PREP BASEBALL: Thomas family won’t have the Senior Night they’ve waited 18 years for

Thursday night was supposed to be Senior Night for the Columbia baseball team.

It’s a night that’s always been special for coach Brian Thomas but this one meant even more. His son, Hunter, was going to be honored alongside four other seniors.

The opportunity to walk out together on Senior Night not only as coach and player but also as father and son has been a moment the two have talked about for years. Instead, they won’t get to share that special event due to covid-19, which forced the Florida High School Athletic Association to cancel the season on Monday.

“I was so looking forward to, as sad as it would have been, hearing his name called that one last time and watching him run off the field and giving him a hug in his uniform,” Brian said. “So that part of it is definitely very, very difficult.”

Baseball is all Hunter has ever known. Brian has been coaching in high school for 37 years, serving as a head coach for the last 17 across North Carolina and Florida.

There’s been plenty of Senior Nights for Brian, and Hunter has been there for all of them. He’s watched several classes walk out and hear their names called alongside their parents as they walked the bases on their home field one last time.

It was only a matter of time until he got to do the same with his dad and his mother, Kelly. He never imagined it being taken away.

“This was going to be a big one, hearing my name and hearing my mom and dad’s names called next to it and walking around the bases, it definitely hurts a lot,” Hunter said. “It’s life, I guess, but it sucks.”

As tough as it is to say goodbye to high school baseball, Hunter takes some solace in the fact that his playing days aren’t over. Hunter will play college baseball at Glenville State next year and he’s excited, but he says nothing will replace losing his final season with a team he’s grown up with the past four years.

He’s sad he doesn’t get to experience Senior Night with his dad, but he also feels sorrow for the other four seniors — Coyle Giebeig, Lance Minson, Tyler Yaxley and Daylon Lumpkin — who won’t get to experience it with their families either. Only Minson is going on to play at the next level at Embry Riddle, though Lumpkin will play college football at Northwestern Oklahoma state.

As of now, the baseball careers for Giebeig and Yaxley are over. And they never even got a chance to say goodbye.

“I am getting to continue to play, but then again I won’t be able to play with the people who I’ve been playing with for the past four years and that hurts,” Hunter said. “I feel bad for the kids that don’t have the opportunity to go play at the next level and the senior class. It sucks for sure.”

Tonight at 7 p.m., Brian will turn the lights on at the baseball field for 20 minutes to honor the class of 2020. It’s a movement that’s gained traction from several schools across the country as they look for ways to honor seniors who had their seasons stripped away.

Brian hopes to still find more ways to honor his five seniors. But the moment he expected to have with his son — one that was 18 years in the making — is something that simply won’t be replaced.

“Hunter has been a part of 17 Senior Nights. Many of them he doesn’t remember because he was an infant, but he’s been a part of 17 Senior Nights,” Brian said. “So he always talked about his once he got old enough to understand what they were and he saw the emotion, the passion, the music and the special things that were being done for these special groups of kids. 

“He always talked about his, and naturally as his coach, that was going to happen. But as his dad, being able to still wear the uniform and walk my son out and walk the bases with him that final time with Kelly with both of us in uniform together doing it was something we’ve definitely talked about. It’s something that I’ll miss dearly and I know Hunter will too.”