Columbus, Georgia (WRBL) – On April 18, 2016, Carver High’s baseball program was forever changed by the tragic passing of its head coach, David Pollard. Has struggled to regain his footing since that day. Fast forward to the present day, on what is now the David Pollard ground. With the Tigers’ revival of the program just weeks away from opening, a helping hand comes from a neighboring team.
On a chilly Friday afternoon, the Calvary Christian baseball team got together with Carver to breathe new life into a pitch that hadn’t been played in over two years. Rakes, mowers and tillers helped revitalize the field and prepare it for play. The Calvary Christian team won state titles in its last three seasons, this was an opportunity to continue its mission to serve the community.

“Obviously there’s a lot of other lessons they can take from that too, just in terms of the perspective of, you know, what they have there, what they’ve been blessed with and then to be able to think about other people before they think about them, so they have a lot to gain,” Calvary Christian head coach Steve Smith said.

The man who now runs the Tigers program, Michael Long, is thrilled to have his team in the community and make new friends in the process.

“It fills me with great joy. That’s what I want this program to be. I want us to be able to bond, not just with our guys, but with the teams we play with. One thing and again, one thing we all have in common is that we all play in the same zone. We’re all gonna see each other on the street, you know? You know, in the community. And one thing about me, I’m very communal and being able to do things like that is very, very humbling and very, you know, again very blessed, you know, to be here with these guys and then see my guys enjoy that too,” Long said.

Baseball is a unifying sport. On this day in January, he brought together two teams, and made them a big family. This is the biggest impact of all.

“When I tell you, when we started, I had five guys and five guys with me. And that was it. We were anywhere from five to 21 kids in total that could field a joint venture and a varsity team. And for me, these guys work extremely hard every day. Just try to improve yourself. And I really feel like, you know, with the guys that we have, the sky’s the limit for this program,” Long said.

“I mean, you have it, you have a lot of different baseball programs in and around Columbus, and they do it whenever there’s a need. You see a lot of coaches stepping in and willing to help in any way they can. And so it’s just our way of helping out and giving back a bit and doing whatever we can to help them and help them start their season on the right foot and try to set the stage for them,” Smith said. .

The Carver Tigers’ first game of the season will be against the Marion County Eagles on February 14.