A fitting tribute: Community honors coach David Pollard

When Carver assistant baseball coach Andy Hicks looked at the baseball field at 10:30 a.m. Friday, just a few minutes after the clouds had opened up and dumped gallons of rain on top of it, his stomach sank.

On the day the team was supposed to close out its season with a game against Shaw, memorializing head coach David Pollard who had died in a car wreck on Monday, nothing was going right.

The infield was under water and the forecast showed storms for late afternoon, right around the 5 p.m. scheduled first pitch.

He and his assistant coaches were determined to get the game in, however, in order to bring in a big crowd to pay tribute to Pollard. Five hours and 20 bags of quick dry later, the field was in playable shape, but the weather still wasn’t cooperating. It rained heavily for about 10 minutes at 3 p.m., after which Columbus coach Chad Mathis went to get five more bags of quick dry to bring the total to 25 for the entire field.

Hicks smiled about an hour and a half before game time, giving a wink and a nudge to God, he said, to let them get the game in.

“Coach Pollard, if you can give me a good word, we sure would like to play this game,” he joked.

What followed was a story meant for Hollywood. Only Hollywood wouldn’t buy it.

The clouds parted, the sun came out, and a rainbow stretched across the sky. Supporters from all corners of the community, including as many as nine local high school baseball teams, poured into the gates. And against all odds, the Tigers, who had not won a region baseball game in the past two years, found a way to claim a victory for their coach.

“How awesome is this?” Hicks asked after the game, fighting through tears and struggling to get words out. “It couldn’t have ended any better.”

From the people to the win many didn’t expect, it was a tribute worthy of a man who touched so many lives within the Carver community.

A community of support

The support for the Carver and Pollard families all week has been overwhelming.

It began with the outpouring of verbal support and transformed into monetary donations for the family. There were tributes at other baseball games, like the one during the Hardaway-Columbus game on Thursday, when the Hawks painted the letters “D.P.” in the third-base coaching box.

On Friday at Carver, that support expanded even further.

To get the field ready to play, Hicks said it would have been impossible for him to handle by himself. Instead, he received help from a number of people, including Muscogee County systemwide athletic director Jeff Battles, Shaw baseball coach Pat McGregor, Columbus baseball coach Chad Mathis and others.

SiteOne Landscape Supply donated 20 bags of quick dry for the field, and Mathis and Columbus High brought over an additional five.

Members of the Columbus, Spencer, Pacelli, Harris County, Jordan, Northside, Kendrick and Brookstone baseball teams were all present.

The crowd was so large that Mathis, at one point, commented that it was a bigger group than he had ever seen, even at Columbus.

“It feels amazing to see how many hearts he actually touched,” said Columbus High senior Cason Greathouse.

“It tells you that there are a lot of good people here in Columbus,” Carver principal Christopher Lindsey said. “Very caring people, and very giving.”

‘Coach is proud of you’

David Pollard’s brother, Carlos, was asked before the game what a perfect tribute to his brother would be. In his mind, it already was.

To see the support from the community, nothing else was needed.

“It’s already a perfect tribute,” he said. “We have coaches from different high schools showing support, the community, the staff. There’s nothing that can really go wrong.”

But there was plenty that could go right.

For a team that had experienced so many trials on the field, losing every region game over the past two years, and off the field, losing its coach to a tragedy earlier in the week, just showing up to play was most of the battle.

But when Hicks and his players saw the rainbow out in right field, they knew there was more to play for.

“It had to have been (Pollard),” Hicks said of the rainbow. “Had to have been his big smile.”

“It was just Coach P looking down at me and the team,” said senior Demarcus Beachum. “We had to finish strong. He always wanted a region win. I just said that was Coach P. Just finish strong for Coach P.”

And they did.

They made plays they hadn’t made all year, and when the final out was recorded at second base, the players sprinted out of the dugout to celebrate on the infield. One player carried around a poster of Pollard and the team received a long standing ovation.

“I never won a state championship, but I won some big games when I played,” Hicks said. “And nothing’s beat that. I couldn’t have scripted it any better.”

The best tribute the team gave to their coach was coming and playing a baseball game. That’s the message Pollard’s father, Terry Render, gave to the players gathered on the field after the game.

After hugging his family, he fought tears as he spoke to the group.

“Coach is proud of you,” he said. “Coach is proud of all of y’all. This is what it was all about. This is what he dedicated his life to. He’s looking down today, and I guarantee you he’s proud. Y’all played today. Y’all played.”

This story was originally published April 22, 2016 at 4:30 PM with the headline "A fitting tribute: Community honors coach David Pollard."