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Dedication of a true sports fan

By BOB PUTNAM
Published February 17, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Ted McLaren] Jackie Eschen, 68, right, has been a presence at Clearwater High sports events for 27 years. She and her daughter, Karen, are the teams' No. 1 fans.

CLEARWATER - It was a few minutes before tipoff at Jack Wilson Memorial Gymnasium, and Jackie Eschen was courtside, wearing her Clearwater High Tornadoes girls basketball T-shirt along with her most solemn game face.

As the crowd filed in, Eschen, 68, coolly acknowledged those around her. She turned to the row above her to give a warm greeting to the mother of one girl on the team.

Then, after swaggering onto the court, several players made their way over to embrace Eschen or to shake her hand. Most inquired about Eschen's daughter, Karen, or her dog Tornado.

Attention just seems to come to Eschen, who sits in the fourth row, just above the Clearwater bench. That's where she can be found at most of the Tornadoes' regular season home games and at however many more they play in the postseason.

She'll be there at 7 tonight, when Clearwater hosts Lakewood in the Class 5A regional finals.

Eschen's loyalty has stayed true no matter how the team plays, through her husband's declining health and death, and through her own battle with breast cancer. Even on days when she gets chemotherapy, she goes to night games.

"There is no doubt (Eschen) and her daughter are our No. 1 fans," coach Tom Shaneyfelt said.

For 27 years, the Eschens have had a presence on the Clearwater High sports scene, attending virtually every football game and boys and girls basketball home games.

Lately, the focus has been on girls basketball, the sport in which daughter Karen Eschen, 41, has served as team manager the past five seasons.

"We just love it," Jackie Eschen said.

She was swept into a lifelong passion for sports as a youngster in New York.

"My family loved watching sports," she said. "We were glued to the television on weekends. And on New Year's Day, you had to fend for yourself because the bowl games were on."

That same devotion continued with her husband, Ed, and their daughter. They went to Mets and Giants games.

When the family moved from New York to Clearwater in 1973, they became avid followers of the local sports scene. Their attention turned to high school sports when Karen attended Countryside in 1980, then Clearwater from 1981 to 1984.

"We just liked all the coaches at Clearwater," Jackie said. "It felt like a big family."

Karen never played sports at Clearwater, but she loved watching them. She has been a fixture there for so long that the school honored her with a plaque and inducted her in its sports hall of fame.

Jackie has been just as devoted. When her husband started feeling weak a few years ago, she pushed him in a wheelchair to watch the games. Ed died in 2004 from pneumonia.

Jackie is battling breast cancer. She was diagnosed in June.

The chemotherapy has drained her energy and taken her white hair. But she refuses to miss any games.

"I'm like the Energizer Bunny," Jackie said. "I just keep going and going."

The Eschens are in full throat during games. Most of their shouting, however, is encouragement to the Tornadoes.

"We always want them to win," Karen said. "We take it just as hard as the girls when they lose."

On this night, they win. Hearing the buzzer, the Clearwater players gather near the bench, issuing hugs and high fives.

And the Eschens are right there with them.

Fast Facts:

If you go

What: Girls basketball, Clearwater vs. Lakewood, Class 5A regional finals.

Where: Jack Wilson Memorial Gymnasium, Clearwater High School, at Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard and Hercules Avenue.

When: 7 p.m. today.

Cost: $6.

[Last modified February 17, 2007, 00:00:56]