Our first baby was due August, 1997 and Derek was still coaching at St. Louis University. Those familiar with college basketball know that July is a huge recruiting month.  Coaches can go out practically the entire month with no limits on how many times they can see or contact a kid.  Since we were first time parents and a little nervous I made Derek get a beeper since he would be away from home so close to my due date.  Beepers were the big gadgets back then before the cell phone era.  One day around the end of July I got a call from one of the other assistant coaches on staff with Derek.  He needed to get a hold of Derek concerning a recruit but was unable to get a signal on his cell phone.  They did have cell phones but they didn’t get the best reception back then and if you were not in a metropolitan area your chance of getting a signal was pretty nil.  At the time, I think Derek was in Coffee, Kansas at a junior college basketball tournament.  He had no chance of getting a signal. His fellow assistant wanted to know if there was any way I could beep him because it was imperative that he talk to him about this particular recruit.  “What the heck?” I said.  I thought it would actually be fun and I wish I was a fly on the wall when his beeper went off.  He called me back out of breath and in a panic.  Apparently he came running out of the gym like a bat out of hell and cut in front of everyone in line waiting to use the pay phone – that makes me laugh even just writing it – pay phone. He was not too happy when I told him, “Lackey needs to know what you think about his recruit.”  I guess it serves him right for leaving me alone so close to my due date.  But as I will find out later, not even birth can come between a coach and his recruiting.