Senior Moms

While graduation on Wednesday was moving for me and senior night ceremonies were very emotional (we do it up big here!), the toughest was our last home game. To see my son and his buddies play for the last time on that field was heart wrenching. The friendships, lessons, and experiences he had on that field were life-changing. All of the senior parents kept taking pictures that night after the game, the senior dad that does announcing and music stayed in the booth playing music. None of us wanted to leave. It was a tough one!

My son was a Sr.'03. Before the start of the last home game , the coach gave each Sr. a ball. They were told to write a message to their parents on the ball. Each boy persented the ball to his parents on the field right before the start of the game. My son , a man a few words and even fewer emotions, almost ran out of room to write all he wanted to. That ball is one of my most prized possessions. On that ball he was able to say all the things he has a hard time saying out loud.

A letter to the editor. This just about says it all!!!

The Georgetown High School Season came to an abrupt end on Monday night at Mike Johnson Park when the Bulldogs were eliminated from the playoff hunt by the visiting Bluffton Bobcats in a game they didn’t expect to lose.

The Dawgs had easily beaten Bluffton a few nights earlier but on this night the tide turned and just like that, the season was over.

There’s no way to explain the emptiness of a playoff elimination game loss, except for—well, maybe next year.

But for the five seniors on this team with so much promise, it’s on to college and then adulthood.

The five seniors—Samuel Alston, Jacob Curry, Jeff Johnson, Daniel Langston and Reid McElveen- the “fab five” as they were called, first met on the T- ball fields at East Bay Park and continued their game end remarkable friendship all the way through high school. They have grown into the type of young men every parent can be proud of.

These boys were always good baseball players. They weren’t great but they were good. They made the all-star team every year in Little League and usually won several games before going down. But what separated them from the rest was not how good they were but their true love for the game.

It was never more obvious as it was on Monday night when that old stadium started to empty its seats. What started with a few hugs and handshakes between friends erupted into something more emotional. Players and coaches often speak of an emotional win. Well, this was an emotional loss and farewell all rolled into one.

When these five seniors finally left the dugout, what I witnessed next I will see for the rest of my life: These five you men and their parents embracing and openly sobbing in the cold night air, only wishing it would never end.

As for high school baseball, it was over that night. But, as friends it was only the beginning.

I want to thank every baseball coach, teacher, parent, youth pastor, etc., that helped mold these players into the fine young men they are today. I wish I could name every single one of you but there are too many names for this space.

As for me, I’m just honored to call one of them my son.

Jeff Johnson Sr.