May 15, 2008

The coach wells up when I point to the side of his Vicksburg Gators baseball cap embroidered with a green “DG.”

It’s not a small tribute. The stitching is almost as prominent as the “V” on the front.

It’s a tribute to someone who never took a swing or fielded a ball. He wasn’t an alumnus and he didn’t have family on the team.

He actually attended Warren Central, spent some time in Florida and moved back to Vicksburg in the early 2000s. He adopted the Gators as his own after watching the current crop of Gators play youth ball with longtime friend and youth coach William “Boozer” Emerson, also a Warren Central graduate. He kept score for Emerson’s team and followed as the Gators’ scorekeeper.

Whether on a Friday night in February in the frozen chill of the Delta or at a tournament in Monroe, Dan Garnett watched the Gators. He adopted the team’s colors, had a Gators’ baseball cap and kept a scorebook as well as anyone. He never missed calling in a road game to this newspaper.

He arrived back in town soon after Vicksburg baseball coach Jamie Creel accepted a job as the next head baseball coach at Gulfport High. The Gulfport job paid more money, but something kept Creel here.

Creel had a reputation of staying at a place two years, then bolting, just like the three other coaching jobs he had. After two years, he was again ready to walk. He talked with his team and searched his soul. There was something about VHS that gave him the chills. He later met his wife here and now has two young children. He also met Dan Garnett.

Hundreds of Gator fans will be in Pearl when the weather clears and the Gators start the series that could lead to the school’s first baseball state championship.

Dan won’t be there. He died in August at 43.

You don’t often see baseball coaches shed a tear.

“You know, emotion overcomes me when I think of Dan Garnett. He was the ultimate Gator fan since I have been here. It didn’t matter if he had to hitch a ride, it didn’t matter how he got to the game, he would get there,” Creel said.

“I can’t tell you the amount of times that he called me in crucial situations to let me know he was there to support me. Dan did everything he could to see this program succeed. There is not a doubt in my mind that he is looking down on this team with a smile bigger than Dallas.”

After each Gator win, Creel awards a game-changer jersey to the player who most helped his team win a ballgame.

Creel has given away 20 of them so far. He has two left. It will take Vicksburg two wins to celebrate.

Jersey 29 is up for grabs.

The one with 30 on it is reserved for Dan Garnett. It will hang in the Vicksburg High fieldhouse in his honor if the Gators can beat East Central in the best-of-three tournament.

And if Vicksburg falls short? Well, those who knew Dan know he would stomp his feet, kick some dirt and maybe even throw down his scorebook. He’d be disappointed, but his faith wouldn’t fade.

He did love those Gators.

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Sean P. Murphy is sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. E-mail him at

smurphy@vicksburgpost.com