CALEDONIA — The Caledonia High School baseball team played a game the very day Travis Garner officially became the team’s new head coach.
Garner didn’t even have a chance to meet the Confederates before their summer league game last June 1. The team’s three seniors made the lineup, and Garner coached using a play card.
So for Garner, who came in from Starkville High after coaching in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, it was a tough adjustment at first.
But as the fall wore on, he started to notice two players emerging as leaders: juniors Justin Black and Tony Brooks, friends since preschool who had shared a baseball field for nearly 10 years.
“You could figure out pretty quickly those were two guys that you could count on,” Garner said.
As his tenure wore on, Garner watched Black, who he said plays “everywhere,” including outfield, third base and pitcher, and Brooks, who plays third and pitches, stand out among the Feds’ eight-player senior class.
On Monday, Garner got to watch both Black and Brooks take the next step. The two seniors signed together to play baseball at East Mississippi Community College.
“Anytime you have a kid that graduates and goes and plays college baseball, it’s a big day,” Garner said. “Very, very proud of those two. They’ve earned it. They’ve worked hard for it. Proud of them and proud of the program.”
Black and Brooks are the third and fourth ‘Feds to sign to play college baseball under Garner, following Beau Bates (EMCC) and Cade Stacy (Meridian Community College) last season.
Bates and Stacy were the team’s No. 1 and No. 2 starters, leaving behind their positions for Black and Brooks to likely take over. Brooks served as the team’s closer, Garner said, but he may not be able to stay at the position.
“In a perfect world, we keep him there, but I don’t know if we’re going to be able to do that this year or not,” Garner said. “He may have to start for us.”
If Brooks does start, he’d likely join the teammate and friend he’s played with “forever” — T-ball, at nearby Pickett Park, in travel ball and now in high school — in the starting rotation.
“We’re looking for him to make a pretty big splash on the mound,” Garner said of Black. “He’s somebody that can run the ball up there pretty good.”
No matter how the rotation shakes out, Brooks and Black will still share the field, and that won’t change anytime soon. Black committed to EMCC first and waited for Brooks to join him. Two or three weeks ago, Brooks made his decision.
“I was probably just as happy about him being able to go with me, and that more solidified me wanting to go there as well, that he was gonna be able to go,” Black said.
The two plan to room together in Scooba, not ready to walk different paths just yet.
“We’ve always been around each other,” Brooks said. “It just feels a lot better.”
Both players want to continue their baseball careers after EMCC, and they know the exposure the school can give them.
“They really sold me,” Black said of the Lions. “They showed they care a lot about player development and having a good system of getting players to the next level.”
And while both he and Brooks long pictured taking their careers to the collegiate level, signing together to team up once again means even more.
“It’s monumental not only to be able to live out the dream of playing college baseball but playing with my best friend, too,” Black said.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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