Harper: Bright Future For Farmington Baseball

FARMINGTON -- Photo posters of Farmington senior baseball players: KJ O'Dell, Colton Kilgore, Evan Shoffit and Drew Sturgeon stand like silent sentries guarding gates locked at Farmington's high school baseball field.

The covid-19 crisis deprived the quartet and their teammates of what was expected to be a very competitive 2020 baseball season. The Arkansas Activities Association implemented a dead period through May 30 meaning school athletic facilities remain closed.

"This is one of those things that everything's going to happen that you never think could occur," said Farmington baseball coach Jay Harper. "It's uncharted territory for everybody and it's hard. It's hard for our seniors and it's hard for our parents. It's hard for our coaching staff. You know, it's hard for our school."

Abrupt Halt

Harper thinks the kids handled the situation as best they could because there's so much uncertainty going on surrounding the time.

"We were playing, then we're not playing and we're not going to play, and they handled it as good as they could handle it," Harper said. "It's one of those things that you're not prepared for and we're still not prepared for."

With the dead period implemented coaches have been prohibited from having type of face-to-face contact with players -- meaning no practices, no games, no team meetings in-person. All contact has been regulated to phone calls, texts or social media.

"It's the loss of a season that we thought could be really good for us," Harper said. "We had quite a few of our seniors back and the core of our baseball team were sophomores. We felt pretty good about where we were. We felt pretty good about how the season was going even though we were playing a bunch of 6A schools and holding our own. So we felt good about where we were and to have it come to an abrupt end like it did, it was difficult for everybody."

Individual Workouts

Harper receives text messages from players thanking him for what he has done under these circumstances.

"Really I haven't done much. They do all the work. I sit on the bucket and direct, but as far as that goes, they did a really good job of trying to keep in shape and be ready to go just in case we got the call if they let us play baseball," Harper said.

Team leaders borrowed what equipment they could hauling mounds to set up pitching practice on their own while coaches described workouts and things to do via social media trying to keep pitchers' arms in shape just in case the season resumed.

"Our players, I really think, they still don't know what do do," Harper said. "I think our players took on some things, took on roles when the season came to an end, that we couldn't practice with them, we couldn't do some of the things, we couldn't allow them in the Indoor Facility, we couldn't allow them on the field."

Scheduling Challenges

Baseball coaches also had to figure out what to do next and formed what Harper describes as "little Zoom Meetings" and they had get-togethers on the Internet where they could talk.

The Cardinals record stood at 3-4 when we the season ended, including 3-1 versus 6A schools, and a loss to Pulaski Robinson, which according to Harper was probably going to contend for a state championship.

"We got beat by Jonesboro by a walk-off home run in the seventh inning. We got beat 5-3 in a great game at our place. Every game we were in. It's a credit to our seniors. We try to toughen up our schedule early in the season," Harper said, explaining that's been the option to fill the nonconference portion of the schedule.

"It's tough, we're a big school now and some of the smaller schools won't play us. We have to turn to playing upper division teams and that's made us better," Harper said.

He cautions, however, that might not be the case every year as the talent level fluctuates.

"To say that we can compete at that level all the time is ludicrous because they have a lot more players, a lot more students to choose from."

Senior Leadership

Harper praise the play of seniors: Colton Kilgore, who was batting .375 with 3 doubles and 4 RBIs; along with Drew Sturgeon, who had a .643 on-base percentage and Evan Shoffit, who racked up a .684 batting average.

"That's not a surprise this year. Three of our five seniors really stepped up and were really playing well," Harper said.

He noted sophomores Caden Elsik, who batted .429 with 2 home runs and Trey Hill, who was batting .333.

"They all worked their butt off and got themselves in position to play. It's unfortunate that this pandemic hit," Harper said. "Everybody wants to be safe and everybody wants to go on and do bigger and better things than high school baseball. We understand that."

Future Potential

In spite of the covid-19 crisis Harper believes better days are ahead.

"The future is bright here in Farmington. The future is bright with our baseball program," Harper said.

Harper took over the baseball program in 2004 with 12 players on his roster. Now 30 or 40 try out every year and this past season 27 freshmen tried out. Baseball, softball, soccer as well as track and field plus other sports will return again and when they do Farmington has facilities in place to hone those skills and continue its habitual quest for excellence.

"I always tell our players that today could be your last day. You better play the best you can because it could come to an end and that's what we've learned this year," Harper said. "Sports is important. Sports bind a community together. It's one of those things you really don't understand until you don't have it. It's important to overall health to me as a coach."