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Marshall
Matters Marshall Wilson has had to make some tough trades. Bat for clipboard. Pinstripes for sweats. Starting center fielder job for quasi-coaching job. The senior underwent surgery Feb. 9 to repair a separated shoulder that had been bothering him since April of last year. Unable to play, much less throw a baseball, Wilson is trying to help the team by keeping track of different types of situational statistics and hitting charts. In the process, Wilson has earned the nickname Coach Wilson by players. Even though players and coaches agree Wilson has taken the change of titles well, Wilson still misses his old one: starting center fielder. The bumps in the road, and in the shoulder
Practice like you are going to play. It is a universal cliché for all sports. Coaches preach it. Players, good ones anyway, do it. And that is exactly what Wilson was doing when he injured his shoulder. He was practicing like he plays. It was an ordinary practice in April of last year, just before the Frogs were going to take off for San Jose State. Wilson was taking flyballs, and he was chasing down a fly ball. It was out of his reach and Wilson dove for it, just like he would in a game. But the grittiness it takes to dive for a ball — the type of grittiness that can’t be taught and coaches salivate over — cost Wilson this time. It cost him this season. Wilson separated his shoulder. He sat out the San Jose State series, but returned to finish the final 11 games of the season. In pain. His grittiness, the thing that helped get him to the college level, injured him. It also made his injury worse. “When the injury got real bad, it was already so late in the season that I couldn’t have gotten a redshirt or anything,” Wilson said. “My eligibility was gone. I guess the smartest thing would have been not to play if I thought I was hurt. But it is a tough thing to do. We had 10 games left and I ended up finishing the season. “I just ended up making it worse and worse.” Wilson struggled at the plate —going three for 21 during one stretch — and since he injured his throwing shoulder, he was having trouble throwing. But the season was over, and Wilson hoped he would be able to heal his ailing shoulder in the off-season.
Wilson didn’t play summer ball, and he stayed with his parents
back home in Austin and worked an internship at a bank. But it didn’t take long before his shoulder started bothering him again. “I came back this fall and it was alright for a little while because I laid off for a while,” he said. “But it didn’t take long before I had the same symptoms.” Through the fall, the shoulder didn’t get better. It progressively got worse. And worse. Wilson was ready to start the season in pain when head coach Lance Brown sat down to talk with him.
“He could tell that I had been struggling to throw the ball,”
Wilson said. “My arm was in a lot of pain. He sat me down and
said there is no reason to start the season at 50 percent or something,
because once the season starts, there are no days to rest.” “You hate for players in their last year to be in pain and not be able to play up to their ability,” Brown said. “There is no use in playing a year where you are going to be hurt.” The news was somber, but Wilson said it meant a lot to him. “It made me feel good he was supporting me coming back another year,” Wilson said. “He cared enough to tell me that instead of making me play.” Wilson, after visiting a doctor and having his shoulder evaluated, elected to go ahead and have his shoulder operated on. “I laid off a good amount of months and the shoulder didn’t repair itself,” Wilson said. “I didn’t have another four to six months to lay off this time.” But there were risks involved in having the surgery. Wilson said the doctors told him the surgery he was going to have was not the most successful type of surgery since it involved removing a small part of the end of his collar bone. Wilson said he was a little worried he would never play baseball again. “It is a pretty big deal once you have surgery,” Wilson said. “I was a little bit scared.” Wilson underwent surgery Feb. 9. For a while afterward, his arm was in a sling and he wasn’t able to work out. He couldn’t even jog. “For a while, I wasn’t able to do anything,” Wilson said. “That was probably the worst.” But the pain in his shoulder is not all Wilson has had to cope with. The pain of not being on the field has also hurt him. “It’s hard,” Wilson said. “I knew it was going to be hard to sit out and not play because it is late in my career. I have already played three seasons and to sit out and not be going on plane trips is hard. I don’t feel a part of the team.” Traveling with the team on road trips is what Wilson said he misses the most. “It has been harder once the season has got underway,” Wilson said. “They have been traveling and I have been sitting at home. That is probably the worst adjustment. Just being with the team everyday when they are on the road and eating together and screwing around in the hotel — it is a lot of fun. It is really hard to miss that.” Wilson said he is going back to the doctor March 27. He said he hopes that evaluation will be positive and he will be able to start throwing again. The past week, Wilson said he has been able to start running, doing leg exercises and fielding fly balls again. It’s not much, he said, but it is a start. “Now that I am able to start doing stuff it gives me a little more confidence,” Wilson said. “I am able to work towards something.” The mannerisms, they are a changin’ Wilson may not be helping the Frogs on the field, but he is helping them in other ways, players said. His work charting statistics has been beneficial to coaches and players. “He does a lot of things to save us a lot of time,” Brown said. Senior designated hitter Cade Harris said Wilson has gone above the call of duty to help the team. “It is not really his job to be doing, and he has done it,” Harris said. Senior outfielder Tom Bates said Wilson spots the nuances of the game that players don’t notice on the field and passes that along to players. “He can see the little things pitchers are doing,” Bates said. “The little things you don’t see when you are playing.” Brown said that Wilson’s time spent on the sidelines can help him become a better player for next year. “By watching you can learn a lot,” Brown said. “If you will just watch the game, you will realize how the game is played. When you are playing, you are thinking about yourself. When your not, you get a perspective of the whole team.” Bates said it is kind of weird seeing Wilson in the dugout and not on the field. “It is a little different,” Bates said. “Everytime I have been in the outfield, he has been in center field.” In addition to keeping track of situational statistics, Wilson ran a practice for freshmen and redshirts when the team went to play Texas in Austin. The practice squad practiced and played an intrasquad game while listening to the Frogs play on the stadium sound system. It was when Wilson was running practice that he was given his nickname. “He has been Coach Wilson ever since then,” Harris said. Redshirt freshman outfielder Kenny Thompson said that Wilson has changed more than just titles or positions. His mannerisms have even changed, Thompson said. “He looks like a coach,” Thompson said. “He wears the sweats and even crosses his legs like a coach. He is Coach Wilson.” Coach Wilson has even created a somewhat prestigious award: the Marshall Wilson Situational Hitter of the Game Award. Wilson said the award has a little bit of fan fare. “I think it will catch on,” Wilson said. “They are starting to ask about it after games.” Wilson said sophomore Walter Olmstead has won the award the most times, but junior shortstop Erick Macha is a close second. Bates wasn’t sure if he had won the sought-after award. “I don’t think that I have,” Bates said. “I don’t care as long as we keep winning. Looking to trade suits in January Wilson misses being on the field, but from his demeanor, you can’t tell. “I think he has handled it excellent,” Harris said. “It is something he has never done before. He is used to starting every day. He seems to be doing fine.” Wilson said he hopes to be ready to play by January. “I don’t want to rush it,” Wilson said. “I am not going to jump in too soon. If I have to wait until next January, I will.” In the mean time, Wilson will have to get rid of the nickname he has earned. And this might be the hardest trade of all.
Brandon Ortiz |
