| MTCS fan gets Christmas present from basketball program |
By: By JOSH EZZELL
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Earnest Bogle has been attending Middle Tennessee Christian School games since 1983, and his support recently paid off with a Christmas present.
The school has come to know and love him as much as he loves the school. Recently, MTCS' boys' middle school and high school basketball teams got a chance to show Bogle how they feel about him.
Boys' middle school and high school coach Jim Martin noticed that Bogle was having car trouble. On the ride home from a game this season he talked with boys high school assistant coach Ed Watson about the possibility of getting Bogle a new vehicle.
They decided to collect money from those associated with the middle school and high school boys' basketball teams.
Martin made some calls and found a 1985 GMC three-quarter ton truck that was reasonably priced.
"I said, 'I'm gonna buy it," Martin said. "I thought I was going to have to pay some money for it."
Within a week, however, others within the basketball program donated money for the truck, and Martin had most of the money back.
Next was letting Bogle know he had a new truck.
"I told (Bogle) we were having a Christmas party," Martin said. "Most Christmas parties aren't surprise parties. (MTCS President) Mr. (Lynn) Watson gave him a school key chain and a license plate. He was beaming. We said, 'You need something to put your license plate on.' He stepped in his truck.
"He said, 'Coach Martin, I don't have words to express how I feel. He thanked me; he thanked the team. That made it nice. It was nice to help."
Bogle still doesn't know how to describe that night in late December.
"I guess you could say I was lock-jawed," Bogle said. "Anybody who would do something that big — I can't express how I feel.
"I've met the nicest people in the entire world," said Bogle, who was presented with a shirt autographed by the MTCS high school girls' basketball team prior to the Lady Cougars' middle school game against Webb School Thursday. "The kids over here — I love them like my own kids. It's been my home away from home. I've adopted this school as my school."
Over the years Bogle, who didn't attend MTCS, emerged as one of the Cougars' biggest fans. He attends middle school and high school home basketball games and has even ridden with the team to road contests.
"He's kind of been a fixture," Ed Watson said. "He'll make it to most of the games."
Now Bogle's a fixture in the hearts of everyone at MTCS, and the school is a fixture in his heart.
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