FORT MILL, S.C. — I broke the rule Tuesday night.
For the first time in nearly two decades as a professional journalist, I cheered for athletes at a sporting event while I was on the clock. I smiled and clapped and shouted encouragement and pretty much ignored the “No cheering in the press box” rule for one evening. Stoicism wasn’t an option.
The Race4Chase triathlon, held at the YMCA in Fort Mill, was an event I’ll never forget.
Chase Kowalski was 7 years old when he was one of 26 people — 20 children and six adults — killed in the unthinkable mass-shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.