BatBoy ‘Dallas’ gave his hand slap of ‘LUCK’ to each player as they are introduced before the championship game. “It’s where we all started, we grew up together and learned how to compete.” – Delphos St. John’s Cam Elwer
Amongst the inconveniences of driving 30 miles between two ballpark venues, the 98th Ohio High School baseball championships showed us that the closeness of community values far exceed that of scouting services and a document guaranteeing that your status as a player. Delphos St. John proved to be the blueprint of things past. And yet to be determined…things to come?
Whew!
By the time Hal McCoy, Julie Wright-Daniel, and I got home and turned in for a few hours in our own beds Sunday morning it was 3 am.
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It took 3 hours and 10 minutes to make it back to the Miami Valley from Akron…one traffic stop in Union for running out of patience for a red light…and one understanding patrolman who appreciated my explanation of dropping Hal off at his residence in Englewood, and my haste to simply get to Covington after three days of non-stop institutional baseball for a few hours sleep and redeployment.
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“Glad to help you,” he smiled, handing me my drivers license. “Just remember not to pull too far forward into the intersection next time. That’s why the light wouldn’t turn green for you.”
Institutional baseball?
There’s no other explanation for it. Seven divisions, twenty eight teams (up from sixteen), and a schedule to keep. Here’s your trophy…congratulations…and we gotta’ get the field ready for the next game.
There’s football comin’ in just six short weeks.
Sadly, it felt that way. I timed the Division VII trophy presentation and it took just a smidge over 30 minutes to hand out the goods, say the necessary things about how competitive a 10-0 run-rule game was, and now let’s get Division II out here – New Albany and Walsh Jesuit. Give these kids one more big round of applause. Whoops…that’s enough. We’ve got a schedule to keep.
“It felt like basketball again,” said a new friend named Mike that I met from Delphos St. John. “Just like the Kalida game (championship). Today has never happened before, but enjoy being a champion on your own time.”
Unfortunately for the OHSAA, it’s a reality that’s unavoidable. Like publishing a daily website, there comes a point when you try to be so much to so many that you have to look for shortcuts. And when you do, there are some really good things that go wanting for attention and appreciation.
Like that of Delphos St. John, winning its unexpected second state title in a span of ninety days, and against the odds of having to knock out the state’s #1-ranked team to do it. Regardless of their being a member of the Midwest Athletic Conference – regardless of coach Jerry Jackson telling them before the season that they could win it all – they weren’t one of the MAC favorites to do it, not like St. Henry, Coldwater, or even Versailles.
But they did do it, underdogs and all. But how?
When I plugged my phone in to charge and slumped on the couch at 3 am, there was already of list of texts from readers and baseball questioners asking how.
There were no Division I prospects on St. John’s roster, except for Cam Elwer, who’s now playing basketball at Furman University. And owing to the schedule of the moment, he had to make a sunrise flight Sunday and back to Greenville, South Carolina for the next chapter of his life. So much for enjoying a championship. Furman has a schedule to keep, too.
“Publics vs. privates?” was the word from that corner of the argument for separate tournaments.
I repeat, there were no Division I prospects in site at Delphos. Just kids playing baseball, and the pitcher from Leipsic throwing 50 miles per hour. Legally blind Hal McCoy later considered his own opportunities at the plate.
Andrew Elwer struck out 8, walked 1, and allowed six hits in six innings to secure the win. “And he’ll throw harder next year,” says brother Cam. “He’s going to be good.”
“Socio-economic privilege?” from a Columbus reader still in shock over Watterson’s loss to Hamilton Badin, both private schools with punishing tuitions.
I would go out on a limb and say that Delphos St. John is one of the more financially struggling parochials anywhere in Ohio. Enrollment has dropped like a rock in the past decade, they’re $5,000 less than the closest parochial in the tournament, and they struggle to dress forty players now for MAC football.
Institutional pride is probably the most spendable asset at St. John. They thrive on doing more with less, and they’re thankful. When the Apostle Paul wrote that he was willing to be humble for a different kind of richness, he was writing about schools like Delphos St. John…who unlike Hamilton Badin and Watterson, have one baseball uniform that they wear every day. There is no alternative look.
Neither is there talk about the Knicks beating the Spurs in Delphos. No one cares!
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But to explain it succinctly, and accurately, on that same limb I would say that the most they have going for them in basketball, and in baseball…is each other. There are no notable move-ins that I know of, outside of Tyce McClain, who admits to coming from Van Wert when he was in the seventh grade and weighed 90 pounds. Not something you would have looked at and said, “We’re going to win.”
“We’ve all been together so long,” says Cam Elwer. “We grew up together, we’re friends together, and we enjoy competing together. We’ve been good in baseball since we were little.”
“They came out of basketball this year and I knew that the experience of winning that was going to make them that much better in baseball,” said coach Jerry Jackson. “They just know how to handle the moment. They know how to handle the adversity. They trust each other, and they support each other. I told them on the first day of practice, ‘You guys can win it all.'”
Proof of the above?
While the Blue Jays beat conference opponent Coldwater during the season, they lost to St. Henry (1-0), Marion Local (9-6), and Versailles (9-1). They finished third in the MAC with a mark of 6-3.
“But I told them along the way…we’re getting better,” says Jackson. “They never lost in basketball, and the nine guys who came out to play baseball just knew how to win, and how to compete.”
And importantly, they DID care for and support each other.
“Here’s what makes their story so great,” says Ohio High School hall of fame coach Mark Brunswick, now retired. “In a society that thinks about themselves…thank you Cam Elwer for teaching kids of the future something about shared experiences. He could have easily skipped spring sports for basketball. But he did it for his people – his friends and teammates. Refreshing in today’s society. Great role model!”
What makes their story so great? Even Father Tom (above) is competitive, throwing the baseball 200 feet in the outfield to warm up in pre-game.
And post-game, Saturday, in the little space and time allotted for media and statements, not one of the Delphos St. John kids had anything to say about the five tools needed to be a star in baseball.
“The trophy goes in the case at school,” said Jackson in their final huddle together. “But this trophy is yours. You did this and it’s always going to be there for you to enjoy and remember. Today, and what you’ve done together will last forever.”
They all took their turn holding it, posing for pictures, and doing their best to absorb the moment and the reality of accomplishing that which no one thought believable…except Jerry Jackson.
And Cam Elwer, of course, who had a plane to catch and a Sunday appointment for more work to become the best he could be at the next level, and whatever that brings. Starting Monday he, too, has to remember, not bask in, what they did together. Just like basketball.
And brother Andrew?
“He’s got another year to get bigger, stronger, and better,” said Cam, his biggest supporter. “He’ll throw harder next year. He’s going to be good.”
With appreciation for the source, the best scouting report you could ask for.
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