‘Got to fight through it’: Carver returns to practice

It sounded, more or less, like a ballpark on a normal afternoon.

The Carver baseball team practiced Wednesday for the first time since the death of their coach David Pollard. Players chased fly balls and ran the bases. There was occasional laughter. It was far from the painful silence that surrounded the program during the early part of the week.

Pollard died in a three-car collision near Buena Vista Road on Monday, shaking the Carver and Columbus baseball community. Outside of the program, there were questions of whether the Tigers would finish the rest of their season.

Inside, there was never any doubt.

“(Principal Christopher Lindsey) said it’s not on us, not on the coaches, it’s on the players,” Carver assistant coach Andy Hicks said Wednesday. “The first thing out of their mouth was, ‘Yeah, we want to play.’ I don’t think David would want it any other way.”

Hicks said that Pollard often stressed finishing to his players. It was a problem, he said, that had plagued them throughout the year. The Tigers are winless in Region 1-5A play for the past two seasons, but have come close to wins against Shaw and Hardaway this year. The problem was finishing.

Both Hicks and his players said that weighed heavily on their mind when it came to the decision to play the rest of their games this week.

“We started with him and that’s how we want to finish it,” freshman Desmond Whitlow said. “We’ve got to always finish what we do and never stop working. That’s what he taught us. We’ve just got to fight through it.”

“If you quit now, just this one time, there may be a situation down the road where you just let it go,” Hicks said. “For them to have the perseverance to come back out here after everything that’s happened and then losing him, I think that just says a lot about this group of guys. I’m 100 percent behind them. I wanted to play, too.”

Carver will play at Shaw, Pollard’s alma mater, at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, and then host Shaw on Friday at 4:30 p.m. It will finish the regular season against LaGrange at home on Saturday at 4 p.m. The Tigers plan to hold a vigil for Pollard after Friday’s game, weather permitting. If the game is affected by rain on Friday, the vigil will be held after Saturday’s game.

Pollard’s funeral is set for 3 p.m. Sunday at Cascade Hills Church.

Despite the return to a normal routine on Wednesday, the team felt the absence of their head coach. Whitlow said it would be different moving forward, knowing he wouldn’t hear his coach yelling at them and pushing them.

“It’ll be hard,” he said. “As a student, every time I got in trouble, he’d walk me back to the classroom and talk to me about what I could do better to change it.”

But Hicks said being around their baseball family was the best thing for them.

“It’s comfortable,” he said. “We’ve all bonded just from being out here at some point in our life. It’s a bonding experience that I think has helped this group.”

The community support has been overwhelming, as well, Hicks said. He listed off a host of things people in Columbus and beyond have done to support the Carver and Pollard family.

▪  A fund called the David Pollard Memorial Fund has been set up through Wells Fargo to benefit Pollard’s daughter and family.

▪  In addition to the verbal support from coaches and members of the Bi-City baseball community, area teams have passed around a donation box, proceeds of which go to the memorial fund.

▪  LaGrange coach David Smart, who is involved with coaches around the state through the Georgia Dugout Club, spoke with the Georgia High School Association, and coaches from around the state have expressed interest in setting up a college scholarship fund for Pollard’s daughter.

▪  Randall Dickey of Auburn University baseball contacted the school to express the sympathies of the Auburn community, offering thoughts and prayers for the Carver and Pollard families.

▪  Chick-Fil-A has offered to host a dinner for members of the baseball team.

“All we can say is ‘thank you,’ ” Hicks said. “You hate to be by yourself in this situation, but to know everyone in the community has your back, that makes it a little bit easier.”

And, while Hicks and the Tigers want to win some games to honor their late coach, the assistant coach said his team has already come out on top.

“Just for these guys to come out here and play and have a good time doing it and remember what Coach Pollard taught them, that’s the best way (to honor him),” Hicks said. “Just coming out here and being back here, I’m sure he’s honored right now.”

This story was originally published April 20, 2016 at 6:39 PM with the headline "‘Got to fight through it’: Carver returns to practice."