Remembering Longtime DHS Athletics Trainer Larry 'Ease' Piper

Published: 2005-04-24
By: Ron Henton II

You ever met a person whose personality was positively infectious?

Someone who just made you feel better about yourself no matter what kind of day, week, month or year you were having?

This was a person who would go out of his way to help you in any way possible, even if it was at the cost of himself.

As a freshman at Danville High School in 1996, there was someone I met there with that kind of personality.

This person was Larry Piper, better known throughout the city of Danville as ‘Ease’ for his laid-back attitude.

He passed away Monday while in Casa Grande, Ariz., from complications with cancer at the age of 63. But not before he positively affected the lives of everyone he met.

“Ease never really said anything to me that was especially profound, to be honest,” longtime friend Doug Barnette said. “But, for some reason, after I talked to him everything with me just started to feel better.

“I mean if I came in talking to him and I wasn’t in a really good mood, after I talked to him I just felt a lot better.”

Ease was the athletics trainer and equipment manager at Danville for more than 30 years when he retired in May 2000, and while playing basketball for the Vikings from 1996-2000, I was blessed with many opportunities to talk with such a kind, gentle man.

If you’ve ever met Ease you know that he is a big man, which at first, can be intimidating.

His size made him a perfect candidate to monitor the cafeteria at DHS, but Ease always used words of kindness and not physical intimidation to settle quarrels between students.

And there was no limit to his kindness. Wherever he could help out, he would.

It was something about him that stood out to students and staff at Danville alike former Vikings basketball coach Gene Gourley said.

“Ease was part of a core group of guys that were very important to the school’s success over the years,” he said. “By title, he was an athletics trainer and equipment manager, but he was a lot more than that to the coaches, kids and the community.

“Ease never gave up on any kid, he could always find something good in everyone.”

There are plenty of occasions of Ease taping players’ ankles with the same gentleness a mother might use with her newborn child.

In addition to his prowess at handling tape and students, Ease also had years of wisdom that he imparted on each of the players that passed through his tenure at Danville.

One of the more memorable bits of information came while some of the basketball team and myself rode with Ease in a van to Pontiac for the annual holiday tournament.

He told us about seeing Gourley mad only one time in their years of working together, and that his ears turned bright red because he was so angry.

Sure enough, in our first game of the tournament against Chicago Simeon, Ease got to see those ears a second time.

After playing like puppies with our tails between our legs in the first half, Gourley let us have it at halftime with ears as red as a stop sign.

Needless to say, we picked up our intensity and played Simeon almost even in the second half.

But the way Ease touched my life was nothing compared to the many other lives he touched throughout his life.

Barnette said Ease has been his friend for most of his life.

“I was very close with Ease and we have been friends for a very long time,” Barnette said. “He has seen me in like every stage of my life. From when I was a freshman in high school to where I am now, Ease has been with me.

“He shared in every success and failure I’ve had.”

Barnette, who is the CEO for Player Management International, Inc., said Ease even has won over the hearts of many of the NASCAR drivers he deals with on regular basis.

One of those drivers being 2004 Daytona Busch Series winner Mike Wallace.

“Mike doesn’t really talk to many people,” Barnette said. “But he talked with Ease for about an hour and half at a Dairy Queen, even when we had someplace to go.”

“We are extremely saddened by Ease’s passing this week,” Wallace said in a press release from PMI. “I met him last year, here in Phoenix when Doug (Barnette) and I were driving back from an autograph signing in Tucson, Ariz.

“We met at Dairy Queen and had some ice cream and talked over an hour. He was very proud of his hometown and I feel like I have ties there by having known him for these last six months.”

“When I told Mike about Ease’s passing, he was just blown away,” Barnette said. “And in racing we deal with death all of the time because it could happen at any time.”

Barnette said it was also shock when Wallace decided to put a special decal made for Ease on his race car and helmet during Saturday’s Nextel Cup Subway Fresh 500.

The decal also went on driver Ryan Hemphill’s Busch Series car as well.

“I mean people pay millions of dollars to put a decal like that on a car,” Barnette said. “Mike just took and put on and we didn’t even ask him to do that.

“I can’t explain to you how big that is.”

“We are proud to honor him with a special decal this week,” said team owner Fred Biagi in the PMI press release. “I had the pleasure of meeting Ease last November and I could tell right away that he was a great guy.”

And that’s the thing most people will remember about Ease, he was just a great guy.

And in a world like this, great people will always be missed.

“Words can never express how much I miss him, he was a lifelong friend,” Barnette said. “This has been a really tough week, and it’s going to get tougher when I get back to Danville from the weekend’s race, and not be able to go golfing on Monday with Ease.”

Visitation for Ease will be from 2-6 p.m. today at Sunset Funeral Home.

His funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Monday at First Assembly of God Church.

Ron Henton II is a sportswriter for the Commercial-News and a 2000 graduate of Danville High School. He can be reached at rhenton@dancomnews.com or by phone at 477-5210.