I knew I was in the right place the moment I signed the guest register. I was handed a card in the shape of a large baseball ticket.

“ADMIT ONE: To a Celebration of Life for Will Dicus,” the ticket said.

Nice touch.

As it should have been, baseball was a central theme to the Celebration of Life ceremony held for Dicus, who died June 1 of Ewing’s sarcoma. The lower section of the Boone United Methodist Church was packed with friends and family members, leaving room for people in the Upper Box, as the church’s balcony was called.

I actually felt right at home in the upper deck. Most press boxes are positioned just below stadium upper decks, so it only seemed right that I sat up there.

The ceremony had a little bit of everything. His teammates, dressed in their Watauga jerseys, sat in the alter section of the church with their coach, Pete Hardee, who told about a time he went out to talk to Dicus after the pitcher had gone about four innings on the mound during a game last summer.

Dicus, who had been cleated in the head earlier in the game, was starting to get a little tired and Hardee was considering pulling him. Dicus, however, had other ideas.

“I went out there and he said ‘Coach you’re not taking me out of this game. Say what you want to say and let me get back to work,’” Hardee remembered, which drew laughter from the crowd.

There was plenty of laughter mixed with some tears during the event. Teammate Kyle Miller performed a song he had written just days before, playing both an electric piano and guitar during his performance.

Ben Roberts also played a song on piano, both he and Miller wearing their blue Watauga jerseys.

My favorite part of the ceremony was the tape that Watauga’s videographer and booster club president Dan Shelton and his wife Lisa put together. It made me cringe, it made me laugh, and it made me wonder how anybody could raise a teenager in America.

“Hello, I’m Will Dicus, and this is ‘Jackass,’” Dicus said at the start. He was immediately hit by a blunt object, as it often happens on the ridiculously goofy show he and Chris Shelton and Cal Hardee were spoofing.

The video went from goofball stunts the three did inside, to Dicus, Hardee and Shelton skateboarding down a snowy hill, falling on their backsides to the roar of laughter of the crowd. Other stunts done by Jon Sharpe, Trey Lowder and Will Greer got the same reaction.

Dang, that looked like fun.

Even the dopey little dance done by Chris Simmons (dressed as Batman), Dicus (Spiderman) and Shelton (Superman) looked fun.

It took me back to snowy days in Boulder, Colo. We did something even stupider than they did. We’d grab on to the back of car bumpers and slide on the snow that was on the road before the plows got to them.

We called it “skeetching.” It’s a wonder none of us got killed, though a few of us lost some gloves along the way.

How parents put up with teenagers I’ll never know.

And kids, don’t try anything remotely that stupid thing this winter. We were lucky not to get run over by a bus or something.

Anyway, we prayed with the Rev. Darrell Roberts, who officiated, or should I say, umpired the event. We wanted to hug Shelton when he paid tribute to his best friend and we wanted to hug Dicus’s cousin, Jessica Simms, who was also very close to Dicus.

When it was over, we knew that we lost a very special individual, but one whose life was defintely worth celebrating.