Thomas Edwards can’t remember the last time he started off a season so hot in all of his baseball career. In 12 games, the Spokane Falls Community College outfielder led the Northwest Athletic Conference in batting average (.553), hits (21) and was tied for first in RBIs (18) and total bases (29).
The only benchmark the sophomore’s success could be compared to was himself, dating back to his junior year campaign playing at Central Valley High School.
“That was one of my best years, and I think this year I even beat that to start the season,” said the 20-year-old Edwards, who was born and raised in Spokane.
And the kind of impression Edwards left wasn’t limited to the box score. Bryan Winston, who was slated to complete his third full season as the baseball team’s head coach, explained the more intangible values of leadership Edwards has.
“He just simply leads by example and he shows up everyday with a smile on his face, ready to work and work hard,” said Winston, who led the team to a 9-3 record.
In these ways, Edwards is the prototypical athlete that comes to define the promise and excitement that spring sports is so welcome to.
And in the same way, Edwards and his story, and every athlete with one like his, has been subjected to the impossible: losing an entire season.
Ever since the spring season was pulled from under the collective feet of the sporting world when SFCC athletics were cancelled on March 16 due to the coronavirus, players and coaches have been left to come to terms with the abrupt end.
“I think everybody’s disappointed in that sense,” said Winston. “It’s going to be one of those things of, ‘Man, how good could we have been?’ “
Those enduring “what-ifs” will likely ring right into the 2021 season and remain a blemish on an unrealized campaign that boasted a Sasquatch squad that was voted No.1 in the NWAC by the other coaches in the league in October.
Couple that with the players who are departing after this year to continue their playing careers at a four-year college, and the frustrations mount into disappointment.
“We all knew that we were definitely going to be the top-ranked team in the league. We all thought that we were going to win rings and win that championship,” said sophomore TJ Trepanier.
“It really stinks, because we knew we were going to have a great season. We knew we were just going to make everybody proud at the Falls – make our coaches proud, our families proud, ourselves proud.”
These feelings resonate across the college’s teams, where reflections of the sobering cancellation have muted promising seasons for the softball team (4-0) and women’s golf squad.
Still, while the world of sports is put on pause for a season, it also stands as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for athletes to use it how they want to.
For someone like Edwards, this means his mind falling back on the weight room and the captivating potential of next season, especially with all SFCC athletes being granted another year of eligibility.
“I’m lucky enough to have a gym in my basement. I’ve been working out every day. I’m very motivated for next season,” said Edwards.
“At first, it was kind of rough thinking that some of these players I’ll never get to play with and this was our year to win it all,” said Edwards. “Next year, with all of the guys coming back, we’re going to be well-motivated and have a bigger goal and be way more competitive next year.”
These sentiments are shared by Winston, who knows his players enough to know that they’ll take this historic moment as it is and focus on the next sunny, safe day where baseball can be played.
“They’re also mature young men that understand that it’s just baseball,” said Winston.
“It’s just a game and that there’s other things in life that are more important. The nice thing for us is nobody’s really hanging it up and saying, ‘Well, my last year of baseball got taken from me.’ They get their year back, and they’re not done. Whenever this lifts and we can go back to playing baseball, I think everybody’s going to take it not as for granted as we did before.”