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SIERRA VISTA — It’s been 20 years since Greg Duce was in Seoul, South Korea playing baseball in the Olympic Games.
He still doesn’t care to talk too much about it.
However, the Buena High School athletic director has kept his eyes glued to the TV, paying attention to the well-televised sports of beach volleyball, swimming and gymnastics this past week.
“I can’t wait for the Olympics, summer or winter,” he said. “But I am frustrated that they’re getting rid of baseball and softball.”
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This year, the International Olympics Committee announced that baseball and softball will not be part of competition in the Olympic Games of 2012 in London.
But Duce thinks there is still a place for the two sports in the big games every four years, he just hopes the rest of the world will someday agree with him.
During the 1988 Olympic Games, Duce was playing first base for the Canadian baseball team the day they beat the U.S. team for its only loss, and the Canadian team’s only win that summer.
Duce was the No. 2 hitter in the upset, and went 3-for-4 that day.
But it’s not a specific game that he remembers most about the Olympics; instead, it’s his walk during the opening ceremonies.
“It was such a blur,” he said. “Once I got out of the tunnel... next thing I knew, it was over.”
Duce moved to Arizona from Canada in 1983 to play baseball at Cochise College, and went on Grand Canyon University, where he said the moment he was pretty sure his playing days would not continue much longer was when he was not drafted after his junior year, even though he received deals with a couple of major league teams after finishing his stint in 1987.
Instead, he got married and took a job at Tempe High School as a health teacher and varsity baseball coach.
“Life is about choices and I made the choice to go into education,” Duce said. “That was my passion and still is. My excitement comes from watching our own student athletes grow up and my own kids grow up.”
Duce is in his fourth year as assistant principal and athletic director at Buena and is still thrilled by watching athletes — from the unknown to the illustrious — compete at the Olympics and at his school.
“I enjoy my job,” he said. “The best part is watching kids compete. They’re all doing the best they can all the time, and that makes it so fulfilling.”
Patty wrote on Aug 16, 2008 7:15 PM: