The Rebel Life

I have never drifted too far from the game of baseball that I love. In 2014 I coached my last high school game and retired. I continued to coach summer teams, American Legion and college teams (AAABA) at Delgado. I never intended to retire from coaching baseball, I just couldn't continue to coach at my high school.

Well fate has found me again and I am back at the prep level. Riverside Academy came calling and asked me to be a part of their baseball staff and have a larger role at school in the future. The 2020 Riverside Rebels were young and inexperienced;  they also lost 4 players to their rival school since last season. The expectations were not very high, but I like it that way.

The players were scared and also believed that they would struggle. They had a new head coach that they knew from football. Then I came along after meeting with the powers-that-be and joined this staff. I knew we could be successful if they took instruction. With only 4 upperclassmen (3 seniors and a junior) this was going to be difficult. Inexperience and immaturity won't help when trying to convince a team that they can compete.

The facility is nice, but the playing field was overgrown and funds needed to be secured before improvements could be made. This of course cost us some field time and we needed field instruction desperately. I had to call in a few favors to get a pitching coach. My summer staff was not easily available. My bench coach was working in California and his son, my pitching coach, is a college student. In spite of being in school, he carved out a few days a week to come throw bullpens. His father was not getting back until the season was started. The head coach hurt himself hitting early season fungos and needed surgery to repair the injury. To say we were a skeleton staff was an understatement.

But the season doesn't wait, so we started on the road. The beginning of our schedule was going to be difficult, the middle had plenty of games we could win, and the district was the final third. Through our first 6 games we were staying competitive. The keys to being successful in baseball are pitching and defense and both of those were lacking, despite a .500 record. We were getting it done with our hitting. But it all came crashing down in the next two games -- the hitting slowed and the opponents improved. The immaturity was beginning to show and our confidence evaporated. After a Tuesday loss in a close game to Hammond High, we went into a tough weekend tournament schedule. And  the season began to unravel.

We were scheduled to play East St John H.S. on Thursday March 12th. We had heard about a virus that was threatening our country, but didn't expect what was to come. Schools began to shut down. Events were canceled. The St. John Parish School Board was the first to cancel all extra curricular activities. ESJ had to cancel our game, Friday's opponent, Thibodaux High School, assured me they were playing on Friday. They were en route when they were called back by their principal. The season was in jeopardy and we knew it, but we didn't want it to end in a locker room. The season always ends on the field,  usually with the players in tears. We had one more chance to play before we had to take a break. We agreed to play a double header in Loranger, Louisiana. Right decision, wrong results. After a tough day at the yard, we were going into our forced break 3-7.

The Corona Virus is a way of life now, three weeks after that double header. We have not seen our players and getting back to playing is a dream for this year. My self-enforced retirement is over and my corona-virus retirement is in full force. I'm not trying to down play how serious this is. I have two of my players' fathers ill and worried about their lives. Families are being driven by this virus as parents have become teachers and teachers are trying to help out. The world has come to a stop and only God knows how and when it will end.

I just hope it ends soon, with everyone healthy!  It sure makes that 3-7 record look real small.