Check out any group of teenagers or pre-teens today, and they’re usually absorbed in their cell phones, iPhones, iPads, tablets, or laptops. Older persons (like Sun Citians) ask themselves: Are young people (and their parents) replacing sports with electronic gadgets? Are soccer moms giving way to texting teens?
Well, maybe not. Meet Cam Wiehe, an always-moving, very active 7-year-old. He isn’t crusading for anything, but he’s surely carrying a small but loud torch for athletics in a young boy’s life. From baseball to basketball to hockey and maybe (if mom approves) football down the road, he’s a soccer mom’s dream or nightmare, depending on your point of view. It’s a measure of today’s society that his mom, Kristin, says the family, which also includes two daughters, is “old fashioned.”
Cam Wiehe stands with his grandfather Bob Wiehe behind him. (Photo provided)
Cam, whose name is short for Cameron, watches television sparingly, plays video games occasionally, fiddles with a cell phone once in a while. He’s too busy with baseball games, soccer practice, shooting baskets, and/or chasing pucks on the ice. He’s not just your ordinary kid struggling to learn these games, either. Cam was good enough in baseball this past summer to be selected as an all-star and play in an all-star game in his Hoffman Estates league.
“He got two great hits in the game, and he played several positions, which is the way they teach kids the game these days,” Kristin said.
When Cam steps onto a playing field (which is very, very often), he has an exceptionally big cheering section, thanks to Sun City. In addition to parents Mike and Kristin of Hoffman Estates, it includes grandparents Bob and Pat Wiehe (N.10) and great-grandparents Fritz and Tina Masur (N.1).
“Bob and Pat and Tina and I are at Cam’s games very often, and we really cut loose when he gets into the action,” said Fritz, a World War II Navy veteran.
The Sun Day wanted to know what family dynamics and choices led to Cam becoming such a multi-talented athlete before he was eight years old (he reaches that milestone on Oct. 9). It all started, Kristin said, shortly after she and Mike got married in 1999 and started to raise a family.
“We decided early on to limit the kids TV-watching time, get them outside, get them to meet new friends, and learn how to interact with not just Mike and me, but with other kids and families.”
As Kristin shared that, Cam was outside in the backyard, playing a game with several friends.
When Cam came along, Kristin said, he fit into the athletic culture very early.
“He’s always moving, always active, competitive – a typical boy,” she said. “He enjoys video games, and watches TV, but those aren’t the big things in his life. We want our kids to be kids. We want them to be involved with us and present in our lives. We kind of believe in back-to-basics. We expose them to phones and gadgets, but we teach them that there are other things that are more important.
“The way Cam is going now, he very well may play year-round sports in high school. We will welcome that. His grandparents are also a big influence on his sports activities. Fritz especially. He’s a hockey nut because he was raised in Canada. Cam plays hockey mostly because of Fritz’s encouragement.”
Actually, Cam already is virtually a year-round athlete. He plays soccer in the fall, basketball and hockey in the winter, and baseball in the spring and summer.
Kristin, like a growing number of moms nowadays, is hesitant about football for Cam.
“He has been begging me to try football, but so far we’ve said ‘no.’ I’ve read about the concussion and injury issues, and I’m not sure we want to let him get into that,” she said.
“We are all very enthused about sports, and his baseball success is due largely to the encouragement he gets from all of us,” Fritz said. “We lived in upstate New York when I retired, and I always thought going to Arizona was the way to retire. We went out there for a while, but we discovered it was too far away from our kids and grandkids. So we came to Sun City. And we’re glad we did.”
Cam has two sisters, Kristin said, and they, too, are active in things outside the household.
“The younger sister is active in gymnastics and dance, and the older one is very theatrical and likes musicals and acting,” she said. “But Cam is the sports kid, the only boy, and already he’s demonstrating that he is just a very good athlete.”
The conversation eventually got around to Cam’s favorite professional teams.
“Mike is from St. Louis, and he’s a big Cardinal baseball fan, and so is Cam. I’m from the south side of Chicago, so I’m partial to the White Sox. We all like the Bears and Blackhawks,” Kristin said. “This athletic stuff has started from scratch because neither Mike nor I were involved in athletics that much in our early lives. Mike played soccer in high school, and I was a swimmer for a couple of years.”
Mike today is a detective sergeant in the Elmhurst Police Force. When he’s home, he’s very often on a playing field watching or coaching Cam and his friends.
That’s the Masurs and Wiehes, sports nuts all, jointly nurturing children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren on a heavy diet of sports, with an occasional side dish of electronics.
