they hit me, I went flying
in the air about ten yards straight back. I think
I still have a bruise of my behind today from
that hit. But you know, I have to thank my
coach because I figured if I could survive that hit
(04:00):
from those two monsters, I didn't have to be afraid
of anything on the field. My other memory was in
a game where we were playing a team that was
beating us bad. We were backed up to our own
ten yard line and it was fourth down. Time to
punt again for about the six or seventh time that game.
So I came out to punt and I'm standing right
on the end zone line. James was lined up behind
(04:22):
the line of scrimmage to block anyone who would try
to get through and block the punt. They hiked me
the ball and as I stepped forward to kick it,
James is backing up and I kicked the ball right
into his backside. It bounces back into the end zone
and the other team recovers it for a touchdown. Despite
that moment, I really enjoyed my first season of tackle football,
(04:45):
and it prepared me for the basketball season, where I
tried out, made the team and played with some of
my football teammates. My basketball experience was quite different. We
had eleven guys on the team and they were all good.
I was the eleventh guy, the odd out, so at
practice where we went five on five, I didn't even
get enough court time to learn the plays. We were
(05:07):
good and won the city championship, so I did get
to play in a few games where we had a
big lead, but every day I mostly just sat there
watching at practice. I felt left out and I didn't
think the coach liked me. In the middle of the season,
I made one of the worst decisions of my life.
I quit. I didn't go to practice, and I didn't
(05:27):
go talk to the coach. I just didn't show up.
I let my teammates down, I let my coach down,
and I let myself down. Quitting like that felt horrible,
way worse than any feeling of being left out. But
I did it, and I learned from it. I made
a decision later never to quit anything just because it
(05:48):
wasn't going my way. That decision has served me well.
In high school, I expanded my sports repertoire. I played
football for a couple of years, and that led to
testing out another sport. The first day of football practice,
our coach made us run a full mile in a
high heat in humidity. It was about one hundred degrees
(06:08):
By the end of the first lap. Several of our
speedy players passed me and were way ahead, but as
the run went on, I passed them all back and
ended up finishing first, about a half lap ahead of
the next guy. That raised some eyebrows among my teammates
and also my coaches, and one of them said to me,
(06:29):
that's impressive. You should try out for the cross country team.
So the next school year I did just that. I
ran well and made varsity. But in practice, after we'd
go out and run several miles, which I loved, our
coach made us go over to the track and run
quarter and half miles, several of them again and again,
(06:50):
and I hated it. I couldn't see any point to
it since we're running a three mile race in competition.
I completely lost interest, and before the season and started,
I talked to the coach and told him thanks, but
no thanks. However, I loved long distance running and kept
doing it each day on my own, and forty four
years later, I'm still doing it every day. In nineteen
(07:15):
eighty I went to Saint John's College in Winfield, Kansas,
a small school with only about three hundred students. At
Saint John's, I played baseball my junior year. We only
had one catcher, so in practice I started warming up
our pitchers and ended up becoming our backup. My shining
moment came when we traveled to Atchison, Kansas for a
(07:35):
weekend baseball tournament hosted by Benedictine College. The first night,
our starting catcher went out and had a little too
much fun missing the curfew, so our coach sat him
on the bench for the next game, and guess who
got the start at catcher. I didn't expect that and
was a little nervous, but I was also excited now.
(07:56):
That game was against the host team, Benedictine, and on
their team were a few of my teammates from that
first little league team I played on in Kansas City.
Also in the audience that day was a pro scout
checking out the small college talent. So the game started
and it was pretty close. I didn't do anything spectacular,
(08:18):
but did my job okay until about the fourth inning,
when the ball was popped up. Now you know how
when a ball is popped up, the catcher will throw
off his face mask, look up to try to find
the ball, and then run over to catch it. Well,
I threw off my mask and then with my other hand,
I threw off my catcher's mit too. A few seconds later,
(08:40):
the razing started, first from a few of my friends
on the other team who knew my name and were
shouting it out of their dugout along with their jokes.
Then one of my own teammates brought down the house
when he shouted for everyone to hear hey rots, next
time throw the shin guards. Both dugouts a rough in laughter.
(09:01):
It was embarrassing, but I had to laugh too, so
slowly picked up my face mask and my glove, looked
over at their dugout and then ours, then bowed before
my audience. Some of them even stood and cheered. Needless
to say, I never got a call from that pro
(09:21):
scout despite blowing my opportunity to get called up for
spring training. Sports and athletics have always been a big
part of my life. Along with running, I bike ride
every day and lift weights two or three times a week.
