When I pulled up to my house on Tuesday, my wife noticed that we had a package sticking out of our mailbox. After the normal celebratory dance (we love packages), my wife opened it up to find quite the surprise. Inside the mystery package was a 2001 University Athletic Association conference champion t-shirt with the names of each Brandeis women's fencer from the team along the front. Additionally, there was a note from head coach Bill Shipman, apologizing for the seven-year delay but hoping he wasn't too late on making good on the promise to get his fencers shirts for their conference title.

The look on my wife's face is difficult to explain. She fenced for two years at Brandeis before deciding to devote all of her time to the student events department, which turned out to be a pretty smart career move. She truly enjoyed her time with the program, but admittedly, lost some contact with her former teammates and coach after leaving the team.

She was a good fencer and was an integral part of the team that won that 2001 championship, and to receive recognition for her contributions, along with her teammates, meant more to her than Coach Shipman may ever realize. Her face shined brighter than the tree in Rockerfeller Center. That evening, she wore the t-shirt to the gym.

I think it's important to dwell on the gesture made by Coach Shipman. Here's a coach who is so invested in his program, and in his current and former student-athletes, that the fact that he hadn't properly marked a conference championship seven years later truly irked him. The fencers had likely long forgotten the t-shirt, but he never did. And he made each of them smile with a package in the mailbox. Truly special.

While we were at the gym, and my wife was running proudly in her 2001 champion t-shirt, I couldn't help thinking about the importance of the relationship between players and coaches, and what that means for both parties. In this case, it meant something for Coach Shipman to make good on a promise to girls he had recruited, coached, gotten to know and led to a conference title. For my wife, it was important to be included and to be remembered for her role as a freshman on that special team.

It was a feel-good package and I hope Coach Shipman knows he got a huge smile in Indiana.