WVU baseball coach Randy Mazey was prepared to give his team the day off.
It was last Saturday night, and the Mountaineers had just learned that they would not be playing in the Big 12 tournament championship game. West Virginia had kept hope alive by scoring a dramatic, come-from-behind 10-inning, 6-5 victory over Oklahoma State.
However, a Kansas victory over TCU late Saturday put the Jayhawks in the title game instead of WVU.
The Mountaineers were spent.
Their arduous first season in the Big 12 had begun months earlier with an early morning 12-mile hike with their new head coach. Unable to play conference games at WVU’s ill-equipped Hawley Field, they had traveled 21,000 miles and spent nearly every weekend on the road, playing their “home” games in Charleston and Beckley.
Still, they didn’t get sloppy. You could pick them out at crowded airports. They were the guys in coats and ties.
Like the rest of the nation, they watched on television the merciless violence of the tornado that struck Moore, Okla. Unlike the rest of us, they were only a few miles away, in their hotel rooms waiting for the Big 12 tournament to begin.
Mazey immediately offered up his team to help with the recovery, but was told to stay away from the disaster area. Instead, Mazey took the players to a Wal-Mart where they bought supplies for storm victims.
It was at Wal-Mart, Mazey says, that they ran into a woman who had lost her home and for several hours did not know whether her children were alive or dead. They had survived. The Mountaineers loaded up the woman with supplies for the night.
“I think when that happened our guys realized that what we’re doing is something good,” Mazey told me on Metronews “Talkline” Tuesday.
Still, it had been a grueling season with an emotional end. They had offered their services and had already done more than was expected of them. Mazey decided to return to Moore on Sunday to help. If any of the players wanted to go along, they could, but it wasn’t mandatory.
“Guys, you’re more than welcome to just rest,” he told them.
But they didn’t rest. They joined their coach in Moore. “We hooked up with some homeowners, helped them clean up their yards and the trash, and tried to figure out what was their living room and their bedroom,” Mazey said.
Mazey was moved by his team’s participation.
“That just says a lot about our kids, what type of kids they are and how much they’ve grown over this past year.”
The Mountaineers were picked to finish last in the league, but ended up third, with a record of 33-26. It’s evident they improved their baseball skills. It’s also obvious that they learned some valuable life lessons.
Well done, coach.