BLOOMFIELD TWP, Mich. (WXYZ) — Hugs, big smiles and fist bumps. Coach Eddie Young Jr. knows how to relate the kids.
The assistant football coach and enrollment specialist at Brother Rice High School is technically a kid himself when you count how many leap day birthday’s he’s actually had.
“When it comes, oh, it's like Christmas, all year. So, I’m excited. I'll be 13,” Young said. “You know, I'm too big for my age.”
This is the second leap day birthday he’ll celebrate at Brother Rice. The first was in the late 80s when he was a sophomore at the school.
“No special plans yet, but I do plan to go out to eat with my leap year sister,” he said.
You heard him right. His ‘leap year sister’ is Tara Shadd-Williams who stopped by the school with her husband to help mark their shared birthday of February 29, 1972. She and Eddie met back in the 90s.
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“I was bartending. I was making the drinks,” Shadd-Williams said. “We were just talking, and he was like, no way. Show me your ID's. We showed each others ID and just couldn't believe it, that, you know, because you don't meet too many people that have the same birthday.”
And get this, Tara ended up introducing Eddie to his future bride!
“He married my really good friend, childhood friend. So, I just can't get rid of him. He's here to stay,” Shadd-Williams said.
They’ve celebrated their shared birthday for years now.
“So, yeah, we are more than friends. We are family,” Young said.
Shadd-Williams agreed saying ”Leap bro. He's my leap bro.”
And while we were reminiscing, another leap year baby walked up – Brother Rice sophomore Emilio Jarbou.
“My leap year brother. I’m 13 and you’re turning 4. Good stuff, man. Enjoy it,” Young said to Jarbou.
So here they are, three peas in a pod or 3 leap frogs in a pond. You do the math.
Or I’ll do it for you. Their special birthday is needed because the solar year – one trip around the sun - is not exactly 365 days. It’s actually 365.24219 days. Without February 29 every four years, the calendar would be off by almost a full day. After 120 years it would be off by a month!
Maybe it’s fitting then that we ended our meeting in a math class, Mr. Galli’s Algebra 2 class, and they helped us celebrate.
Happy birthday dear leap year babies! Happy birthday to you!
