NC State baseball’s departure from CWS was confusing, frustrating for players, parents
Katherine Johnston was awakened early Saturday morning in Omaha, Nebraska, when her phone beeped.
It was a three-word text from her son, Reid: “We are done.”
Reid Johnston, a redshirt junior pitcher on the N.C. State baseball team, was letting his parents know the Wolfpack’s trip to the 2021 College World Series, the dream of a lifetime for many of the players, had come to a shocking end.
The NCAA had ruled the Pack had too many positive COVID-19 tests -- eight in all. The scheduled game Saturday with Vanderbilt had been ruled a “no-contest” by the NCAA for health and safety reasons, the NCAA making the announcement a little after 1 a.m., Omaha time. The Pack was done.
For Katherine Johnston and some of the other parents of Wolfpack players, there was confusion and little explanation as everything unfolded Friday and then into early Saturday -- before the text.
“There were a lot of unknowns,” Tyler Highfill, the father of Wolfpack freshman Sam Highfill, said in an interview Monday with The News & Observer. “Parents were trying to get up with their kids and nobody knows what’s going on.”
Many of the parents had gone to TD Ameritrade Park on Friday afternoon with little on their minds but beating Vanderbilt for a second time and advancing to the best-of-three CWS championship series.
The Johnstons were in a festive mood. Reid Johnston had been the starter and winner June 19 in the CWS opener against Stanford as the Pack rolled 10-4.
“We had our nervous time then,” Katherine Johnson said. “Once we got over that hump, we relaxed and were enjoying it. The people of Omaha were embracing the team and everywhere we went we were the darlings of Omaha, if you will.”
Johnston noted the Wolfpack parents had a Wiffle ball game on Wednesday and “everything was great.” They attended a Wolfpack Club function Friday before heading over to the game. No worries.
But once in the stadium, concern began to build.
“We noticed about 20 minutes before game time there were no lines on the field,” Johnston said. “The tarp was still out there and there no lines. And then we got into the rumor mill like everybody else.”
The parents began to get bits of information mixed with social media scuttlebutt. There was talk of more COVID testing and a possible delay to the start of the game, even a possible forfeiture.
Unvaccinated players sit out against Vanderbilt
On June 21, Wolfpack coach Elliott Avent had mentioned a “bug” affecting some of the players. As Tyler Highfill said, “We had known one of the players had tested positive a couple of days prior and he had gone home. We thought that was the only thing we were dealing with and I think the coaches did, too.”
There was no group text to the Wolfpack parents during the delay. No one from N.C. State was providing any information, Johnston said.
“It was who heard what from whoever was sitting beside you,” Johnston told the N&O. “To give (NCSU officials) the benefit of the doubt I heard they were fighting tooth and nail for us. We were not privy to any of that information.”
Katherine Johnston said Reid finally FaceTimed her. He was at the hotel, saying the non-vaccinated Wolfpack players would be tested and that the testing would not be completed in time for them to get back to the game.
“He said they would have to watch on TV from the hotel,” she said.
With 13 available players, all of whom had been vaccinated, the Pack lost to Vanderbilt 3-1, N.C. State’s first loss in the College World Series.
“After the game was the first time we were able to talk to our sons to kind of figure out what had happened,” Katherine Johnston said. “As much of the frustration of anything as a parent is to not know who’s making decisions and where your child is and why they’re not out there.
“The parents did not understand why our children were not on the field when they had all tested negative. Up until that time, Reid had had five negative tests, the most recent on Thursday. It made no sense.”
Wolfpack players, parents get word of COVID issues
Reid Johnston had contracted COVID-19 during the Christmas break, Katherine said. He was not vaccinated, believing the COVID antibody would protect him moving forward.
Further NCAA testing Friday resulted in more positive results, with four vaccinated players testing positive. The NCAA medical team recommended a no-contest ruling for Saturday’s game -- for N.C. State, season over.
“Sam had texted me earlier and said, ‘If we have one more positive they’re going to send us home and we just found out we have four more,’” Tyler Highfill said.
“It’s a tough blow It’s a tough blow, to the players, to the parents, to the fans. The timing of it is to me the worst part of it. You go through the whole season trying to follow all the protocols just the way you need to and here you are potentially three wins away from a national championship and the protocols don’t work anymore and somehow the virus gets through. That’s frustrating.”
The NCAA release was sparse early Saturday morning. It said the no-contest decision was made on the recommendation of the NCAA baseball championship medical team and the Douglas County Health Department.
Vanderbilt would be advancing. The “Greatest Show on Dirt” would continue, televised by ESPN.
“I think they (NCAA) panicked, whether it was a TV issue or whatever else, and they made the decision too quick,” Katherine Johnston said.
Adding to the pain, she said, was that when some of the Pack players returned to the stadium for a somber early-morning group shot on the field, it included the non-vaccinated players who were held out of Friday’s game but then tested negative for COVID.
“How ironic that they allowed them to go on the field for that picture, but that same group was not allowed on the field 12 hours earlier to play?” she said.
‘Nobody got to say goodbye’
Johnston said some of the Pack parents packed up quickly and left Omaha. “Nobody got to say goodbye, there was no closure,” she said.
And the players?
Anne Butler, the mother of Wolfpack outfielder Jonny Butler, said she could not say how her son is handling the disappointment but added, “I can imagine not good.”
“He plays baseball with his whole heart ... to Win,” she told the N&O Monday via Facebook messenger. “Probably feels like the rest of #pack9 family. Cheated, robbed, bullied and helpless.”
Tyler Highfill said Sam was mad and hurt but trying to put it in perspective. A good friend of Sam’s, he said, underwent brain surgery last week. A tumor was removed that proved to be benign.
“Sam can say, ‘I’ve got my health, got my family, I’m pretty lucky,’” Tyler said.
Tyler Highfill was able to see his son pitch the Pack past Vanderbilt and star pitcher Jack Leiter 1-0 on Monday. On Friday, he saw the former Apex High standout back in the lineup -- at first base, batting for the first time this season and getting three hits, as Vandy pitched its other ace, Kumar Rocker.
“A friend of mine whose son played at South Carolina called me up and said his kid faced Rocker for three years and Sam got more hits in one game than he did in three years,” Highfill said, laughing.
The celebration at Doak Field
Highfill said all the Pack players were placed in isolation after the game. He was able to be with his son only a few seconds Saturday in a hotel hallway before the team left for the airport.
Tyler said there was one earlier “scare” for the Highfill family during the NCAAs when Sam tested positive on the morning of the day he was to start against Louisiana Tech in the Ruston (La.) Regional. More extensive testing revealed a false positive and Sam pitched in the 8-3 win, Tyler said.
The reception Saturday night for the team at Doak Park at Dail Field when it returned to Raleigh was emotional and meaningful, Johnston and Highfill said. A big crowd of Wolfpack fans turned out, cheering a team that accomplished a lot and created some lasting memories before the misfortune in Omaha.
“I think it meant more to them in their acceptance, grieving, or whatever process you call it and helped them realize how everybody was behind them,” Katherine Johnston said.
Added Highfill: “There was a lot of healing that happened that night.”
This story was originally published June 28, 2021 at 6:11 PM with the headline "NC State baseball’s departure from CWS was confusing, frustrating for players, parents."
