A Smile RHAM Won't Forget

[Guest guest]

A Smile RHAM Won't Forget

Jeff s

December 15, 2007

Steve Emt was good enough to play

varsity basketball at West Point and tough enough to walk on to Jim Calhoun's

team after he transferred to UConn in the early 1990s. So Emt had no problem

getting the attention of his RHAM High players one night eight winters ago.

" We were playing a team we should have been beating handily, " Emt

said. " I called a timeout in the middle of the third quarter and really

laid into my guys. I was trying to motivate them, because they weren't doing

anything. We broke the huddle and everybody's head was down. I looked over at

the bench after they sat down and every head was still down.

" But at the end of the bench, there's Tyler. He leans over so I can see

him, looks at me and flashes that big smile. Right there, I'm thinking I can't

be mad at these guys. They're doing their best. I can't even remember if we won

the game. I just remember the smile telling me, 'Don't worry, everything will

be all right.' "

Emt told that story at Tyler Cormier's funeral in February and couldn't wait

to tell it again Friday. If you didn't know better, Emt said, you might get the

wrong impression about Tyler. You'd see him walking down the halls at RHAM,

saying hi to everybody, everybody saying hi back, and you might think people

felt sorry for him.

" Not a chance, " Emt said. " Not one bit. That was love for the

kid, pure love. "

If anything, guys like Tyler should feel sorry for the rest of us. We're the

ones with the anger, the anxiety, the angst strapped to our lives like a 2-ton

backpack. Tyler spent his first month battling for his life in the pediatric

unit at Hartford Hospital and from birth doctors said he suffered from Down

Syndrome. Funny, everybody else who met Tyler during his 21 years thought he

was blessed with Up Syndrome.

" When Steve first asked me to help him coach six years ago, he told me, 'I

just want you to know your son is the most popular kid at RHAM,' "

Cormier said. " I'm like, 'Yeah, right.' "

Emt wasn't kidding.

Tyler collected medals at Special Olympics by the bushel. Softball, hockey,

skating, basketball, swimming, you name it. He was a Special Olympics stud. He

even won wrestling matches in middle school.

Way more impressive than that, Tyler Cormier collected friends by the bushel.

We don't want to engage in any Hebron, Andover, Marlborough name-dropping here,

but A.J. Pollock, the 2006 Connecticut Gatorade Player of the Year in baseball?

Tyler's big buddy. Truth is, everybody was Tyler's buddy. The kids would take

him out for pizza. He was one of the crew.

" He did everything, " his dad said, " and he did it with a

smile. "

Tyler's senior year, the basketball team named him one of its captains. He was

the manager! Tyler was RHAM's prom king in 2005. How cool was he? He loved the

Red Sox and everybody in Marlborough knew it. He loved Manny with the

patience only a kid with Up Syndrome could have. is a ticket holder to

UConn men's basketball and he and Tyler would go to all the games. Emt gave

Tyler a RHAM uniform and, even as manager, he would wear Emt's UConn No.50.

" Tyler was infectious, " said Emt, in his 10th season as RHAM coach.

" He was competitive. But even on your worst day, he made you smile. You

wanted to go up and hug him all the time. He taught me more than I taught him.

I know that for a fact. "

That's why they're going to hang Tyler's No.2 jersey, his Special Olympics

number, on the wall at RHAM next Thursday before the game against Northwest

Catholic. That's why there's going to be a showcase in the hallway. That's why

there's going to be a game between the RHAM unified team and Glastonbury

Special Olympians — Tyler's old teams — at halftime. That's why

they're going to give out T-shirts and they're expecting to sell out the place.

And that's why, Emt said, they're going to have Tyler Cormier Night every year.

Emt, a math teacher at the middle school, met Tyler in seventh grade when Emt

was a special education assistant. They bonded immediately. In the eighth

grade, Emt did a lot of 1-on-1 academic work with Tyler. He asked Tyler's

parents if Tyler could be his team's manager. and , who had been so

tireless in making sure Tyler was involved in Cub Scouts and Special Olympics,

agreed.

This is how powerful Tyler Cormier is: Because of him, and Emt became

inseparable friends.

" Steve was with us every step of the way when Tyler got sick, "

said.

" At the funeral, when I spoke, I thanked and for putting such a

great young man on the planet, " Emt said. " Because of Tyler, I have a

JV coach who I love as my brother. "

This Thanksgiving, in fact, the family of Emt's fiancee invited , and

their daughter, Cathleen, to join them.

" We had a blast, " Emt said.

needs days like Thanksgiving. Today is

essentially a year to the day when Tyler starting coming down with a cold. The

Cormiers weren't alarmed. Tyler was so healthy. The cold didn't get better. On

Dec. 27, he was admitted to Hartford Hospital. He had pneumonia. He went into

intensive care. He never left.

" Anybody else would have gone sooner than Tyler, " Emt said. " He

battled every day. "

" I'd tell him, 'Tyler, this is for the real gold medal now. This is it.'

He'd understand. He fought so hard for two months. It was unbelievable. But his

lungs became so saturated his heart gave out ... I don't make sense of

it. "

Cormier is fighting back tears now. He stops at the

cemetery every day. Most days, he says, he just stands there, cries for a

minute or two and goes on to work for Hartford Distributors.

" He was my whole life, to be honest with you, " said. " God

has a plan. I guess I don't know how else to say it. What I do know is Tyler taught

us what's important about people and that's what is in your heart. "

has seen the effects of his son's lessons once before. It was his senior

night. Emt had a plan. East Catholic knew about it. Everybody on the RHAM team

knew about it — except one guy.

" I had no idea, " said. " I found out when they announced the

starting lineups. The fifth player announced was, 'Starting at guard, No.50,

Tyler Cormier.' "

" East Catholic was great about it, " Emt said. " We won the tip.

Andy Schultz, one of my coaches now [and a classmate of Tyler's since

kindergarten], gave Tyler a pass and he hit a bunny. The place went nuts. We

got him off the floor and started the game. The ovation was unbelievable. "

That's the power of a smile — and RHAM will feel it again Thursday.

Contact Jeff s at jjacobs@....

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