The DeRidder Patriots recently faced a difficult
choice – attend church or play for a berth in the
American Legion regional baseball tournament.
But for the young men on the team, their choice was
simple – spend Sunday evening at First Baptist
Church in DeRidder.
The DeRidder Patriots recently faced a difficult
choice – attend church or play for a berth in the
American Legion regional baseball tournament.
But for the young men on the team, their choice was
simple – spend Sunday evening at First Baptist
Church in DeRidder.
“We felt it was more important to go to church,”
says Patriot second baseman Micah Harrington, one of
three teammates baptized that evening.
“I had to think of my priorities, which are God,
then family, then baseball.”
Riding the momentum of a four-game winning streak,
the Patriots advanced to the championship game of
the Shaughnessy Tournament in Lake Charles.
When they learned of the 5 p.m. Sunday start time,
DeRidder head coach Reddoch Hooks requested that
tournament directors move the game to Monday.
When directors denied their request, the Patriots
forfeited the game.
During the next Sunday morning service, Aaron
Dickinson, youth minister at First Baptist Church of
DeRidder, announced the boys’ decision. The
congregation expressed their appreciation, giving
the team a standing ovation.
“Words really can’t say how I feel,” Hooks says of
the circumstances. “I was as proud of their decision
not to play as I was that some of (my players) were
on the state championship team.”
The team Hooks referred to is the DeRidder High
School baseball team, which won the Class 4A state
title and had several members represented on the
Patriots American Legion team.
“Baseball here in DeRidder is huge for the guys and
the community,” Dickinson explains. “For them to
give up baseball really says a lot.”
The week before the tournament, many on the team
attended Centrifuge youth camp at Union College in
Jackson, Tenn. Dickinson says those days provided
the “spark” the boys needed to rearrange their
priorities.
“Several of the guys on the team decided to put
their priorities in order and had been challenged to
do that,” he says. “They finally said enough is
enough.”
What ensued was not only their decision to choose
God over baseball but an answered prayer for First
Baptist Church of DeRidder, Dickinson says.
“We’ve been praying about where we need to be
headed, and God has answered those prayers,” he
notes.
“God’s really stirring waters here.”
The Sunday morning Dickinson announced the baseball
team’s decision, 18 from the congregation made
professions of faith or rededications.
Later that night, teammates Harrington, Rhodes and
Robbie Hooks were three of 13 baptized. On hand to
support the three boys were fellow teammates and
friends.
Patriot third baseman Scott Rhodes says his baptism
definitely was more important than baseball.
“It was an amazing experience to be baptized,” he says. “I felt
like I wasn’t doing what I needed to be doing, and God put me on that spot about
that.”