'See you next year:' Highlands couple has unlikely tradition with Wisconsin archery team

Like many Kentuckians, Charlie and Wendy Sommer have a deep tradition tied to a sporting event on a Saturday in early May.

Unlike their friends and neighbors, this ritual has nothing to do with horses and Churchill Downs. Instead, it has everything to do with a high school archery team from a tiny village in Wisconsin.

For the past 15 years on the Saturday after the Kentucky Derby, the Sommers have renewed an unlikely friendship with Cadott High School archery coach Scott Christenson and his team.

Each year a tour bus full of teenagers pulls up in front of their home in the Highlands, blaring its horn as if to say "we're back." The Louisville couple waits for them, dressed in Cadott Hornets gear. The Sommers look forward to sharing this moment every year.

The coach and the 50 or so students on the team do, too.

Charlie and Wendy have never been to the Wisconsin village of about 1,200 people, but thanks to a chance meeting several years ago, they've become some of the high school's biggest fans, and the tree in their front yard has become an icon for each graduating class.

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How an offhand comment turns into a promise

Like so many traditions, the finer details of exactly how this friendship started have blurred a bit in the telling and retelling. I first heard the story from Charlie and Wendy when I happened to sit next to them at the Comeback Inn in Germantown. We were two days from Easter, four weeks from the Kentucky Derby, and five weeks away from the National Archery in the Schools Program Eastern Nationals at the Kentucky Exposition Center.

(Don’t worry readers, I’d never heard of this competition, either.)

For the Sommers, however, that tournament is as engrained on their calendar as the other two occasions.

The way the story goes, 15 years ago, Charlie and Wendy were sitting on their front porch on the second Saturday in May, enjoying a beverage when a large tour bus pulled up in front of their home. The team was on its way to Mark’s Feed Store, which has a reputation for handling large groups, but parking along Bardstown Road was tough so the bus pulled onto a nearby residential street.

As a few dozen students stepped out to the sidewalk, essentially taking over Sommers' front yard, they couldn't help but marvel at an unusually large sycamore tree in front of the Sommers' home.

Anyone else might have been annoyed that a giant bus had blocked all the parking in front of their home, but Charlie and Wendy, instead, introduced themselves. The Sommers are an extremely warm and welcoming couple, and having sat next to them for nearly two hours at Comeback Inn, I can certainly see how the whole scene played out.

That first year, they greeted the team and shared some of the tree's history with them. Their home dates back to 1915, and the sycamore has ties to the Olmsted Park System. The tree survived a devastating tornado in the 1970s, and if you look up, you can see where it's bent a bit from that storm.

Then seniors on the team posed in front of the tree and took a photo, and someone shouted “See you next year” before they left.

Charlie and Wendy didn't think anything of that offhand comment at the time. Over the years, though, it has evolved into a really beautiful promise.

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Sure enough, the following year on the Saturday after Derby, Wendy and Charlie were at home when that big bus rolled up again, this time, honking its horn and announcing its return.

Stunned, but delighted, Sommers came down from their porch to meet them. The kids funneled out of the bus, and a new group of seniors posed in front of the tree.

More than just a stack of photos

As the years rolled by, the surprise of the tour bus evolved into joyful anticipation.

At some point, the team brought Wendy and Charlie all that Cadott Hornets gear. One year, Charlie and Wendy went to Churchill Downs and got horseshoes for every member of the Cadott archery team, and another year, coach Christenson’s wife made a quilt with a tree pattern that is still draped over a chair in the couple's living room.

The Sommers also had a Louisville Stoneware platter made for the team, which sits in the Cadott High School trophy case alongside a proclamation from former Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer honoring the friendship.

In recent years, they’ve put a halt to the gifts. Both the coach and the couple told me this isn’t about things. It’s about friendship.

And I saw that so clearly the day that I just happened to sit next to the Sommers at Comeback Inn.

The word Charlie kept coming back to was “humbled” as he scrolled through his phone and showed me the pictures of the whole team posing on his front porch.

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The team could go anywhere for dinner on the second Saturday in May, but each year, minus a two-year gap because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they choose to come back to the tree and go to Mark’s Feed Store. Now, most years, they even invite the Sommers to join them for the meal.

This ritual, though, is about more than a stack of pictures. For Christenson, it has turned into an outstanding lesson for his students about the importance of building and maintaining friendships. Fifteen years in, neither Sommers nor the team sees any reason that should end anytime soon.

This past weekend, the bus pulled up as it always does. Sommers joined the team for dinner, and the seniors posed for pictures in front of the tree.

Then after a couple of hours catching up, the Sommers were left with a few new photos to add to their collection, some bright memories, and the same simple promise they’ve come to cherish.

"See you next year."

Features columnist Maggie Menderski writes about what makes Louisville, Southern Indiana and Kentucky unique, wonderful, and occasionally, a little weird. If you've got something in your family, your town or even your closet that fits that description — she wants to hear from you. Say hello at mmenderski@courier-journal.com or 502-582-4053. Follow along on Instagram and Twitter @MaggieMenderski. 

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville couple has unlikely friendship with Wisconsin archery team