All week long, it felt like the world's walls were closing in on anyone involved with sports.
The year 2020 had so much promise to it, and when the spring season began in Putnam County, there were those individuals and teams who had a chance of taking the county -- all of us, really -- on a long adventure.
One of those teams was the Palatka High School softball team. The Panthers were dynamite ready to explode on the rest of their competition that season after coming off a 19-8 year that saw them reach the state tournament for the first time in six years and give the No. 1 team in the state, Eustis, a run for its money before falling in the opening round of the state tournament on Eustis' field, 1-0.
Most of the pieces of that incredible team were back in 2020. The battery of senior pitcher Brittney Funk and junior catcher Carlie Drew returned. The team's main power supplier, senior first baseman Kortney Booth, was also back, as was senior shortstop Jaden Musgrove, senior third baseman-outfielder Jesenia Feggins, senior outfielder Julia Hudson, sophomore outfielder Makenzie Clemons, and pitcher-third baseman Aubrey Brown.
This team was loaded. Coach Brandi Malandrucco, the first former player in the program's player (as Brandi Holley) to ever coach the Panthers, was the Palatka Daily News' Coach of the Spring honoree in 2019. She knew how good this team was, but there was one obstacle in the way in the Panthers' new District 5-3A. That was a very good and established Pierson Taylor team.
The season, though, did not get off to a good start. I was there at Palatka when the Panthers made too many mistakes in the field and didn't get the job done in an 8-5 loss to Keystone Heights. But after that loss, they got rolling. The Panthers beat Menendez and Clay. The next week at home against Eustis in the rematch of that regional first-round game, they were down 4-0 after three innings, but chipped away while team newcomer and North Marion High transfer Amy Kennedy was making her way back from Arizona earlier in the day. She got into the game late, pitched scoreless relief, then delivered the game-winning double in the bottom of the seventh inning to beat Eustis, 6-5.
The Panthers were on their way to big things. That weekend, they won the county tournament by beating Peniel Baptist Academy, Crescent City and Interlachen. Then on back-to-back days, March 10-11, they slaughtered Menendez and Yulee by a combined 27-1 score.
Their win streak was at nine games and they sat at 9-1 going into their final game of the week -- and this one was going to test how far the Panthers could or might go in the state tournament. They were facing district rival Pierson Taylor at home.
Good times never seemed so good, once sang Neil Diamond in "Sweet Caroline." But all that week, what was happening outside of this little cocoon was pretty ugly.
The COVID-19 pandemic had started in late January in this country, began spreading throughout the U.S. in February, but it didn't have a grip on us just yet. However, there was no denying the numbers were growing. And with the apathy being paid to it by a presidential administration, calling it nothing more than a "Democratic hoax," there was no telling how bad this virus was going to get.
Then came the night of Wednesday, March 11, 2020. The bulletin had come over our newswire that night -- Utah Jazz star player Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus. Suddenly, the Jazz's game with the Oklahoma City Thunder was canceled. So were other games. And suddenly, March Madness was coming to an end in the snap of a finger with conference tournaments being canceled.
Major League Baseball put its operations on hold, which absolutely positively sucked because I had invested in over $100 in tickets to spring training games THAT UPCOMING WEEKEND in Fort Myers with games involving the Red Sox and Twins at two stadiums I've never seen games at before.
The only pillar that seemed to not be crumbling was involving high school sports. The softball game between the Panthers and Pierson Taylor's Wildcats was still on that -- ironically -- Friday the 13th.
So I had planned to write my Saturday column on the pandemic and it's plight among our county high school and college teams.
As I arrived at Palatka for this pivotal softball battle between the two best teams in the district, nothing about the mood changed much. Fans were still engaged on what was happening between the white lines on both sides. I got the rosters upstairs and saw our freelance photographer, Greg Oyster, before the game. We had done away with full-time photographers as of October 2019, a move that I still look upon as brilliant for a newspaper like us (THAT was said with sarcasm and I still don't hold back on my criticism of that matter).
I jotted down the lineups upstairs above the softball field, then went outside onto the deck to cover this game. Immediately, the Wildcats of coach Richard Gonzalez were scheming on how to put the Panthers in an early vice grip against Funk. It started with leadoff hitter Deana Cunningham. She singled to left and stole second base on the very next pitch. Karen Kelly walked. Avery Harcus fouled out to Hudson in right field, but on the play, Cunningham sped to third base. Kelly would steal second to put two runners in scoring position.
Ava Ramos, whose mom Tonya I've known for years as Pierson Taylor High volleyball coach, lofted a single into right field to plate Cunningham and send Kelly to third. Kailey Poole delivered a sacrifice fly to Clemons in center field to bring in Kelly to make it 2-0.
Harcus was the hard-throwing junior hurler Gonzalez had, but he chose to throw a seventh-grader named Hailey Whidden instead. Whidden could mix and match off-speed pitches and have Panthers hitters chasing the entire evening. And she did for the first three innings, not allowing the Pamthers anything good to get a bat on.
However, the Panthers had a rally in the fourth that was about to make things interesting. They had runners on first and second with two outs, but Kennedy hit a soft pop up to second baseman Hannah Worden to end the threat.
Just looking at the body language of Malandrucco, I could see a tinge of frustration since Whidden was not giving her team anything good to get a hold of and that it was a matter of time before Harcus came in to end the game early if Gonzalez wanted to.
Funk pitched 3 2/3 innings, but now gave way to Kennedy, who could challenge opponents with her heat and riseball. Taylor, however, was about to challenge Kennedy in the fifth inning, threatening to put the game away. Kelly hit a booming triple to right field, Harcus was hit by a pitch and Ramos walked to load the bases. However, Kennedy gained her composure and struck out the next three hits she faced to get the Panthers out of the jam and keep hope alive.
But once again, Whidden frustrated Panthers hitters. In her five innings of work, Whidden finished with four hits allowed, one walk and one strikeout. It was time for Harcus to finish things up. She had little trouble with the Panthers in the sixth.
After Kennedy finished up a two-hit effort in 3 1/3 innings with one walk, one hit batsmen and eight strikeouts with a flawless top of the seventh, it was now down to Harcus to finish it out.
Then again, these Panthers showed how resilient they were, starting with last season. They had the first two batters make outs, but Musgrove, who had two hits on the evening, walked. Drew hit a groundball that third baseman Ramos flubbed for the Wildcats' third error of the night, and suddenly, both runners were in scoring position.
The Panthers' faithful were up and cheering loudly for its team. This group had nothing to be excited about all night against a Wildcats club that got the job done. And now it was up to Booth to deliver the hit and tie this game.
But she fell behind Harcus. Then on a 2-2 pitch, she hit an easy grounder to Worden, who threw her out at first base to end the game, scoring the 2-0 shutout and ending the Panthers' nine-game winning streak.
That, though, was secondary. Malandrucco and assistant coach Mindi Buckles were talking to the team afterward. It was there she had to deliver the bad news to her players that did not know beforehand that a trip scheduled for the next day to Orange Park to play Ridgeview High School was canceled.
When she finished talking with her team, her players began tending to the field as they normally do. I can see the look on Malandrucco's face was glum. I had a feeling I knew why.
She showed me her phone and the email Palatka High athletic director Bobby Humphries had sent. It basically read that all sporting events as of that night (this game was allowed to be played) were postponed due to the growing pandemic.
Reality was slowly setting in and not only did I have a story to write on this game, I had a column to bang out and have everything done in 90 minutes after I arrived back at 8:45 p.m. from my game. I found Musgrove. One of their team leaders, she tried to paint a picture of optimism and of hope, like this will go away in a short time and all will be back to normal.
But when it came to this subject and not having a game the next day, you can see her mood and face changed. She said, "We were just talking before the game about the fact that tomorrow's game was canceled. I was really upset about it. I looked at coach Mal and said, 'Our game's canceled tomorrow,' and she said, 'Don't talk to me about it. I don't want to talk about it.'"
Then she continued on by saying, "This is the moment I've been waiting for since freshman year. Senior year was going to be my time and the seniors' time to shine. And that's all we really wanted. If this was our last game, it would be devastating to us because this year is so important to us."
And she was right -- this isn't college where you can redshirt your way to another senior year. High school, it's black and white -- you get it one time and one time only. That slumping, ugly feeling was beginning to come splashing over this talented group of Panthers.
