It was Thursday night. Freshman Zach Watts stepped to the plate in just his second at-bat ever at the varsity level. No big deal. Just bases loaded in an extra-innings tie ballgame against the defending state champs with the season on the line. Zach sent the first pitch to the outfield and sent his team to the Final Four, becoming the fifth Logan – Rogersville squad to do that this school year.
After the game, Zach was surrounded by his teammates, and seemingly the whole town for the postgame interview. “Yeah, I was just out there,” said Zach, struggling to find the words as his teammates had a good laugh behind him. “They intentionally walked both batters and I was like, ‘I don’t know,’ I was kind of nervous. Just wanted to hit that one out there. Just had to do a job.”
It was the happiest of times just before tragedy struck. Two Logan-Rogersville high schoolers died in a car crash later that night. The latest of several student tragedies in recent years. On Saturday, a moment of silence before another quarterfinal matchup. The girls soccer team was hosting Southern Boone.
“It’s a small community so we all know everybody,” said Brett Wubbena, Logan-Rogersville’s head soccer coach. “So I talked to our girls and said, ‘Let this be a relief. Let this be a purpose. Just go play strong,’ I know that I have a couple girls that are really affected by it and they played great. I was really proud of them.”
This time it was their season hanging in the balance. Down 1-0 with less than eight minutes to play in the game, with the Eagles defense holding Wildcats leading scorer Maddie Lou Shuburte at bay. “I saw they had a girl dropping back for me,” said Maddie Lou, a sophomore on the team. “They were shadowing me all game.”
But with seven and a half minutes to play Maddie Lou emerged from that shadow to score the game tying goal.
And with a minute and a half to go the Wildcats set up Shuburte again. This time for the game-winning goal, becoming the sixth Logan-Rogersville team to go to the Final Four this school year.
“I had those two in my history class and it really shook me,” Maddie Lou said. “I had to drive home yesterday, probably about the same time they got into that wreck. It kind of messed with me. I knew I had to do what I could do for everybody and hopefully up the spirits in here.”
Another week to up the spirits by doing what the high school athletes here do best: playing for a state championship.
