Tuesday, October 30, 2018
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There are tears in my coffee this morning, so indulge me as I reminisce. David Ignatuk and I were never BFFs, but he was a big part of my wonder years. Our relationship centered on tennis. To put it immodestly, David and I were the two best players of our particular age in town. So, we were rivals before we even reached puberty. There were, in neighboring towns like New Canaan and Westport, a few boys – but only a few – who could whip us, but locally we battled each other year after year through high school. And then we became a team. David and I were doubles partners and, as seniors, we won the FCIAC (county) championship, and we were seeded number one in the state (Connecticut). It pisses me off to this day that we were upset in, I think, the semis of the state tournament. The photo of the two of us walking off the court is, I believe, after that loss. The other photo is from an article that Tom Chiapetta wrote for the Bridgeport Herald. Coach Raggs (more famous as the hoops coach, but he also was the tennis coach) used to call him “Ingatuk,” transposing the “n” and the “g”. David was a really good athlete and much more daring than me. He was a great skier and diver; he grew a set long before I did. He was cocky and brash and made my competitive spirit even fiercer than it already was; we both hated to lose. We shared bad tempers and were prone to similar on-court tantrums. We succeeded when one of was calm enough to rein in the other. In the summers we traveled a lot together to various tennis tournaments around Connecticut and Massachusetts, and my dad often was our driver. My dad managed to come to most of my tournaments and high school matches, and he was typically the chauffeur for David, me and other kids, and the one who would take us to McDonalds between and after matches. Being the self-conscious teenager, I was often embarrassed by my father’s avuncular presence; but, in one memorable moment, David lifted the veil of bravado and told me, “Man, it’s really cool that your old man comes to all our matches.” When I spoke at my father’s funeral twenty-plus years ago, I related David’s quote about him. David also led the way as we pioneered off the court. We once were staying in Massachusetts for a tournament and were housed by a local family with two teenage girls. When the parents went out for the night – and what mom and dad thought it was a good idea to leave David and me home with their daughters whom we had just met that day? – David got me to partake for the first time (but not the last) in something that was not yet legal, medicinally or recreationally. I still remember that the soundtrack to that night was Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s Trilogy album. We probably also tried to cross frontiers with our teenage hostesses, but no such luck. I think I saw David last at a party a year or so after high school graduation. It’s been over 40 years, but this loss hit really hard today. I hope you had a good life, Ignatuk; it looks like you did. Rest in peace, partner.