At 9-2 -- and even after this loss -- they were still prime to go places when the postseason began. The mistakes they made on this Friday night were fixable. Malandrucco said so. If you saw this game, you'd agree. Give Pierson Taylor its props. The Wildcats wanted it a little more on this particular night.
But as far as keeping a stiff upper lip and remaining positive that this was temporary, the truth was right there upon everyone. No vaccine to stop this and the death toll was about to rise from the coronavirus.
"I have to sit back and impatiently wait on what I can and can not do," Malandrucco said. "As of right now, we can not be near the girls if they want to go to practice. It's like back to preseason where they can't be on the campus, can't use the facility and if they want to go play or throw or hit, they have to be at a whole different place to go that isn't PCSD (Putnam County School District), and the coaches can't be anywhere near them."
But the coach remained optimistic.
"I don't see this being our last game. I don't. If (the state) get ahead of this and tries to squash this as early as they can and keep everyone in spot and try to keep everyone in their homes and hope (the virus) doesn't spread, maybe we can play again. There's a lot of uncertainty. I'm trying to be patient."
And so I left with a lot of people back at that field wondering if they should say, "See you later," or "Good luck next year." It was sobering.
But in my heart of hearts, I knew I was never returning to this field for another game this year.
I wrote the column and story for my boss, Andy, and we got the paper out as we normally did that night with few local games being played on this day (Interlachen and Crescent City baseball played that night, too).
Now with my original vacation plans with my better half gone, Kamesa and I decided we should go north instead of south. Instead of Fort Myers, we chose Savannah to do a two-day, one-night trip that Sunday and Monday since I took the day off from work on that March 16. But even in Savannah, we knew all the possible St. Patrick's Day plans were about to be put down by this virus no one had an answer for other than masks or just staying home.
Social was now no way to go. I had to prepare for a new way of sports thinking without any action going on.
The high schools were now not only on spring break, but they were on sports hiatus. St. Johns River State's baseball and softball seasons were both gone and never returning that spring.
Andy and I made the decision that instead of having our All-County winter teams come out in May like they normally do, we would run them starting the following week. And so we did. Girls basketball, which Andy wrote, was first up. They went into the paper on March 25 with the girls player of the year (Interlachen's Malea Brown) and the girls basketball player of the year the following day.
But it was that Thursday, March 26 that I walked into the Daily News building and saw Andy come out of our editor's office and walking to me to tell me I was in charge now. The paper decided to furlough him.
I won't lie -- I was bitter and I was pissed off that my partner in crime of 17 1/2 years was being sent away, but in fairness, he was not in the best of health. Suddenly, I had no time off because, well, I WAS the sports department.
As for the state high school sports world, it became official on Monday afternoon, April 20, 2020 -- the FHSAA shut down all athletic competition until the following year. Just as I expected it would happen. And those seniors who were hoping to have a final year to enjoy and make a final name for themselves ... that was gone. Other than being born between late 2001 and the first seven or eight months of 2002, it was not their fault that a virus screwed them completely over.
Before long, I had one-page sports sections and had to basically come up with sports stories to have something local on a regular basis.
Eventually, I got two weeks off in the Summer of 2020 and went back to New Jersey as Andy did return for one last time to lay out the paper and help me out. He would pretty much be my assistant and even take charge on some nights between August and October before his health was grew worse.
Then on my birthday in 2020, I got the greatest gift of all -- I found out I tested positive with COVID. Without Andy around regularly anymore, it was left to me to lay out the sports section from the confines of MY OWN PLACE the following week!! I got through that and on December 15, 2020, I officially became sports editor.
Eventually, Andy passed away on August 17, 2021. I've had two assistant editors/writers since then.
Things changed dramatically, and I can pinpoint that night -- that Friday the 13th -- for when they did.
I think about that transitional time. I think about what happened to my boss. I think about those seniors that had the carpet pulled out from under them.
And I think of the Palatka High softball team and how so much greatness that was put in front that team got taken away from the Panthers that night. All of it could have been avoided, but it wasn't. I'd understand the anger and the hurt.
Nonetheless, the walls and pillars crumbled and no one could do a thing about it.
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