As Banks Hyde flipped open the slim maroon folder that contained his future, his mother, seated to his left, had one last joke for him.
“Sign it,” she said with a smile, just loud enough to be audible to the happy crowd in Heritage Academy’s library on Friday morning. “Sign your life away.”
The Patriots senior middle infielder did just that, officially signing his letter of intent to play baseball at Pearl River Community College. He donned a maroon Wildcats baseball cap and seemingly posed for a picture with every possible combination of friends, teammates, coaches and relatives present.
That included Seth Harris, who’s been close to Hyde since the two started school together at Heritage Academy in seventh grade. The two play baseball and football together, and Harris had signed his letter of intent to play for East Mississippi Community College just a few minutes before Hyde and his parents took the stage.
“He’s one of my best friends,” Harris said. “It relaxes you, and it’s fun to have a memory with him.”
Harris, the Patriots’ catcher, is still recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament that he suffered during the spring baseball season. That means he missed out on joining Hyde on the football field this fall, which he lamented given Heritage Academy’s 11-0 record.
“They’re undefeated this year, so that makes it a little worse,” Harris said.
Harris’ leg is still in a brace, but he’s working hard to return for his final baseball season with the Patriots, and assistant coach Chris Ball likes what he sees.
“Watching him day in and day out working out, he’s really put in a lot of work,” Ball said. “He’s really gonna have a big year, I think.”
Ball said he was impressed that Harris received calls from schools like EMCC, torn ACL and all. The catcher decided on the Lions soon after being offered in June, wanting to stay close to home.
For Ball, seeing the two friends spread across the state — Hyde in Poplarville; Harris in Scooba — isn’t easy, but it represents another step in the process.
“It’s kind of sad to see they’re going separate ways, but it’s also a good thing, too,” Ball said. “You actually see them when they were little nuggets, little guys growing up close together. Now they’ve made their first big adult decision, where they want to go, and that’s pretty neat.”
Harris and Hyde could team up again in a few years. Both said Friday they long to play for a Southeastern Conference program, and being teammates again would make plenty of sense.
They just came off a state championship at Heritage Academy this spring, after all, and they’re gearing up for another.
But for Ball, no ring, no title can compare to seeing the pair in action Friday.
“Today’s a better feeling for me than winning state,” Ball said. “You’re seeing two kids that you’ve actually touched their lives, and they’re moving on to the next level, fulfilling the dream that they have.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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