Golf for a Good Cause

ECISD coaches rally in support of Borchardt
BY JOEL A. ERICKSON/Odessa American

The news hit the city’s coaches like a sack full of concrete.

A week before Ector County Independent School District opened its doors for the 2009-’10 school year, Odessa High girls golf coach Berry Borchardt was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and rushed into chemotherapy to treat the aggressive disease.

But the rest of the city’s golf coaches didn’t want to sit tight and do nothing.

Led by Bronchos boys golf coach Patrick Young, Permian boys golf coach Shawn Mahan and Permian girls golf coach Rachel Tavarez, the coaches will be holding the Borchardt Fundraiser Classic on Oct. 17 at the Nueva Vista Golf Club in Midland to raise money for the Borchardt family.

“We know it’s a pretty expensive ordeal,” Mahan said. “But even more than that, we wanted to show him that somebody’s thinking of him.”

For $100 per player, a person can enter a tournament scheduled to have 30 four-man teams to begin the tournament with a shotgun start.

And Mahan and the rest of the coaches have been actively looking for people to fill the tournament.

“We’re limiting it to about 30 teams, but it’s already half full,” Mahan said. “We’ve had a bunch of people call who were willing to volunteer.”

Borchardt is currently at Medical City Hospital in Dallas undergoing another round of chemotherapy.

His wife, Tracey, the girls cross country coach, girls track coach and athletic coordinator at OHS, is planning to shuttle back and forth between Dallas and Odessa to be with her husband.

Both were floored to find out the coaches put the Borchardt Fundraiser Classic together so quickly.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Berry Borchardt said. “Before I even left Odessa, I found out about it. Words can’t describe the feeling.”

The golf coaches weren’t about to let the Borchardts fight the disease alone.

“For your peers, your coaches, the people you work with every day to step up to the plate, it’s awesome,” Tracey Borchardt said.

Much like everyone else, I was sad to hear that Coach Borchardt had gotten sick. He was my eighth grade history teacher and football coach. Aside from being one of the best teachers I ever had, he is also a really great guy and a heck of a coach. I'm not sure if there are still spots open in the tournament, but if there are I encourage all the golfing fans to play. If I weren't so nervous about playing in tournaments, I'd look into playing myself. The only way I can play without horrible flashbacks to my failed golf career at OHS is with tons of beer.

I hope the tournament is a success and I hope Coach Borchardt pulls through this thing with flying colors. Then he can get back to smacking his yard stick on the desks of goon students who won't pay attention.