By Richard Smith
Twitter: @rsmithYWV

Editor’s Note: Over the remainder of what was to be the 2020 spring high school sports season, sports editor Richard Smith will tell the story of teams and players — in particular seniors — that were preparing for major accomplishments this spring, only to see them wiped out as the spread of the coronavirus led to the cancellation of the rest of the school year.

Every now and then, a number of factors converge that allows a usually average high school program to compete with the powerhouses for a state title.

By March, the Paradise Honors baseball team had many reasons to believe it was in the midst of one of those seasons. The Panthers returned their entire lineup and top four pitchers from a surprise 3A quarterfinal team in 2019, and this experienced group had a full offseason program this time around.

Paradise Honors won its first two regular season 3A games by more than 10 runs and was 4-2 overall. The Panthers beat two 4A teams in a preseason tournament and lost to a California team and in a competitive 6-3 defeat at the hand of Sahuarita, the 2018 and 2019 3A runner up.

But this team and many others will never know its destiny. The spread of COVID-19 caused the stoppage of the 2020 season in mid-March  and then the outright cancellation of the rest of the school year and spring sports season on March 30.

“We were 4-2 and moving in an extremely positive direction when the season was delayed and ultimately canceled.  The momentum was continuing. It began in the weight room last summer and was beginning to show on the field in the early games,” stated Paradise Honors baseball coach Charles Summers in an email interview.

Senior Hayden King stated in an email interview that the 2019 team was a lot of fun to be a part of and with only losing one player, the 2020 team believed it had a shot to make a good run.

“It was very exciting that we actually had a real shot at it all. All of the time put in by players and coaches was going to feel like it was worth it and having that taken away makes me upset. Our coaches put in timeless hours of work into making us a strong team and all of that just got thrown away,” King stated.

Summers was in his second year as the team’s coach but this was his first chance to really put his stamp on the program. An unusually late coaching change caused him to take over Paradise Honors three days before the 2019 season.

He led that team to a 10-11-1 finish and playoff upset of Snowflake. Momentum built around the sport for the first time at the young charter school, and not just on the field.

“This has been and will be very difficult. We had several substantial financial donations and fundraising to upgrade the facility, which now is a ghost field versus watching our team play on a great field/facility,” Summers stated. “The players were making great strides in their skills and growth, all stopped or on hold. Seniors only had a six-game senior year after a full year of effort to become the best team in school history. (It is) very disappointing.”

One saving grace is that only four of the Panthers’ 20 players are seniors. But, as Summers was quick to point out, all four were crucial in the lineup and three seniors paced the pitching staff.

Two senior pitcher have signed to play in college — James Hamill at Ottawa University Arizona and Hayden King at Glendale Community College. The coach hopes that colleges pay attention Sam Nickels and Daeylen Phillips, who had prolific starts to their senior season before losing a chance to further showcase themselves.

Summers said all the seniors improved and all made adjustments,

“All the seniors are extremely disappointed..Two have college scholarships, but two do not and the two that do not were hitting .400 (Nickels) and .385 (Phillips) in the first six games,” Summers stated. “The seniors became grinders, hard workers and goal oriented..they became young men that wanted to succeed to be great players versus just showing up because the coach told them to ... they became very focused on taking care of what they control, which is their effort and attitude.”

The heart of this team was so entrenched that Summers said he had not had many opportunities to try out varsity newcomers when the season ended.

Paradise Honors athletic director Ben Clark stated in a Twitter interview that the school a great group of players, coaches and parents that will find a way through this tough time and come out stronger.

“I think this is especially cruel for all spring sports across the state, not just our team. They have watched or competed with the fall and winter sports and to have their season canceled is just really tough,” Clark stated.

For the baseball and softball teams in particular, this unfinished season also means a lost opportunity at the school’s first state championship. And it will get harder next year, as every PHHS sport other than football voluntarily moves up to the 4A conference.

Juniors Joey Collier, Andrew DeLaney, Thomas Spigelmire and T.J Staab and sophomores Trey Herrmann and Daniel Juarez are good foundation blocks for 2021. Paradise Honors will need that and more in a region with a very solid Estrella Foothills program and a conference with juggernauts like Gilbert Mesquite, Scottsdale Notre Dame Prep and Tucson Salpointe Catholic.

“This team was built to win not just at the 3A level, but to prepare for the move to 4A. I know our seniors wanted one last shot at the 3A state championship, I think we would have been there at the end. That is the culture Coach Summers is building,” Clark stated.

Before the Panthers take the field again, Summers hopes the players take this spring to heart and make the most of the time they have to play baseball.

“The life lesson to take from this is to Carpe Diem, seize the day. Life is not always fair and they should never assume they will get the same opportunity in the future that they have now. Work, grind, train for success now and let the future play out as it does, but don’t waste time as it is fleeting,” Summers stated.

This senior class still will leave a legacy for this growing baseball program, And King hinted that they will be around to help the 2021 team.

“The class of 2020 is going to do big things James and I are both attending college baseball programs and we all hope to continue to go back and help the younger kids get better any way we can help,” King stated.

Richard Smith
Associate Editor | Surprise & West Valley Preps
@rsmithYWV

rsmith@iniusa.org

Richard Smith has been with Independent Newsmedia since 2016, and worked at a Sun City-based news outfit covering the Northwest Valley for 22 consecutive years.

An NAU alum and lifelong Arizona resident, Richard began as a copy editor and page designer at Surprise Today and the Daily News-Sun, then rekindled his love of sports writing by taking the reins on West Valley Preps in 2008.

For most of the mid-2010s he was the Surprise editor and West Valley Preps reporter. Now he’s the West Valley Preps Editor and Surprise Associate Editor.

As COVID restrictions slowly lift, Richard is cautiously optimistic he will visit book stores, football fields and gyms again this fall.