I always wanted to stay in shape to keep up
with my kids, and I played all kinds of games
(09:42):
and sports with them growing up, and now it's my
grandkid's turn. In my lifetime, I've played many sports and games.
I've experienced both the thrill of victory and the agony
of defeat, along with a few humorous and embarrassing moments.
Sports has helped me make friends, learned tea work, and
kept me in good physical shape. I'll keep running and
(10:04):
playing as best as I can for as long as
I can, and if I die doing it, it will
be with a big smile on my face.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
And a great job on the production by Madison and
a special thanks to Roger Wrench reminding us why we
play sports, and it's for the fun, It's for the bonding.
In high school, I was a captain of my basketball team.
We had a good team and I wasn't paying attention.
We won the tip, I got the ball, raced for
an easy layup in the other guy's basket. Two points
(10:36):
for the other team, wrongway. Habib was my name for
the next two years. Roger Wrench's story here on our
American Stories
And we returned to our American stories. Up next, we'll
hear from our regular contributor in Iowa, Roger Wrench. He's
here to share with us some memories about his time
in competitive sports, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Take it away, Roger.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
I think it was around fifth or sixth grade when
my interest in sports began, and that interest would grow
into a lifelong love. Before that, I was a chubby,
clumsy kid, not very fast or strong, and in the
summer between sixth and seventh grade, I shot up six
inches to six feet tall, denned out and got pretty
(00:51):
strong and coordinated. I went to Grace Lutheran School, and
we had a great sports program and a network of
Lutheran schools in Kansas City in eastern Kansas. I played
flag football and basketball, and I was the star center
on our team. I also liked baseball, and the summer
after seventh grade, my mom signed me up for Little League.
(01:12):
At our first practice, I didn't recognize a single face.
Not only was I the new kid, but the rest
of them had played together for years. The coaches had
coached them since they were little. I was a rookie
on a team of experienced Stars. The next summer, I
(01:32):
played in a different league on a team with friends
from my school, and I had the opportunity to shine
as one of our two starting pitchers. I had never
pitched before, but I had this wicked curveball that couldn't
be hit. It moved about a foot and as the
batters would see it coming at them, they'd back up
off the plate, afraid to get hit. Then it would
(01:52):
curve back over the plate, often for a strike, and
I got dozens of strikeouts that summer, and it felt
great to be a star again and be able to
show what I could do. In ninth grade, things changed
as I went to public school for the first time.
I went from a small private school with about eight
kids in my class to West Junior High, where I
(02:13):
had hundreds of classmates. And when it came to sports,
I was in the big leagues now, with a lot
more competition and bigger, faster and stronger athletes. First came football,
I wasn't very fast, but I could catch anything thrown
near me. I was tall at six foot two, so
they put me at tight end. I was also the
(02:33):
punter and could kick it at good forty yards pretty consistently.
And I have two standout memories from that season. The
first happened at practice one day and I must have
dropped a pass, flubbed a punt, or did something else
to upset the coach. Because we had this drill where
one guy would line up against two other guys and
try to fight his way through. Coach called my name,
(02:54):
and then he called the names of the two biggest
and meanest guys on our team to double team me.
Charles was the toughest guy on our team and could
not the snot out of people, and James was our biggest,
heaviest guy, and I knew I was gonna get killed.
So I did what any scared, skinny string being would
(03:15):
do in that situation and got creative. When we lined
up and Coach blew the whistle, I dove straight down
to the ground in the space between them and tried
to crawl through. Now, when we did this drill, the
whole team was watching, and boy did I earn the
comedy laughs for my efforts. The coach even enjoyed the entertainment,
but unfortunately he made me do it again and faced
(03:38):
my fear, and this time Charles and James were licking
their chops to get to me. I prepared for launch,
and sure enough, when they hit me, I went flying
in the air about ten yards straight back. I think
I still have a bruise of my behind today from
that hit. But you know, I have to thank my
coach because I figured if I could survive that hit
(04:00):
from those two monsters, I didn't have to be afraid
of anything on the field. My other memory was in
a game where we were playing a team that was
beating us bad. We were backed up to our own
ten yard line and it was fourth down. Time to
punt again for about the six or seventh time that game.
So I came out to punt and I'm standing right
on the end zone line. James was lined up behind
(04:22):
the line of scrimmage to block anyone who would try
to get through and block the punt. They hiked me
the ball and as I stepped forward to kick it,
James is backing up and I kicked the ball right
into his backside. It bounces back into the end zone
and the other team recovers it for a touchdown. Despite
that moment, I really enjoyed my first season of tackle football,
(04:45):
and it prepared me for the basketball season, where I
tried out, made the team and played with some of
my football teammates. My basketball experience was quite different. We
had eleven guys on the team and they were all good.
