MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – It was Pat Sherald’s year to prove his mettle as a high school coach, but those on-field dreams have been dashed by COVID-19.
Morgantown High’s new baseball coach had a lot to prove and a culture to build this year, and behind him was a team ready to make a statement after losing a handful of successful seniors.
“It’s been an interesting year to be a first-year head coach at the high school level,” Sherald said laughing. “My initial thoughts went to the seniors and I put myself in their shoes. Other than injury, this has never happened to my knowledge in the history of baseball in this country. You probably have to go back to the world wars or the [Spanish] flu breakout, but we’re definitely in uncharted territory.”
It was also Sherald’s first year back on a diamond after a five-year hiatus. And to understand the new coach, one has to look far back to his upbringing.
Growing up in Frederick County, Md., Sherald was one with the game of baseball. His father Tom Sherald was a Division I college coach and professional scout before ending his coaching career at the high school level as well as a co-founder of the Cal Ripken Baseball School with Cal Ripken Sr. and Jim Gilbert. Aside from his Hall of Fame father, during that time Sherald was learning from some of the best baseball minds in the greater-Frederick area: namely Ripken Sr. and Gilbert, but also Jefferson High’s historic frontman John Lowery.
A star high school player, Sherald took his talents to Frederick Community College. There he went to a JUCO world series, which propelled him to finish his college career at Lamar (Texas) in 2000-01. Following school, he stuck around at Lamar as an assistant before taking a job under former West Virginia head coach Greg Van Zant in 2005. After a successful eight years with Van Zant and the Mountaineers, WVU entered the Big 12 and Sherald was out of a job following a complete staff overhaul.
“When we all got displaced, at that point I had to make the call whether I was going to stay in the game,” Sherald said. “My wife was eight months pregnant, so I went into the private sector. When coach McCarty decided he wasn’t going to come back, [Morgantown] reached out and [asked if] I’d be interested in doing it.”
Getting back on the field after a long break from the game, Sherald was having the time of his life was a coach again. And just a few days removed from his inaugural game against Hurricane, the news broke that all spring seasons were on hold.
“My expectation at first, quite frankly, was to develop a culture,” Sherald said. “From there we had a lot of teaching to do. A whole new staff came in, a completely new way of running things, so there was a lot of teaching along those lines. They had lost a lot from the year before, but the group I had I loved that group. We were learning and getting better every single day. And this was my first high school stop, so I was learning with the kids.
“We were days away [from starting]. We were handing out uniforms, hats, all that. We had team pictures coming up that weekend, and that Friday we had the plug pulled. So yeah, it’s tough for the kids.”
One of those kids dealing with the abrupt halt to his season is senior pitcher Carter Patrick. Patrick was a standout on the mound last season for Morgantown as well as Post 2, Morgantown’s American Legion team. Currently, West Virginia’s Legion season hasn’t been canceled even though other states have already cut their seasons.
“It really sucks because originally I wasn’t going to play summer ball,” Patrick said. “This was going to be my last year and I was going to try and have the best year I could. But once all this happened I texted Andy Altimus with Post 2 and told him I wanted to play.”
But Patrick has been keeping busy and keeping his arm loose. And to keep competitive?
“I try to hang out with my family as much as possible, we do a lot of family activities like board games, wiffle ball, all that stuff,” he said. “I’m in last place but I’m trying to incorporate some athletic games. Then maybe I’ll get up there a little bit.”
Unfortunately for Patrick, it seems his baseball skills don’t easily translate to board games but it did translate to a wiffleball game that got him in prime position for a comeback. Regardless of standings, the board games have helped Patrick and his family cope with the pandemic.
“We try to play once or twice during the week, but we mostly play on the weekends. It’s nice to get some family time away from work and all that stuff.”
And while board games can keep your mind busy, Patrick’s senior season is still slipping away. But just because the season is slowly deflating, it doesn’t mean Sherald can’t still lead his team and give his team some memories. As the great comedian, Dave Chappelle coined, “Modern problems require modern solutions.”
“The biggest thing for us, we have to have a certain level of emotional intelligence with the kids right now,” Sherald said. “We’re trying to meet the kids where they are. As a coach, when you’re teaching a game the kids will meet you where you are: Practice is at this time, this is the practice plan, that’s the expectation that’s what we’re going to do. Right now, I have kids in different situations, training environments, everything. I have kids whose parents have lost their jobs, who are small business owners and are trying to stay afloat. So they’re having those stressors, and baseball right now is not the priority.
“Now, as a coach, we’ve done some cool things. We’ve had video messages from Jedd Gyorko, Ryan McBroom, Vince Belnome, Jim Riggleman. My assistant coach does a quiz a couple of times a week to keep them engaged. We did a zoom meeting this week where we talked about where we are from a training standpoint. We’re all trying to navigate at the same level because no one has experienced this. But we have to have emotional intelligence and know we can’t expect the same thing from every kid. [Other coaches] may be doing things differently, but that’s been our mindset.”
