Jackie Robinson Showcase: Seventy-First baseball ‘trying to bring some light and noise’

Baseball is different at Seventy-First High School.

In a place known for its rich basketball and football history, baseball isn’t something that typically has garnered a lot of attention for the Falcons.

But that’s one reason why first-year coach Joshua Clark wanted to take over the program.

“I always wanted to go somewhere where I could have my own program and build something from the ground up,” said Clark, who was a football coach at Jack Britt before making the move to Seventy-First.

“Not just leave my impact on it, but my impact on kids. Seventy-First is a football, basketball school, so I was trying to bring some light and noise to the baseball program.”

After not fielding a team in 2021, Seventy-First returned to Ted Chappell Field this season with Clark and senior Josiah Thomas set on shifting the attitude around baseball at the school.

“It’s really different because a lot of people don’t know about baseball at Seventy-First. They’re more focused on basketball and football,” Thomas said.

“Really, playing for smaller crowds and sometimes just for your parents, it’s really fun. A lot of people probably don’t think about it like that, but it’s simple and it feels more grounded.”

Thomas and the Falcons probably will have a bigger crowd May 5 as part of the inaugural Jackie Robinson Showcase at Segra Stadium, home of minor league baseball’s Fayetteville Woodpeckers.

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The three-team event, which is free for fans, also features E.E. Smith and Westover. Games are scheduled for 1, 4 and 7 p.m.

“It’s Jackie Robinson, who broke down the color barrier and a lot of things for Black athletes,” Clark said.

“It’s big for Black athletes. … I wanted to do it because of the experience.”

The showcase aligns with Minor League Baseball’s new initiative, “The Nine.” Launched in 2022, the initiative “is a Black-community focused outreach platform specifically designed to honor and celebrate the historic impact numerous Black baseball pioneers made on the sport, provide new opportunities for youth baseball and softball participation, (and) further diversify the business of baseball.”

Named for the number Robinson wore during his only season playing in MiLB with the Triple-A Montreal Royals in 1946, The Nine aims to connect MiLB teams’ existing Black-community focused development efforts with new national programming and future special events in a coordinated and centralized campaign.

“It’s really great, especially for players like me: young Black players,” Thomas said. “It’s really amazing.”

From the ground up

The Falcons haven’t posted a winning record since 2006. From 2015-19, Seventy-First won just five games with more than 70 losses during that stretch.

But winning wasn’t Clark’s primary focus when he decided to take the job. He knew it was going to take some time to get things moving in the right direction.

“It’s rough. I didn’t come with high expectations. I wasn’t expecting to win a lot of games, but I expected to be competitive,” Clark said.

“I knew there was going to be trials and tribulations along the way, but we do have a core that we can build on. My guys are young – we only have four seniors. … It ain’t gonna be this year, but hopefully, in the next year or two we’re gonna be making some noise around the conference.”

Only a handful of the Falcons had played baseball prior to Clark’s arrival. Thomas was one of them.

“I’ve been playing baseball almost my entire life. My dad, he pushed me to play every sport, but I realized baseball was my favorite,” Thomas said.

“I’ve just always tried to come out here and have fun. It didn’t really matter about being the best person, as long as you help your team.”

As for what it’s like to be a Black baseball player, Thomas doesn’t think about it that much.

“I want to show what I can do and show what I can bring to the sport,” he said.

“We all just try to do our best. We don’t really try to think about being Black baseball players because we’re all just baseball players. We just try to come out here and do as good as any other school.”

The problem, Clark said, is other schools have players who specialize in baseball. That’s not the case at Seventy-First.

“Seventy-First don’t have baseball players; they have athletes,” Clark said.

“They have athletes, and you can tell the difference from having people that actually spent their life, growing up playing baseball, and people who play other sports and try to play baseball. You can tell a big difference.”

With his military background and a love for the sport, Clark is committed to changing that at Seventy-First. Every day, he sees signs of a little more progress.

“Discipline, teamwork, commitment, those kinds of things really are my core to everything. Getting a bunch of guys who never played baseball and trying to show them that they can do stuff they’re not used to,” he said.

“It’s a great group of guys. I know our record don’t show it, but there’s some hard workers. … They go at it every day. My experience with baseball, playing, and the military has brought me great joy with these kids.”

Increasing exposure

When he took over at Seventy-First, Clark made an effort to get the community on board with the team. That exposure, he said, is of the utmost importance if the Falcons are going to gain traction.

“A lot of kids didn’t know Seventy-First had a baseball program,” he said.

“Just getting out there playing, getting the word out and doing stuff in the offseason, just getting your name out there helps bring attention to the program. Putting your stuff into the program to get the exposure.”

For Thomas, change starts with the players.

“We have to get our families out here, try to let people in the school know,” he said.

“The amount of work we put into it, eventually, if you put enough work into it, there’s going to be people that hear about us.”

So even in a year in which wins are few and far between, Clark has found ways to measure success.

“Dealing with COVID, just being able to get out there on the field is a big win,” he said.

“Building a program that hadn’t had one in two or three years, that was something. I’m proud of the leap we’ve took.”

Clark and Thomas are hopeful the Jackie Robinson Showcase will shine a brighter light on baseball at Seventy-First and encourage more students to make the walk to Ted Chappell Field.

“That’s an experience I’ve never had. that’s an experience I don’t think anyone else here has had,” Thomas said.

“We just want to go out there (at Segra Stadium) and show that we’re also great baseball players. We all put in the same work to do what we can do to better the sport.”

Staff writer Rodd Baxley can be reached at rbaxley@fayobserver.com.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Seventy-First baseball in Jackie Robinson Showcase at Segra Stadium