On being ‘Fearless’
Rob Stacy says athletes are bringing leadership during pandemic
Even as schools have shut down for the month across Anderson County, ending both basketball and wrestling until at least the start of the year, coaches of spring sports are watching closely to see if they will have a season this year after sacrificing their last one.
Rob Stacy, coach for the Clinton Dragons baseball team, said he thinks the school has done a phenomenal job so far.
“I have buddies back up in Johnson City that have been hit way harder, and as far as the school goes, I think we’ve done a phenomenal job,” he said. “I’m just glad we got to have the school semester in. With us getting out now, I’m looking at it like this: We’re doing this now so we can come back in a couple weeks and not have to shut down again.
“You know, for us, the big thing is making sure we’re doing our job, and for seven months now, we’ve done our jobs with checking temperatures, wearing masks, breaking up into groups, etc. I think we’ve had a couple contact traces, but the best thing we’ve done is make sure those kids weren’t losing out on school work. Chris [Lockard] has done a great job making sure his kids always have their masks on, are washing their hands, eating lunch away from everyone.”
Stacy said he felt especially bad for the basketball team.
“I feel so much for [Chris] because he’s done such a good job,” Stacy said. “He’s had zero cases this entire time, and that’s why I feel for him on this, because they did what they’re supposed to. The guys have a good role model in Lockard. He really follows the rules and he does it without anyone telling him he has to.
“Alicia Phillips has done a great job, too. The cases she’s had weren’t drastic. I feel bad for Alicia because the games the girls played haven’t been a true reflection of how talented they are. because she’s not gotten to practice with her entire team basically at all.”
Stacey said as bad as he feels for the basketball programs, he’s optimistic about baseball season, though, and how his team has responded to the hardship.
“I’m a little upset, because we were in the middle of a lifting and throwing program, but what makes me excited is how they took over the reins and created accountability groups of five or six. Some got memberships at gyms, some at hitting facilities, and they took that on themselves. I told them: ‘You can only control what you can control,’ and our leaders on the team really stepped up.
“They’ve taken it on themselves to plan all this stuff. I think they saw what happened last time with things getting shut down, and we didn’t know how long the shutdown was going to last so there was no way to motivate them last time. This time, though, they’re being positive.”
When asked whether he thinks that motivation is warranted, given the uncertainty, he said he believes it is.
“Looking into the future here, I really think the season will happen, mainly because I coached the entire summer,” he said. “The biggest thing is, with baseball, you’re already social distancing, and the amount of stuff that happens in baseball that breaks protocols is pretty low. In basketball, you’re sweating, you’re close to each other and breathing hard; in football, you’re tackling someone.
“With baseball, the only time you’ll be near people is when you’re at first base. When you average a catcher and a hitter’s contact time, it’s a minute or less. Everything I’ve read lately says you don’t want to be around someone for 15 minutes. The umpires did a really good job masking up and testing themselves regularly. Honestly, I feel like baseball of all of the sports has had the longest time to come up with a plan because we were the first to get hit with it.
“As far as the game-playing goes, it’s going to be the same thing. Mask up, wash your hands, try to limit who you hang out with. Are they taking care of themselves the way you’re taking care of you? I’m optimistic about it, but at this point I have to be optimistic.”
Still, even with optimism, Stacy admitted that it’s been hard on his players, and he can see that.
“Right now they’re seeing schools 10 or 15 minutes away still getting to play, and it’s upsetting, and I have to tell them that we’re doing things correctly and doing things we need to do,” he said. “They have a good concept of that. Hard times make hard people.
“Still, it’s really hard to bond as a team when you’re in groups of five every day. When you’re together as a team, the kids help really pull each other along.
“I told them the other day whether they realize it or not, they’re fearless. I don’t know how many coaches are telling them this, but they are fearless. They come out here every day to practice not knowing what’s going to happen and not knowing whether they’ll even get to play. They have no idea whether they’ll be able to go to school or what today or tomorrow holds, so that makes them truly fearless in my book. Really, I think that’s something they need to hear.”
I think it’s something they need to keep hearing.”