MACON — Sometimes coaches don’t know what drives their kids.
After all, when you’re dealing with teenagers, there often is no telling what can flip the switch of a player on a daily basis.
But Sammy Lindsey might have a better idea how to reach the members of his Central Academy fast-pitch softball team. His formula is based on equal helpings of tradition and trickeration.
“Sometimes I think I kind of have them brainwashed a little bit,” Lindsey said. “They believe anything I tell them. Sometimes they don’t want to because they aren’t sure, and we joke around, but they aren’t sure.”
Lindsey was joking about having his players brainwashed, but it is easy to understand why that might be believable considering the amount of success the Vikings have had. Central Academy has won nine slow-pitch state titles. Last Saturday, it put itself on the inside track to a Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class A title by winning its first two games on its home fields. Central Academy stayed true to form Monday, beating Calhoun Academy to move into the championship game. Unfortunately, Tunica Academy rallied through the losers’ bracket and then defeated Central Academy twice to take the championship.
Despite not winning the title, Central Academy (14-11) earned the No. 2 seed in the North and will take on Riverdale Academy, the No. 3 seed from the South, at 9 a.m. Saturday in the MAIS Overall State tournament at Shiloh Park in Brandon.
Lindsey hopes his team can bounce back from the disappointment of losing its first games against Class A competition this season. He said he is going to rely on the drive the players have shown throughout their careers to help them keep their dream alive to win the school’s first fast-pitch title.
Lindsey talked about his players’ work ethic Monday after a 9-1 victory against Calhoun Academy. He said it has been built on current players watching former players like Lillian Lindsey, Alex Dawkins, Julianna Persons, Kendall Taylor, Corey Dawkins, Blake Rigdon, Sarah Norris, Cassie Campbell, Kayla Brown, Veronica Rodriguez, and others. This year’s team has two special features in that it has only one senior, pitcher Courtney Gaylord, and it has a “Fab Four” group made up of juniors Kelsey Robbins, Sadie Lindsey, Savanah Stapleton, and Allie Beth Rigdon. The players earned that nickname from Lee Sciple, a former Central Academy student who died in April from injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident. The players are wearing a No. 4 on their helmets to honor Sciple’s memory. The No. 4 was the number Sciple wore when he played sports.
“It is really special. This group called the Fab Four, they are at my house so much,” coach Lindsey said. “It is like your own kids playing for you. It is like they are your own blood.”
Lindsey said Stapleton asked him Saturday to pitch her more balls between games. He said he would have but he had to attend to other duties as tournament host, so Stapleton’s father took on the role of pitcher. Requests like that aren’t new to Lindsey. He said players will call him on the weekends or whenever they want to get some extra work in. That mind-set fits the attitude Lindsey stresses to his players in that they have to strive to do the best they can.
“They know how I am. If they want some work, I am going to give it to them,” Lindsey said. “I always tell them it doesn’t take but a little bit more to do it right. A little extra effort isn’t going to hurt you. If you’re going to go that far, go ahead and do it right.
“My biggest saying is anything worth doing is worth doing right. You can use that the rest of your life, whether it is in your job or family. It fits everything.”
Gaylord and Robbins said all of the players believe in and trust Lindsey, even if they don’t realize he sometimes jokes with them.
This season, Gaylord said the Vikings have had a few more struggles than usual dealing with injuries. She admitted the team hit a “rough patch” in losses to higher classification teams at the end of the season, but she said Monday she felt like the team was back. She credited the efforts of junior varsity players for filling in for Robbins and outfielder Ashly Brown when they were injured.
Gaylord said at first everyone was concerned and asking the injured players when they were going to come back, but the Vikings overcame that obstacle and remain in position to achieve their biggest goal of the season thanks in part to their coach, who continues to motivate them.
“If you have ever seen him at a game or at a practice,” Gaylord said, “he gets mad because he knows we can do way better than we’re doing. Like when we hit our rough spot every now and then, he still has confidence in us. He might get mad on the sidelines because he knows we can do better than we’re doing, but he will tell us, ‘Look, I know you can do this,’ and we try harder for him.
Said Robbins said, “He is like our second dad.”
Lindsey prefers to credit the players. He said each class has learned and fed off the success of the players who came before them. This season, the cycle has continued with a young team that has at times surprised him.
“I guess (they believe what I say) because they have so much trust in me,” Lindsey said. “They want to believe what I am saying. They want to please me because they know if they play bad I am going to be upset and tell them about it. But they know when they play well I am going to tell them about that, too.
“I don’t know why our system works, but it has been working.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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