Columbia Academy’s baseball team hosted its First Pitch Steak Dinner Dec. 6 in the school’s Fine Arts Building, and there were several things that stood out.
The event was intended to introduce the public to new head baseball coach Eric Johnson and the 2019 Cougars, along with hearing from Auburn head coach Butch Thompson, but it was a well-known CA star that stole the show.
Players were tasked with roaming from table to table, delivering food and refreshments, before being able to sit down and enjoy their own meals. It was a nice touch for the event that allowed visitors to interact with the prep players. But what junior Southern Miss commit Slade Wilks did was a sight to witness.
After every person in attendance had been served, the players returned to their seats to pray and eat. But absent from the table was CA’s biggest star. Despite all of his teammates taking their places and digging in, Wilks alone continued to navigate between tables and offer sweet tea and water refills, along with oblige to salad dressing requests.
This isn’t to say his teammates did anything wrong. All of them were courteous, helpful and genuine. But to see the best player continue to go above and beyond unprompted like that was special. A lot of teenagers who have accomplished what he has — leading his team to a state title as a freshman, breaking the school’s career home run record as a sophomore and dominating the summer circuit against the top high school players the South has to offer — would become a little big-headed and arrogant.
It would have been so easy for Wilks to do less than his teammates during an event like that, and nobody would have raised an eyebrow. For him to remain as grounded, respectful and sincere as he is can only be applauded. Columbia Academy not only has a star on its hands that everyone in Marion County should see play at least once in person, the private school has an even better human being and role model for the youth in the area to look up to.
Thompson’s speech was also one that I’m glad I was able to witness. He went beyond talking about just baseball and coaching, and instead he filled his speech with several worthwhile nuggets on leading a successful life. He talked about needing to have a love for the game and work ethic. That players need to be fully invested and not count the minutes until practice is over, but instead they need to be entirely focused on the task at hand to get better. But it was his story about his dad that stood out.
He joked that his dad called him 0-for, referring to going hitless in a game. His dad would take him to Dairy Cream, a small-town spinoff of the famous fast-food restaurant, whenever he had a good game. But he would also take him on those days Thompson went hitless and taunt him with the ice cream he wasn’t going to get. Thompson described an encounter he had with his dad on that very subject.
“I went to see him in the nursing home before I took the job at Auburn,” he said. “He told me you go take care of that wife and your girls. I have three girls — strike one, strike two and strike three is what I call them. He told me you take that family, go and don’t worry about me. We had our moment as I walked to the door, and he said ‘Hey!’ I turned around and said ‘Yes, sir.’ He said he was sorry, and I asked him what he was sorry for. He said ‘I’m sorry for Dairy Cream.’ I told him that I wouldn’t change a thing, but he said ‘I would, and I love you. Come hell or high water if they ship you out in three years because I know how tough your job is, do this. Go love every one of those boys with every bit of your heart. That’s what has been put on mine to tell you. I did it wrong.’”
He said that he has lived by that ever since, and he loves all of his players and everybody involved with the program at Auburn. Love, he said, is the guiding principle to a successful life.
Colby Thompson, Drew Havard, Patrick Gill, Ras Pace and Wilks were also announced as captains of the Cougars, which was voted on by the players, by Johnson during the event.
Pictured Above: Columbia Academy first-year head coach Eric Johnson introduces the 2019 Cougars baseball team during CA’s First Pitch Dinner Dec. 6 in the school’s Fine Arts Building. Shown behind him are, from left, Jordyn Mahaffey, Trevor Courtney and Colby Thompson. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
