Daniel A. Rice was a husband, a father, a son, a brother–and a volunteer coach.
Like so many quiet, decent fellows, he might well have remained largely anonymous outside the loving embrace of family and friends were it not for a terrible moment during a June storm that took his life.
A neighbor recalled that Rice had two passions–the Chicago White Sox and coaching his 12-year-old son’s baseball team in Buffalo Grove. Rice was pursuing the second Monday when he was struck by a lightning bolt. He never had a chance against that elemental force of nature. He died Wednesday.
There was nothing out of the ordinary about what Rice and the opposing coach, Martin Magida, were doing Monday afternoon. Torrents of rain, thunder and lightning threatened the Buffalo Grove Recreation Association game scheduled for Rice’s Indians and Magida’s Astros at 5:30 p.m. that day. The coaches made sure the kids were safe and then set out to make one last check of the field before calling the game.
Lightning struck, felling both, though Magida received just a glancing blow and will be fine. What happened is not uncommon. The National Weather Service says that, on average, 73 Americans are killed and 300 are injured each year by lightning.
These two men were taking no unusual risks. They were doing what dads do every day because they love their kids and they love sports.
Youth sports wouldn’t exist–couldn’t exist–without people like Rice. On any given day in the Chicago area, countless numbers of people schedule their days so they can leave work a little early or go in a little late to coach the kids in baseball or soccer or swimming or any number of other outdoor pursuits.
They are the volunteers who make it all possible. You see them, rain or shine, on late weekday afternoons and early Saturday mornings on fields and parks in towns all over America.
Daniel Rice was 47. He was the father of two. You might never have heard of him, had lightning not struck. When you think of unsung people who make this community a wonderful place, remember him.
