I first met Jason Taylor at the beginning of this baseball season, and I was immediately impressed. It was clear Coach Taylor, the new coach of the St. Joseph Catholic School baseball team, was a man with a deep love of baseball, and a deep love of teaching the sport to young people.
While I was impressed, I was also a little skeptical about how well Taylor’s Irish would do this season. First impressions are one thing. Let’s see it on the field.
Besides, playing baseball the right way takes time, and building a winner at the high school level takes patience. It definitely takes more than one season.
Boy was I wrong.
Taylor and his Irish began the season by winning and kept on winning until the end. St. Joseph, in fact, made it all the way to the MAIS Class 2A South State Championship before finally bowing out to Glenbrook last week.
The success of the Irish this season was a testament to the hard work put in by both Coach Taylor and Assistant Coach James Hunter. But it was also a reflection of the young men who suited up and played for the Irish this season.
While Coach Taylor was the captain of the Irish, the heart and soul of the team was senior Simar Thomas. Like Coach Taylor, I met Simar at the beginning of the season and was totally impressed by his demeanor. Here’s a kid, I thought, who has the disposition not just to be a great pitcher but also to be a great man for the rest of his life.
Simar was one part of a two-man pitching tandem with sophomore Carson Graham. Carson, a sophomore and a linebacker on the football team, was a bulldog all season for the Irish. It’s scary to think how good Carson can be if he keeps working hard.
Along with Simar and Carson, there were many other St. Joe players who helped make the team the force that it became. These players include Elvis Scott, Greg Fore, Jordan Jennings, Reed Taylor, Kye Nelson, Donnie Smith and CJ Moore, among others.
The heart of the Irish was never more evident than when they came back to defeat Claiborne Academy in the second round of the state playoffs.
St. Joseph had narrowly lost game one of the three game series, but came back to Greenville and took both games in a doubleheader to advance.
The Irish won the first game of the twin bill on a walk off single by AJ McCloud. The tight series against Claiborne could have gone either way, but it was the Irish’s heart that helped them prevail.
I congratulate the St. Joseph baseball team on a terrific season, and for helping me relearn a valuable lesson — through hard work and belief anything is possible.
David W. Healy is the sports editor of the Delta Democrat-Times. He can be reached at dhealy@ddtonline.com.
