Blue Wahoos Provide Special Farewell For Tate Baseball Seniors 

On March 10, the Tate Aggies’ baseball team followed their game against Crestview by cleaning out lockers for what seemed routine maintenance.

“We were going into spring break,” said Tate coach Karl Jernigan. “We were kinda cleaning things up in the locker room, because we had the Aggie Classic starting off (following week). We told the guys. ‘Hey take all your stuff home to where we can clean everything up.’

“That was the plan.”

Instead, it was the last time the team was together.

It was the last baseball game Tate played in 2020.

Days later, the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic was felt when school closures were announced, followed soon thereafter by realization all high school sports in Northwest Florida would not resume.

All of this made Monday’s specially-arranged experience at Blue Wahoos Stadium -- organized by parents and coordinated with the Blue Wahoos staff -- all the more meaningful.

“It has been a long time,” said Chase Tolbert, one of 10 Tate seniors, following an experience Monday which included dinner at the Hancock-Whitney Club, a team photo and then batting practice on the field.

“It was great to be see everybody again. It was fun. I had a lot of laughs,” he said.

The seniors had the Senior Night they never thought would happen. They had dinner. They were recognized on the field. They presented flowers to their mothers, each of whom wore their son’s game jersey.

Images of each player were shown on the video board at Blue Wahoos Stadium.

The seniors joined with young teammates in a team photo. And then they took extended batting practice with several players launching balls out of the ballpark.

“It’s a weird way to go out, but with the circumstances we’ve been through, I couldn’t see a better way than for them to go out than with something like this,” Jernigan said.

Dustin Hannah, the Blue Wahoos head groundskeeper, who has helped with the Aggies’ own field maintenance, added another special touch by painting each senior’s number in the infield. He then spelled out T-A-T-E in a half-circle design behind second base.

“The Wahoos have been awesome to allow us to come in and do something like this,” said Jernigan, whose team played eight games and finished 4-4. “This place is beautiful. I tell Dustin all the time what a great job he’s done.

“I have not seen our guys in person since March. It’s awesome to see them again and their parents. And thank them for everything they have done for the program.”

For a couple hours Monday, the Tate players and family were reconnected with baseball again. Jernigan wore out his arm, throwing hundreds of batting practice pitches and even simulating a game situation like a regular practice.

“It has been tough for everyone, but there is not anything we can really do about it,” said senior Sam Shackle. “Just go on with life, I guess.”

His father, Tate principal Rick Shackle, sat with his wife at a table behind the home plate concourse. The plan is for school to reopen for fall semester classes on Aug. 2. The students will be back. Classroom teaching will resume.

Hopefully, a normal high school life will return.

But Shackle had natural empathy for all of his senior students at Tate, whose graduation is now delayed and normal senior experiences could not happen.

“For these guys (baseball players), I think they learned there is so much more than baseball,” Rick Shackle said. “I think it has taught them to stop and reflect and realize what’s really important in life.

“That’s why you put things in perspective on what’s really important in life and what really means the most. They learned from this. And they dealt with adversity but that’s life in general.

“But is not just our athletes, of course, it’s all of our students. This has been tough for everybody.”

He then paused, and said with a smile, “I think parents now have a new respect for teachers after their kids have been home for awhile.”

During near three-month absence, Jernigan stayed in touch with players on video conferences. He mowed the Aggies baseball field twice a week.

But each time he went into an empty locker room, looked up at his players names on each cleaned-out locker, the emotional effects took over.

“It’s been a strange feeling. You go work on a field two days a week for nobody to play on it the last three months,” said Jernigan, who went from Milton High to stardom as outfielder at Florida State. He lead the Seminoles in 1999 to the College World Series championship game in Omaha, Neb. with his dramatic, walk-off home run against Stanford in the final elimination game.

“I’m proud of these guys,” Jernigan said. “They’ve handled it like men. We have talked about being able to handle some adversity in baseball and life.

“Choose this as an opportunity. If they can overcome something like this, it’s going to get them geared up to handle situations like this in life.”

The experience Monday was set up through Blue Wahoos events director Shannon Reeves, who has joined with other front office staff to reach out to high schools for graduations and other events to help utilize the bayfront stadium.

“This (Monday night) has been so awesome,” Jernigan said. “We’re living through something none of us ever experienced before. It’s a situation no one ever expected.”

One final baseball experience Monday at Blue Wahoos Stadium helped Tate’s baseball team have a finality for the 2020 season.