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Members of the Fort White baseball team show off a number of the sandbags they helped fill at the South Columbia Sports Complex on Tuesday afternoon. The Indians helped fill and load sandbags for area residents in prep for Hurricane Ian. (COURTESY)
FORT WHITE — Rick Julius knows a thing or two about not wasting opportunities. The head coach for Fort White baseball learned exactly that while guiding his team toward its first state Final Four appearance.
On Tuesday, Julius and his squad chose not to let an opportunity to help their community go to waste. Following an offseason game against P.K. Yonge yesterday morning, the crew gathered up their belongings while practicing and made the short trek over to the South Columbia Sports Complex to help local residents prepare for Hurricane Ian’s arrival by filling and giving out sandbags to those worried about potential flooding on their property.
“(The kids) were excited about it,” Julius said of the gesture. “I told them we might not get better at baseball today, but we’re going to get better in life.”
Julius said when he saw the sandbag site needed a bit of help with a constantly arriving stream of cars, the move to go offer assistance was absolutely necessary.
“I was outside, and I saw all these cars pulling up to the rec park,” Julius said. “Older people. I’m like, ‘This ain’t right.’ There were two gentlemen over there that were helping, but it just hit me. We needed to be over there.”
Julius estimated that over the course of about 75 minutes, roughly 20 cars arrived looking for help that the Fort White baseball team was more than happy to accommodate. He said that with such a young team laced with freshmen and 8th-graders, it was important to instill a sense of community and charity in the young men as soon as possible, especially with the weather threatening many county residents.
“I just give my hats off to these kids,” Julius said. “So many in today’s society — and I’m guilty of it being a teacher for almost 30 years — complain about how kids have changed. Kids still got good hearts, and we just need to find that good heart and bring it out in them.”