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Watauga Baseball: The Will Dicus Memorial Tournament

Remember the bumper stickers asking to “Pray for Dicus”? A few weeks ago, June 19^th & 20^th, 2010, Boone experienced an influx of people coming into the High Country for the weekend. These weren’t just ordinary people. In fact, these were groups of people, mixed in gender and age, some wearing the same shirts, having the same agenda, with one goal in mind, etc. So who were these people you ask???

These people were all sports fanatics, team players, parents and family, etc. here to honor one of the greatest high school baseball players in Watauga County – Will Dicus! As a memorial and celebration of Will’s life, the annual Will Dicus Memorial Baseball Tournament is now in it’s 2^nd year. Remaining a non-profit tournament with all the proceeds going towards an indoor batting facility at the new high school, this is exactly what Will would have wanted, “an opportunity for players of various ages to play tournament baseball and softball in an enjoyable and affordable atmosphere”. What started out with only 12 teams in 2 age groups has now grown to over 300 players on 31 teams in over 6 age groups from North Carolina and Virginia, and hoping to expand even more this next year.

Saturday, the 1^st day of the tournament, started out sunny and warm with parking lots full and anticipation high in the air. Games were being held all over Boone from the Complex fields, Parks and Rec, Optimist, Watauga High School, and ASU fields. It was a busy place! Of course, parking is always an issue, but our team, the Watauga Americans, were getting prepared.

The boys began stretching and warming up.

Coach Wendell Ellis had the team running and getting prepared.

After getting a late start, our 1^st game began against Ashe County. They won the coin toss and were Home team, so we were up to bat first. Our boys started out with their heads held high and Justin Greer had a great hit making it to 1^st base. Zach Valet came up to bat and hit a double giving him 2 RBI’s or Runners Batted In, bringing in 2 homeruns. Zach started us off pitching and struck out Ashe’s 1^st batter. Things began to wane and after 4 runs being walked in, we switched pitchers to Ryan Church.

The Watauga Americans were holding their own with Spencer Hamrick scooping up a ball at 3^rd plate and sending it to Justin Greer to get their player out. In another great play, Willis Ellis caught a fly ball in the outfield that was nearly impossible, bringing all of the team’s supporters to their feet! In the last inning, one of our players came into home plate with a run and the Umpire called him safe and then changed his mind, causing a great disturbance! In the end, the Ump stuck to his 2^nd call and our boys ended up losing by 1 run. It was disheartening, but the players picked ourselves up and waited for the next game of the day.

The 2^nd game was against the Wilkes Thunder team, and they had their “stuff” together! They play for a much longer season during the year and were in total unity, knowing each other’s habits and methods of playing. Wilkes Thunder was Visitor team so they were up to bat 1^st and scored 3 runs right off. Watauga Blue were able to get some hits, but failed to make any runs and sadly lost 13-0.

Both games of the day were lost, but just like other tournaments, the games on Saturday were to find out where each team stood in the brackets for game play on Sunday.

Sunday games were off to a good start and even though we had lost on Saturday, Watauga Blue entered the tournament with a fresh outlook and were there to win!  We were playing the Abingdon Alpha Dawgs, a team we were all too familiar with having lost to them twice before, in a tournament and a scrimmage game. Needless to say, the boys were not too thrilled!

The 1^st and 2^nd innings weren’t looking so good as the Dawgs were ahead by 6 runs. In the 3^rd inning though, something extraordinary began to happen! Our boys made up their minds that they could beat this team if they put their minds and skills together. Dakota McCrary caught all 3 balls that their team hit, making sure they couldn’t score another run. At the bottom of the 4^th inning, Ryan Church hit a homerun, then Spencer Hamrick hit a double and had 2 RBI’s. Willis Ellis brought in some runs with his hit and we caught up and moved ahead 7-6!

Incredibly, we were winning…at that moment!

Watauga Blue thought they had it made, until little errors started popping up with the boys and the boys couldn’t keep up their momentum. It was like a domino effect, one mistake led to another and confidence was lost! Then with 9 minutes left in the game, the Umpire and Ref called the game. I know I am only a parent in the mix of this, but in my humble opinion, it seems that we still had 9 minutes to play! We had already proved that we could turn the score around, but the game was over! In the end, Watauga Blue lost 14-7 and that was the end of the tournament for us!

Even though the games didn’t end up ideal where we won and had an awesome victory, our Watauga Blue boys still had fun and played great games.  We learned some valuable lessons and learned that we CAN come back after losing to a much stronger team. That in itself is encouraging and shows much growth in the young men of Watauga Blue. Keep up the good work boys! We are proud of you!

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