This coming weekend will be a busy one for us.  Saturday is the first annual Johnny Romano Skate Jam (or the 12th annual Texas Skate Jam) for Make-A-Wish.  This is an event that meant a great deal to Johnny, and played a huge part in making the last three years of his life so amazing.  Johnny loved that he got to show up early to the event and skate with the pros.  All of the skaters on the Real team made him feel like one of the guys, and really pushed him to go for it.  He wasn’t in awe of anyone, but I could tell he really wanted the guys to think he could skate well.  I think that knowing he would have this one chance each year to impress those skaters really motivated him to progress.  To that end Johnny skated almost every day that he felt well, and always showed improvement, but it was this past spring that I could tell things started clicking for him.  Instead of slow steady progress he began making big leaps.  All of a sudden he was surprising me with something almost every time I watched him skate.  He was going for bigger tricks, and he almost never fell (he really did have cat-like reflexes).  I know he was looking forward to surprising his buddies on the team the same way.  

A reporter from the Chronicle, Lisa Gray, did a really nice piece in this mornings paper.