These Crusaders are not out to start something. They want a strong ending.
Tennessee Temple University is being represented for the last time in anything this week at Hampton, Va., as its baseball team plays in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association national tournament -- also dubbed the Small College World Series.
Temple's Crusaders (20-11) are seeded third in the 10-team double-elimination event that starts Wednesday. Their first game is against College of St. Joseph from Rutland, Vt., and they will play until they lose twice or win the championship Saturday.
Then the Temple name will, in effect, disappear except in historical contexts, absorbed into Piedmont International University in Winston-Salem, N.C., in a merger announced with TTU's spring sports in progress. The Chattanooga school's final graduation was moved ahead two weeks and held on April 25, so the baseball players have been staying in what amounts to a ghost town except for their days off from practice.
"Everybody's gone. I had to make arrangements to keep the kids in the dorms and feed them," coach Greg Bartley said. "But I'm grateful to Dr. (Steve) Echols (Temple's president) and the administration for seeing us through till the end. I really am."
Tennessee Temple baseball coach Greg Bartley sits with player sin the dugout during a Crusaders' scrimmage game on Friday, May 8, 2015, in Cleveland, Tenn. This marks the final year for TTU's baseball team.This is the school that won seven National Christian College Athletic Association Division I men's basketball championships -- and that hosted the basketball tournament and national meetings through the 1970s and into the 1980s. Several area coaches attended or worked for Temple's academy or the college, and one of its assistant baseball coaches, Kevin Malone, went on to be the general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Bartley faced a mountain of challenges in trying to rebuild the diamond program, and his work was just starting to pay off.
"We knew last fall that we were going to have a pretty good team this year," he said. "When they told the coaches that the school was merging with Piedmont, I asked Dr. Echols: 'Are y'all with us to the end, to the postseason? Are you going to financially support us? We need to know.' And they have."
Hunter Giles, from South Pittsburg, one of the team's top one or two pitchers for all of his four years at Temple, was in the school's final graduating class two weeks ago. His playing career would be ending this week anyway, but he was in line to help Bartley next year and perhaps take over as coach soon after.
"Obviously none of that was set in stone, but it was an opportunity and I was excited and grateful for that," Giles said, "but I had to focus on playing ball this year.
"We made kind of a pact at the beginning of the year, before we knew anything about the merger, to be as much of a brotherhood as we could be -- to do everything together. We hadn't had that before, but we thought we could make this a memorable season.
"We've had some bad seasons, but we thought this team was athletic enough to do something at the Small College World Series."
'These guys love each other'
Indeed, partly because of its relatively strong schedule and plethora of road games, Temple has been No. 1 or 2 in the USCAA power ratings most of the year after a long string of losing seasons. The 2015 Crusaders have held their own with area NAIA and NCAA Division II schools, even beating the Bryan College team that is headed to the NAIA national opening round.
With senior second baseman Caden Shadrick, from Marion County, hitting in the .400 range and freshman shortstop and pitcher Micah Wyatt, from LaFayette, Ga., batting about .370 and winning eight games on the mound, the Crusaders have mixed well a handful of solid veterans and a big group of contributing rookies.
"We're so tight-knit," Giles said, "that even though this is ending, we're still playing for each other."
Tennessee Temple baseball player Caden Shadrick sits in the dugout before a Crusaders' scrimmage game on Friday, May 8, 2015, in Cleveland, Tenn. This marks the final year for TTU's baseball team.Temple used to practice and play home games at Engel Stadium. Bartley worked out with the Crusaders there in the 1984 offseason after his first year pitching for the Chattanooga Lookouts. In the four and a half seasons he's coached the Crusaders, he's had to make arrangements with area high schools to use their fields.
This year Temple has played home games at Walker Valley, Signal Mountain, Marion County and South Pittsburg and had games rained out at Sequatchie County. The team has an indoor batting cage on campus and also has used the old soccer field and McGilvray Gymnasium for some semblance of practice, but "we haven't been on a ballfield except to play games in about two months," Bartley said.
The extra work of being a Temple coach recently has included helping the underclassmen and even some of the recruits for next year find new places to play.
"It's been a little bit of a challenge for some of them to finish the deal with us and not focus so much on their futures," Bartley said, "but you can't blame them for that. It's remarkable -- it really is -- how these kids have been able to play. They're gamers. I'm amazed at what they're able to do.
"These guys love each other. It blesses my heart."
Links upon links
Temple blessed Bartley even before he heard of it. A United Methodist minister, he credits 1983 Venezuelan winter ball and later Lookouts teammate Lee Guetterman with leading him to faith in Christ. Guetterman was born in Chattanooga in 1958; his parents attended Temple.
Bartley also is a missionary for SCORE International, an organization founded by former Temple coach and athletic director Ron Bishop -- the architect of its NCCAA dominance -- and directed now by John Zeller, the baseball coach when Bartley joined the Lookouts.
Bartley's son Brett played for him the past three seasons but took off this year to concentrate on his ministry studies. He's been serving an internship at Red Bank Baptist Church since August.
"I don't have anything negative to say about Tennessee Temple," Bartley said. "I was blessed to be able to come here, and it's so great to see where my son is in his walk with the Lord."
Giles had similar praise, despite sadness about Temple's situation.
"It's been an honor to be a part of this school, and I always will cherish my four years here. I will always carry it with me," Giles said.
"We have the last chance to end this with a fire," he added. "I know with the merger Temple doesn't officially go away, but it will, and we want to be the last spark to make people remember."
Georgia Northwestern basketball coach and athletic director David Stephenson attended Temple from first grade until his junior year of college and then returned from UTC to finish at Temple and work as an assistant coach.
"Even in the nearly two years I was gone, things had changed a lot," he said Friday.
"We had like 3,000 students on campus, but there were like 4,000 when I came in as a freshman. And then it just kept going down. ... I'm glad they're getting to go out on a high note. Going to a national tournament is a huge thing, whether they win it or not."
Contact Ron Bush at sports@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.