Bryan Webb uses the cliche “play every game like it’s your last” with his players all the time. He never thought he’d be using it quite so literally in early March.
“It's just unfortunate that it happened to such a great, great group of kids that we've just waited for such a long time to get up here and, boom, it was over in an instant,” the San Marcos head coach said.
The Rattlers went 2-2 in their last home tournament on March 12 and 13. Webb felt like they had figured a lot of things out just as they were scheduled to begin district play next week against San Antonio East Central.
The season was postponed due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus. A few weeks later, it was canceled all together, cutting short the careers of one of Webb’s largest group of seniors.
“Of course it was a shocker because, you know, we're all hoping for the best and just saying that it's only gonna be for a couple weeks and we're gonna be right back into it and be playing with each other again,” senior Isaac Gonzalez said. “But unfortunately, things didn't go that way.”
The next few senior classes will be some of the most special to Webb — most of them have been playing baseball with his three sons for the better part of a decade. This year’s group includes Webb’s oldest son, Gunner.
The head coach knows all of them so well that he can rank them by how poorly they park in the back lot by the San Marcos baseball field.
Gunner’s the worst. During his sophomore year, he sped too fast and hit a pole that went straight through his car’s radiator. He told his dad there was nothing wrong with the truck.
“It only cost us $3,200 to get it fixed,” Bryan said.
After Gunner, it’s Ryan Wilder, then Gage Mason, Isaac Mancias, Gonzalez, Carlos “Juicy” Montemayor — who allegedly drives a BMW that no one on the team has seen. Devin Camacho is next on the list (“He doesn't pay attention, he's just rapping the whole time and he's got a boombox going on, so he doesn't know what he's driving”), then assistant coach David-Ryan Sambrano (“He can’t drive worth a crap either, that’s why he’s got that big dent in the side of his truck”) and finally, Gabriel Sanchez (“He’s a good driver, we'll give him that, he's prim and proper”).
The seniors and coaches have more stories they could tell about each other than they have time to explain them — like the time Gunner threw an orange at a TV, the time a bullsnake was hiding under the third base tarp or why assistant coach Kristian Cogdill gets harassed about hitting curbs whenever he drives.
It just would have been nice if the seniors could have had a few more before their season was done.
“I mean, they're trustworthy kids, they're loyal kids, they're honest kids,” Bryan said. “You know, they're stubborn kids and a lot of good baseball teams, they're stubborn, but they're not uncoachable. And sometimes if they didn't see something the right way, they did it the right way and they'd come to office and we'd talk about it. Not every time was perfect and not every time was too rosy and there were some times that the hard conversations had to happen. But this bunch always responded the right way and did the right thing.”
Bryan said he’s been working hard to send his players to the collegiate level. Mason signed with Hill College earlier this year, a Division I junior college in Hillsboro. Gonzalez plans to pursue nursing while playing at Northwestern Oklahoma State in Alva, Oklahoma. Mancias has a few offers on the table and expects to make a decision soon. Martinez, Sanchez and Wilder are getting looks from teams, too. The head coach probably sends out 500-600 messages a day trying to get more.
Even the players who aren’t continuing their playing careers are still furthering their education. Both Gunner and Montemayor want to major in kinesiology. Sean Esquivel will head to Texas State Technical College in Waco for welding. Alex Garcia plans to attend a trade school as well.
“Coach Webb always told us to never look back and always to be looking forward, to move forward. So we're kind of just doing that and they've helped us a lot during this recruiting process,” Gonzalez said. “(The coaches) just did everything they could with what they had and it allowed us to get looks from some colleges and commit. And now we're getting ready to take the next step forward for our next chapter in life.”
Bryan Webb knows this class of seniors will go on to do great things. He just wishes he’d had them for a little bit longer.
“This was a fun bunch and just coaching them and coaching with my sons was, you know, a dream that I've had for the last 18 years,” Bryan said. “You know, it's still hard to believe that really happened.”
