Birthday boys CJ Smith (left) and Jerry Helm.
One’s old enough to be the others dad … barely.
But while Jerry Helm and CJ Smith have an 18-year age gap, they share a lot in common, and not just a birthday.
One is a former Wolf star, the other a current one, and both have never been content with playing just one sport, or ever going half-speed.
Helm was a standout football, basketball and track athlete who also dabbled in baseball for a bit, while Smith has helped revive the “traditional” three-sport athlete at CHS.
After moving to Coupeville in the middle of his sophomore year, CJ, who will be a senior in the fall, has played football, basketball and baseball.
In the two previous years, not a single Wolf boy played all three traditional sports, with soccer, track and tennis luring away a number of athletes.
CJ, and younger brother Hunter, led the charge to change that during the school year that just ended, reviving memories of a time when it was common.
The comparisons between the two go deeper than just being multi-sport stars, however.
Both Jerry and CJ carry themselves with a quiet confidence, content to let their actions speak louder than their words.
That calmness and inner fire has led Helm through a meteoric rise in Central Whidbey Island Fire and Rescue and it allows Smith to very closely resemble outgoing Wolf star Aaron Curtin, another self-contained young man who prefers athletic success to scrambling to pose in pre-game photos.
I have a great deal of respect for how both of the birthday boys conduct themselves.
If you’re looking for sports role models, old school (well, not that old…) and new school, you can’t go wrong with Helm and Smith.
As they celebrate their joint cake day, united by the calendar, their success at CHS and their low-key style, we want to wish them both the best.
Happy birthday, gentlemen, and thank you for being class acts every day.
