clips on to the car.USACs MedTag program aims to rapid

In October, espnWs weekly essay series will focus on heroes.Even as a high school athlete, my father, Hannibal Ware, was known for his long shooting range. He and his youngest brother, James, were a fearless duo on the court. In Lexington, Kentucky, the two lanky teenagers were known as the Ware boys.In 1968, my father played collegiate hoops at the University of the Virgin Islands. When I was a kid in grade school, he loved telling me stories about those days as a young hoops star. An opponent once yelled out, Dont let the Yankee shoot! according to my father.My father could tell a story better than anyone I have ever met. And to this day, I can still see his lean brown form standing in my grandmothers living room reenacting his winning jump shot.I remember watching him stand behind the 3-point line on our neighborhood basketball court. He made so many baskets in a row, it felt like magic. He loved perfecting his basketball skills.He never made it to the pros, but he imparted his basketball knowledge to my sister, Saneda, and me. Be aggressive when going inside, he told me. Dont play with fear.In high school, I wore a jersey emblazoned with his number -- 14. Maybe, I thought, it would bring me luck. Or maybe I was just proud to wear the same number as a superstar. I was a pretty good player. Like him, I had a consistent jump shot of my own and was one of the star players on the Bryan Station Middle Schools Bearcats. I am very proud that both my father and I were part of teams that won championships for Bryan Station.Even though I chose not to continue my basketball career after middle school, I still feel proud knowing that I shared such an important interest with him. Basketball will always remind me of the special moments that connected us.But in my second year of college, I received a terrible shock. My father was diagnosed with throat cancer. What started off as a tiny bump on his neck gradually grew into a large tumor.My father was stubborn and unwilling to go for a checkup. My grandmother, sister and I watched as he slowly deteriorated. He began to forget little things. He was aware of his decline. I could see the fear on my fathers face at times. It was difficult watching my?hero meet his kryptonite. He spoke as if he would beat cancer, but deep down I believe he knew his fate.During the last stages of his illness, I dropped out of school. The stress of witnessing my fathers illness left me in a dark place. I remember lying to my uncle about still being enrolled at the University of Kentucky. I was too ashamed to say that I had failed.I watched my Dad -- my first love -- wither away in a nursing home. I saw the light fading from his large almond eyes and I knew that he was leaving me. He would stare off into space, listening to R&B. In his last days he seemed to find some peace listening to slow music. I can still see him breathing, gasping for air.My life will forever be changed by these events. I will always have the special moments we shared to bring me joy. His love for his children and basketball taught me compassion and commitment. Eventually, I found the strength to go back to school and graduate with a masters degree in social work.So Daddy, thank you for the wonderful moments we shared. Thank you for your kind heart and your dedication to others. Thank you for being my first love and my first encounter with a real-life superhero.Ebonie Ware is a writer based in Kentucky. She started the blog Ware Im Coming From.?Follow her on Instagram?for?inspirational nuggets.?Custom Brazil Soccer Jerseys . The 26-year-old Ireland striker, who has four goals this season, has signed a three-and-a-half year contract with his new club. Custom Atlanta Hawks Jerseys . 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But underneath the professional exterior he was, and is, compellingly human.INDIANAPOLIS -- The United States Auto Club used the forum of the annual Performance Racing Industry Show to launch a series of new initiatives to improve safety and logistics for competitors.USACs TracSafe package is a system of lights mounted on the dash and the rear of the car linked into the timing and scoring system that will speed up the process of indicating when a caution flag is displayed for an accident or other hazard on the track.TracSafe will be utilized in USACs Sprint Car, Silver Crown and Midget series.As soon as timing and scoring indicates a caution, a yellow light will immediately illuminate on every cars dash, which could be several seconds sooner than when the driver would see a caution flag displayed at the start line or a marshalls stand.The three lights mounted to the rear of the car also function as leader lights that will help spectators follow the race.At a typical dirt track, the people in the tower call Yellow, but there can still be a delay if the flagman doesnt hear the call, plus he has to get out the flag and turn on the light, said USAC President and CEO Kevin Miller. That delay can be 2-4 seconds, and a Sprint Car at Eldora travels a long way in that time.We worked on eliminating that delay, and now when the [scoring] tower goes yellow, the car goes yellow.Miller said that USAC was already working on a leader light system, but a fatal Midget accident in August at the Belleville (Kansas) High Banks involving popular driver Bryan Clauson drew attention to the issue of potential delays in notifying drivers of a caution.It became one of the safety initiatives we were developing, Miller noted. Bryan was hitt by another car, and I dont know what all of the circumstances were, but if you can save one or two seconds, it changes a drivers perspective.dddddddddddd.If we can buy one or two seconds, this is worth the cost, because it happens every night.USAC will maintain ownership of the components to make the simple updates to the cars. There will be no cost to competitors.The leader lights are a development of a design introduced in ALMS sports car racing in the early 2000s. One of USACs biggest challenges was developing a self-powered system to keep the TracSafe electronic components functioning in push-start cars that do not feature a battery.We wanted to come up with a similar system, but at a much lower cost for our kind of racing, Miller said. It essentially clips on to the car.USACs MedTag program aims to rapidly provide critical medical information to safety workers attending to an injured driver. A small scanning sticker on each drivers helmet will immediately link to detailed medical records.?Were doing this for every series we sanction, said Miller.USAC has been expanding its net outside of the oval track racing it is famous for. The Indianapolis-based group has taken over sanction of the Pirelli World Challenge road racing series, as well as Formula Drift, Global Rallycross, Robby Gordons Stadium Super Trucks, and TORC off-road racing.?For competitor convenience, USAC is implementing a program called TracPay, in which prize money checks will be replaced by immediate deposits onto reloadable debit cards. ' ' '