Dre,

Nice job retelling your story... WOW!!! Seems like it was only yesterday. Please allow me to add a few things.

Our award ceremony tries to honor people who are making their mark in this hobby. We have different categories, and the winners don't have to be present. This is the MFU's way of letting coaches know that their achievements haven't gone unnoticed. We try to pay attention to what's going on in the hobby, but admittedly (as I've stated before) we don't know everything. It's a blessing when coaches call or email to give us a heads up about different happenings in the community.

Now as far as The Lifetime Achievement Award (LAA) is concerned... That particular award was in effect since the first Seawall Brawl. However Jimbo and I really didn't know what to call it. I want to publicly acknowledge that you were the one who came up with the name for it, and I want to thank you for that. The LAA is different because it allows us (The Community at large) to say thank you to it's recipient for all of their contributions to this hobby, and to publicly honor them.

Potential nominees have to decide for themselves whether or not they want to be honored by their peers. If for some reason they can't be here we totally understand. However they have got to understand that this award allows us to pay tribute to that individual... if they're not here or don't want to be apart of it, we move on to the next person on the list. Reggie's case was different because some of us personally know his wife Rose, so we didn't have to speak to Reg about it. After speaking with Rose... SHE decided that Reggie needed and deserved to be here, so that we all could have the chance to thank him personally. Reg was stunned and honored by this tribute. After the dvd was played on the big screen, while we were all chanting his name, I remember hearing Jim Davis yell out: "We Love You Reg!!!"

Nobody could have said it any better.

Dre... thanks for bringing back the memories.

Peace,

Don Smith