While camping yesterday, a few people reached out to me and said that J Robinson passed away. I only was able to get signal for a few moments while walking around my campsite as the texts trickled in. I immediately thought back to my last interaction with him that I could remember.

I had worked for J at the J Robinson Intensive Camps in 2019, the last year they had the camps running (COVID would shut the camp down the following year and it would not return). We were at the 28-day camp in River Falls, Wisconsin and somehow I was in charge of the day excursion to this amusement park. That meant I had to make sure all the campers made it on the bus, I was the main contact for the tickets at the park, and coordinate with all of the counselors, campers, and bus drivers for pick up. I also had the staff phone. Meaning if there were any problems, it was on me to fix it first.

I was a little nervous as we were waiting outside the dorms because the bus drivers were running late and the main operating lady at the bus driver call center wasn’t give me straight answers as to the ETA of the buses. J was notorious about not being late. You arrived early or else. I also did not want to let J down (I really did not want to get yelled at for messing it up).

He started walking up to me and thank God the bus drivers pulled into parking lot at the same time.

He asked me “Shouldn’t you guys have left already?”

“We are about to. The bus drivers were running a little late” I replied.

J notices the buses pulling into the parking lot and says quietly to me “should we chew them out?” He meant the bus drivers. I felt like he was joking, but I also detected in his voice that he was a little annoyed.

I don’t remember exactly what i said in response. I might have just laughed and said something like “let’s give them a break this one time.”

J gave me some reminders about what I had to do for the trip, asked if I had any questions, then left.

It’s interesting how impactful J was to so many people. J left a great impression on me and my coaching philosophy and I just got to spend one summer with him working his camps. I didn’t wrestle for Minnesota. I really did not talk to him that much, but those moments at camp are ones that I won’t forget.

He did this thing at camp where he would have the staff post these motivational stories on these messages boards around the dorms. The campers had to look at them on their own and be able to say what the story was at the end of the last wrestling session or face push ups.

One of my favorite stories was the one about the couple that went to the beach the day after a storm.

The beach was empty of people except for this couple that set up their beach chairs on the sand. As the couple sat, they noticed thousands of starfish that had washed up to the sand because of the storm.

If the starfish couldn’t make it back to the water, they would die.

Further down the beach, they saw a man walking alongside the shore, grabbing starfish and hucking them back into the sea.

The couple was fascinated. How could a man walk down the beach like that and spend so much time throwing starfish back into the sea? A little curious, the couple asked the man as he got closer, “Don’t you realize there are thousands of starfish on the beach? What does it matter if you only save a few dozen? you won’t be able to save them all.”

The man looked at the couple for a moment before grabbing a starfish at his feet and threw it back into the water. He turned back to look at the couple and said, “it mattered to that one.”

That story is how I will remember J Robinson.

He was someone that would stoop down and grab people and give them what they needed. J probably didn’t even remember who I was.

He probably didn’t remember the few lunches I sat and chatted with him about coaching or the time we had a drink together at a bar (he had a soda). The many memories and people that I met while at camp, were all of J’s way of throwing me back into the sea. I was just lucky enough to have been one of the thousands of people that he had impacted.

J’s passing was sad for me, and hard to take for people that knew him longer than just a summer, but his spirit and wisdom live on in the people that he impacted.

And that make me smile.