Scholar-athlete: The Champions | Vanderbilt Information

Video by Zack Eagles

Within the magical run to a nationwide championship, Vanderbilt baseball coach Tim Corbin mentioned he was typically requested when he first realized the 2019 version of the Vandy Boys could possibly be one thing particular.

His reply reveals all it’s worthwhile to find out about this system he has constructed over 17 years in Nashville. It had nothing to do together with his pitchers’ fastballs and changeups, nothing to do with the launch angles and exit velocities of his hitters.

When he realized this workforce could possibly be one thing particular, Corbin mentioned, he was nowhere close to Hawkins Subject. He was in Boston, celebrating Christmas together with his household, when he acquired a report on his workforce’s tutorial progress within the fall semester. Throughout the board, the grades have been glorious; 16 gamers had earned grade-point averages above 3.0. No disaster, no drama. He considered how that maturity and consistency had been there all fall, a set of supremely gifted however unselfish younger males from 19 states “modeling the behaviors you’ll need represented in your individual household” on and off the sector.

He celebrated Christmas figuring out this workforce had an opportunity to do nice issues.

After which they went out and did it. Actually, it’s laborious to think about how a workforce might accomplish extra. They received the SEC common season and event championships. They received NCAA Regional and Tremendous Regional tournaments at Hawkins Subject. They received the Faculty World Sequence in Omaha.

They usually did it in dominating vogue, setting an SEC file with 59 wins and setting program information in house runs, RBIs and strikeouts. Corbin was named SEC and Nationwide Coach of the 12 months. Proper fielder JJ Bleday was named SEC Participant of the 12 months after main the nation with 27 house runs, whereas Austin Martin (third base), Philip Clarke (catcher) and Tyler Brown (pitcher) have been named first-team All-SEC. Kumar Rocker threw a no-hitter within the Tremendous Regional towards Duke and was named nationwide Freshman of the 12 months by Baseball America. 13 Commodores have been chosen within the Main League Baseball draft, tying an SEC file, and when Bleday was taken with the fourth general decide by the Miami Marlins, he grew to become the ninth Vanderbilt participant to be drafted within the prime 10 within the Corbin period. 13 gamers earned tutorial All-SEC recognition.

In so many respects, it was the stuff of desires.

However for Corbin and the seven seniors on this workforce, it started with a nightmare.

It was June 2, 2016, a day earlier than Vanderbilt was set to host NCAA regional competitors at Hawkins Subject. Freshman pitcher Donny Everett, a flame-throwing pitcher from Clarksville, Tennessee, went fishing with a number of teammates to loosen up and recharge for the post-season. As Commodore followers know too effectively, Everett by no means returned from that outing, drowning in Lake Normandy. Enjoying with heavy hearts, the Commodores have been rapidly eradicated from that event. Everett’s quantity 41 was painted on the Hawkins Subject turf, and over the subsequent three seasons, his reminiscence by no means left the hearts of his teammates. When the workforce accepted its Faculty World Sequence championship trophy and posed for celebratory images on the sector at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, they made certain Everett’s mother and father, Teddy and Susan, have been proper in the midst of all of it. They have been simply as a lot part of the workforce, senior shortstop Ethan Paul mentioned afterward, as any of the gamers.

“These seven seniors had the hardest time of their lives in 2016 dropping a teammate,” Corbin mentioned. “After which (three) years later to return again to high school to complete their levels and be leaders of a program and go from devastation to celebration, I give them tons of credit score. You don’t at all times get what you need in life, and to look at this example come full-circle for them is especially gratifying.”

The senior management of this Commodore workforce was uncommon, in any case. In baseball, gamers are draft-eligible after their junior seasons (and even after their sophomore seasons if they’re 21 years previous). Elite applications akin to Vanderbilt, stocked with skilled prospects, rarely have any substantial group of seniors remaining. Sticking round to win a title of their classmate’s reminiscence was one motivating issue. However Paul mentioned there was much more to it than that, a testomony to the tight-knit tradition Corbin has constructed.

“Our primary cause to return again to high school wasn’t to have this outlandish season or something like that,” he mentioned. “I feel that all of us wished to simply be part of one thing particular. It’s nice to win a nationwide championship, it’s nice to do all these issues, however this system means a lot extra to us than simply profitable. There’s such a bond with one another and we do all this stuff off the sector and we have fun one another so effectively. I’m glad that we have been in a position to have this second, and it’s going to be a reminiscence without end, however simply having the ability to share this workforce and this expertise with these guys, we’re associates for all times.”

At a celebration for the workforce after it returned from Omaha, Corbin advised a crowd of Commodore followers that this yr’s workforce is linked to every one which has come earlier than it, separate chapters in the identical e book, every workforce constructing upon the subsequent, each participant as soon as and without end a Vandy Boy like all the remaining.

Philip Clarke, a sophomore catcher from Franklin, Tennessee, mentioned he and his teammates have a deep appreciation for what makes being part of that custom so particular.

“The scholar-athlete expertise at Vanderbilt is exclusive,” he mentioned. “The town of Nashville is second to none. The Vanderbilt diploma can also be second to none. You’re competing in the very best convention within the nation. Being on the prime of these totem poles will not be one thing lots of people can do.”

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