It’s a good thing Roger Hackett has a good cell phone plan.
The former Ringgold High School baseball star will be on his phone a lot Saturday — and maybe Monday — when school’s Tigers take on top-ranked Columbus in the Class AAA baseball championship series. The game is in Columbus.
On the other end of his calls or texts will be the Tigers’ biggest fan, someone whose influence will be seen and felt as the players try to bring home the school’s first state title.
Bill Womack wants to be there, sitting in the dugout, a place where he feels at home and, if for only a moment, where his fight to defeat cancer can be an afterthought. However, his body likely won’t let him make the long trip to southwest Georgia, so he’ll rely on Mr. Hackett and a few others to keep him updated.
Though Mr. Womack has stayed close to the program he coached for 20 years until retiring in 1998, he is particularly connected to this team. Several of the team’s top players — Matthew Crownover, Zach Lance, Colton Cross, Wright Hackett and Caleb Jones — are sons of former standouts who learned the game under Mr. Womack.
And, to a man, they all know what a state title would mean to the ex-coach, who was never able to capture one despite a long string of successful seasons.
“Coach Womack is a legend in Ringgold, and he’s well-respected around the state,” said Matthew Crownover, the sophomore pitching star and son of former Ringgold athletes David and Susan Lance Crownover. “It would be special to do this for him, the one thing he was never able to get at Ringgold.
“He won so many games and gave so much back to this program, it would be a great moment if we were able to give him a championship.”
Mr. Womack is synonymous with Ringgold baseball, said David Crownover, a current Ringgold assistant who also coached under Mr. Womack.
“I tell him, ‘Bill, you are Ringgold baseball. You fought all the battles we don’t have to fight now,'” David Crownover said. “He laid the foundation, got the rec program going and got people interested in baseball.”
Mr. Womack, at the request of coach Brent Tucker, has spoken with the team several times this year. The fact that he’s known them most of their lives lends a certain reverence to his talks, but it’s a toss-up as to who gets the most out of his visits.
“It’s a special group,” Mr. Womack said. “I can walk in and that group of kids makes me feel so welcome. I really enjoy being around them.
“Watching this team, it’s just like coaching their dads all over again, and they’ve all become great parents.”
Mr. Tucker, who prepped at Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School and competed against Womack teams, has a different perspective on the Ringgold tradition. Once a rival, he now embraces the closeness of the community.
Many coaches would be uncomfortable with someone of Mr. Womack’s standing being in his dugout, but Mr. Tucker not only is all right with it, he often seeks the veteran coach’s wisdom.
“He’s been in the dugout with us a few games,” Mr. Tucker said. “I can’t tell you what it means to these kids to see him and listen to him. He’s looking good, too, cutting up with the kids.”
The team’s postseason run — the Tigers finished third in Region 6 — has also brought back many of Womack’s former star players, guys such as Kenny Henderson, Brad Butler, Marty Chandler, Darrell Baggett, Terry Schley and Jody Hemphill.
“We’ve been seeing a lot of people at our games that we haven’t seen in a while, and that’s been exciting for all of us,” Mr. Tucker said. “Knowing that all those guys have been keeping up with us means so much, and the players take notice.
“And, to a man, they all tell the guys the same thing, ‘This is your time, just enjoy it.’ That’s some good advice from great players who have been there.”
If the Tigers (28-9) are able to pull off the upset against the nine-time champion Columbus Blue Devils (30-5), Mr. Womack will find a way to make the welcome-home celebration.
“It would be a great feeling, the best,” Mr. Womack said. “I can’t tell you how much I’m pulling for them.”
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