Randy Smith
I rarely ever write about individual games that I umpire during the spring. Today I decided to break that tradition and tell you about a wonderful story that is going on at Howard High School. Most of you already know that the Tigers constructed their own field during the off season; a field that is still a work in progress. I have called two games there, the first was about a month ago during the first week of the season and the second was yesterday evening. Progress on the field is slow. There are concrete slabs now where the dugouts will go, while a month ago it was simply dirt.
Players still sit in folding chairs in the dugout area, all the while forced to stay awake to avoid being hit by a foul ball; one that never seems to come.
The actual field is well cared for but it is still rough. Head Coach Jon Johnson and his staff do a super job of caring for the field with plenty of help from the Hustlin' Tigers themselves. One month into the season and the Tigers are still buying in to what Coach Johnson is selling. The results on the field are not good, especially if all you really care about are wins and losses, but Coach Johnson patiently sees a bigger picture for his team. " We're out here trying to change kids lives, each and every day." those words coming in the pre-game meeting at home plate.
If effort and determination are any indication of lives being changed, Coach Johnson is definitely doing the right thing. Howard lost to Grace Academy on Tuesday. The game got away from the Tigers quickly as most of them do, but if you watched the game in the third or fourth inning you saw the same effort that you saw in the first inning. Howard's catcher running and diving to catch pop fouls, pitchers listening to Coach Johnson encourage them to just to get the ball over the plate. " You see what happens when you throw strikes," he would say when the Tigers would get an out.
A catcher on the high school level considers it his job to protect the plate umpire. early in the game a ball that hit the dirt skipped off my shin guard. It didn't hurt at all, but the Howard catcher turned and told me, " My bad Blue. That won't happen again." and it didn't.
A Howard parent asked my partner and me as we were leaving the field what the final score was, and I responded, " a whole lot..... to not many." I still have no idea what the score was and don't really care. As I rested my tired aching bones at home a few hours later, I thought about what I had just witnessed, and it warmed my heart greatly. You see, Howard will keep showing up for their games and they will continue to play as hard as they can for their coach. There is no, "Quit" in these Hustlin' Tigers. Coach Johnson will readily tell you that his players are playing hard for themselves, but the love and respect they have for their coach is more than evident. The wins are coming, just not right now. Jon Johnson has built a program from below the "scratch" level and the progress of his team is very much like the progress of the Howard field; slow, painful at times, yet a few positive results becoming visible with each passing week.
Did I mention that all the work done on that field was done by the players and a few school boosters? Did I also mention that all the money being spent on Howard baseball was donated by the community? All of this is part of a master plan to "change lives" and allow these kids an opportunity to succeed in life that wasn't there a year ago. Thanks Coach Johnson for showing us all what can be done with love, and a whole lot of effort.
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Randy Smith has been covering sports on radio, television and print for the past 45 years. After leaving WRCB-TV in 2009, he has written two books, and has continued to free-lance as a play-by-play announcer. His career has included a 17-year stretch as host of the Kickoff Call In Show on the University of Tennessee’s prestigious Vol Network. He has been a member of the Vol Network staff for 30 years. He has done play-by-play on ESPN, ESPN II, CSS, and Fox SportSouth, totaling more than 500 games, and served as a well-known sports anchor on Chattanooga television for more than a quarter-century. In 2003, he became the first television broadcaster to be inducted into the Greater Chattanooga Area Sports Hall of Fame. Randy and his wife Shelia reside in Hixson. They have two married children, Christi and Chris Perry; Davey and Alison Smith. They have five grandchildren, Coleman, Boone, Mattingly, DellaMae, and CoraLee.
He can be reached at rsmithsports@epbfi.com