My friend, Steve Kodad

Life ain't fair.

As I sit here this morning ... staring at my computer screen ... my heart is aching because I have lost another friend.

I didn't know Steve Kodad very long -- in fact, I really didn't get to know him well until the past few months. Steve and my friendship started on Saturdays and Sundays when I stopped by the newspaper office to check for new voice mail and e-mail messages.

Steve was always there, sitting alone in his cluttered office, typing furiously on his big screen Apple computer. His office was only five steps from the Gazette's back door -- which is the place we enter on weekends -- so I got in the habit of sticking my head in and asking Steve what in the world he was doing working so many hours. "Got to," he said. "I've got four game stories to write up and there's been another coaching change at the college."

Doing stories about kids and coaches was Steve's passion. He relished it and started every one of our conversations by telling me about a player or a coach -- on the grade school, junior high, high school or college level -- who had excelled.

Steve was a sports nut. So am I. Steve was strongly opinionated. So am I. And, so, invariably, it wasn't long after we started talking that the conversation would turn into a heated debate. As you other fanatical sports fans know, that's a sure-fire formula for argumentative fun.

Because, when you really get down to the truth of the matter, it doesn't make a nickel's worth of difference which team wins or which team loses. What does matter is the exciting escape that sports provides from the angst and agony of daily life.

Deep down, Steve and I both knew that, but it didn't stop us from screaming and hollering, with a twinkle in our eyes, about such things as who the Huskers' quarterback should be and whether my team, the Kansas City Royals, or Steve's team, the St. Louis Cardinals, were the better team.

Damn it anyway. I'll miss those arguments.

Steve, in my opinion, was one of the best sports editors the Gazette has ever had. He died way too young.

I'm glad, though, that he spent his last few years with us in McCook.

The genuine love Steve had for athletes and their coaches will live on, hopefully inspiring us all to be as passionate as he was about doing your best ... no matter what your lot in life may be.

Rest in peace, my friend. You enriched my life and that of hundreds of athletes, coaches and readers in the Golden Plains region.