When Heather Stumberg called and booked her son's senior images a couple of months ago, I thought to myself, "why do i KNOW that name?"
I thought about it... racked my brain some more... and for the life of me, I just couldn't figure it out.
I was told that Heather's son wanted a killer basketball collage... and other than that, the rest was up to me.
As it turned out, Jack's original session had to be postponed due to a basketball camp, and the rescheduled date forced mom to the sidelines and Papa Mike was called up to the big leagues to fill in for the day.... and thus... upon meeting and hearing Mike's name... the pieces of the puzzle started to fall together.
For those of you that don't know, the author of this blog is a 1994 graduate of Central College in Pella. Which means that I started my freshman year in 1990. One spring prior in 1989, one of the most decorated football players in the Division III school's storied history graduated and went on to earn a roster spot with the NFL's Seattle Seahawks and for a brief time played along side of Hall of Famer Steve Largent. Jack's Pop was the Iowa Conference player of the year from the noseguard position. And just an FYI on these MVP award-type things... they most often go to the stat-grabbers... the quarterbacks... the running backs... occasionally an eye-popping receiver. But a nose-guard? I never saw Mike play... but the sports reporter in me knows that Stumberg Sr. must've been one heck of a disruptive force to impress the IAAC coaches enough to award him the MVP that season. Furthermore... one doesn't find Division III players making NFL rosters very often... if ever. Bottom line? Jack's Dad was the man back in the day... and once I figured out who it was that was actually in my studio... I recalled seeing Mike Stumberg's picture on the wall at Grundy Center High School in his Central uniform... appropriately honoring one of the school's all time best.
I tried my best not to get all giddy and such with Jack there probably having heard it all before a thousand times... But the old Dutchman in me couldn't help but be impressed. My interest was piqued even further when Jack informed me that his dad is now a Big Ten Conference football official who jets off to places like The Big House, Happy Valley, The Horse Shoe and Memorial Stadium in Lincoln depending on his weekend assignment.
Maybe it's just me going all fan-boy and being a psycho sports fan and a Central grad and all... but how cool is that?
As it turned out, it was probably a good thing that Mike had a ton of work to do that morning of Jack's session, because he hammered away at work related stuff on his laptop and cellphone out in our lobby at Stewart Photography... thus saving himself from what undoubtedly would have been a barrage of fan boy questions from his son's photographer.
Don't kid yourself, however. Just because the Grundy Center/Central College legend dodged the bullet... it didn't mean that the sports talk was snuffed out.
No, not at all.
It's rare occasion that at the end of senior session that I feel like a 17 or 18 year old kid can stand toe-to-toe with me on a wide-ranging discussion on sports, but I have to tip my cap to young Mr. Stumberg. Dude knows his stuff. So whether it was area hoops, Hawkeye football... NFL, NBA... MLB... NCAA... none of it mattered. This session quickly turned from taking pictures to an impromptu episode of ESPN Sports Reporters.
So while he might of only ended up in Montour because his girlfriend from Conrad suggested he look our way... in the end... it felt like I was dealing with a couple of guys that I had known forever. Jack is a 17-points-per-game 6-foot-3 silky shooting point guard with Division I dreams. If not for having the state champions with two insanely good guards in his league, Jack would most certainly be first team all-conference instead of second... but make no mistake... dude can ball with the best of them... and I look for a big senior year outta him.
As a warm up to the hardwood, the Spartan senior is going to try the gridiron for the first time in high school. It can't be easy to follow in the footsteps of a local legend, but I have no doubt that Jack will help out the Grundy boys this fall... and when the winter rolls around, I predict results that mimic the front of his jersey...
Lots of 3's.
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