I was the eleventh guy, the odd out, so at
practice where we went five on five, I didn't even
get enough court time to learn the plays. We were
(05:07):
good and won the city championship, so I did get
to play in a few games where we had a
big lead, but every day I mostly just sat there
watching at practice. I felt left out and I didn't
think the coach liked me. In the middle of the season,
I made one of the worst decisions of my life.
I quit. I didn't go to practice, and I didn't
(05:27):
go talk to the coach. I just didn't show up.
I let my teammates down, I let my coach down,
and I let myself down. Quitting like that felt horrible,
way worse than any feeling of being left out. But
I did it, and I learned from it. I made
a decision later never to quit anything just because it
(05:48):
wasn't going my way. That decision has served me well.
In high school, I expanded my sports repertoire. I played
football for a couple of years, and that led to
testing out another sport. The first day of football practice,
our coach made us run a full mile in a
high heat in humidity. It was about one hundred degrees
(06:08):
By the end of the first lap. Several of our
speedy players passed me and were way ahead, but as
the run went on, I passed them all back and
ended up finishing first, about a half lap ahead of
the next guy. That raised some eyebrows among my teammates
and also my coaches, and one of them said to me,
(06:29):
that's impressive. You should try out for the cross country team.
So the next school year I did just that. I
ran well and made varsity. But in practice, after we'd
go out and run several miles, which I loved, our
coach made us go over to the track and run
quarter and half miles, several of them again and again,
(06:50):
and I hated it. I couldn't see any point to
it since we're running a three mile race in competition.
I completely lost interest, and before the season and started,
I talked to the coach and told him thanks, but
no thanks. However, I loved long distance running and kept
doing it each day on my own, and forty four
years later, I'm still doing it every day. In nineteen
(07:15):
eighty I went to Saint John's College in Winfield, Kansas,
a small school with only about three hundred students. At
Saint John's, I played baseball my junior year. We only
had one catcher, so in practice I started warming up
our pitchers and ended up becoming our backup. My shining
moment came when we traveled to Atchison, Kansas for a
(07:35):
weekend baseball tournament hosted by Benedictine College. The first night,
our starting catcher went out and had a little too
much fun missing the curfew, so our coach sat him
on the bench for the next game, and guess who
got the start at catcher. I didn't expect that and
was a little nervous, but I was also excited now.
(07:56):
That game was against the host team, Benedictine, and on
their team were a few of my teammates from that
first little league team I played on in Kansas City.
Also in the audience that day was a pro scout
checking out the small college talent. So the game started
and it was pretty close. I didn't do anything spectacular,
(08:18):
but did my job okay until about the fourth inning,
when the ball was popped up. Now you know how
when a ball is popped up, the catcher will throw
off his face mask, look up to try to find
the ball, and then run over to catch it. Well,
I threw off my mask and then with my other hand,
I threw off my catcher's mit too. A few seconds later,
(08:40):
the razing started, first from a few of my friends
on the other team who knew my name and were
shouting it out of their dugout along with their jokes.
Then one of my own teammates brought down the house
when he shouted for everyone to hear hey rots, next
time throw the shin guards. Both dugouts a rough in laughter.
(09:01):
It was embarrassing, but I had to laugh too, so
slowly picked up my face mask and my glove, looked
over at their dugout and then ours, then bowed before
my audience. Some of them even stood and cheered. Needless
to say, I never got a call from that pro
(09:21):
scout despite blowing my opportunity to get called up for
spring training. Sports and athletics have always been a big
part of my life. Along with running, I bike ride
every day and lift weights two or three times a week.
I always wanted to stay in shape to keep up
with my kids, and I played all kinds of games
(09:42):
and sports with them growing up, and now it's my
grandkid's turn. In my lifetime, I've played many sports and games.
I've experienced both the thrill of victory and the agony
of defeat, along with a few humorous and embarrassing moments.
Sports has helped me make friends, learned tea work, and
kept me in good physical shape. I'll keep running and
(10:04):
playing as best as I can for as long as
I can, and if I die doing it, it will
be with a big smile on my face.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
And a great job on the production by Madison and
a special thanks to Roger Wrench reminding us why we
play sports, and it's for the fun, It's for the bonding.
In high school, I was a captain of my basketball team.
We had a good team and I wasn't paying attention.
We won the tip, I got the ball, raced for
an easy layup in the other guy's basket. Two points
(10:36):
for the other team, wrongway. Habib was my name for
the next two years. Roger Wrench's story here on our
American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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