'We are a family' ... How Link Jarrett and Seminole Baseball brought FSU's campus back together

There’s no coaching manual for times like this.

There’s no TED Talk or instructional video to help one lead a team of 40 college baseball players through a literal nightmare on their college campus. Then through an unexpected and bizarre weekend off in the middle of their season. And then back into action just a couple days later, without any semblance of the routine they’ve come to expect.

There’s not even anything in a lifetime of baseball, including nearly 15 years as a college head coach, that could prepare Link Jarrett for how to handle these past 100 or so hours.

And he readily admits he didn’t have all the answers.

Like most everyone else in the FSU community — a community that was rocked to its core last Thursday when a mass shooting in the heart of campus left two men dead and several others injured — Jarrett simply wanted to do the right thing. All the right things.

He said he was mostly going by “feel.”

At first, in the minutes after the shots rang out, that obviously meant tracking down everyone in his program to make sure they were safe. (Two of the Seminoles’ players were in what Jarrett described as, “situations of concern,” but they eventually made it out OK.) Then, with the Virginia series abruptly canceled, it meant letting his players spend the Easter weekend with their families and friends.

Then on Tuesday evening, when his team’s game against Stetson was going to be the first sport played on campus following the tragedy, it meant opening his field — and his arms — to just about everyone.

With first pitch scheduled for 5 p.m., Jarrett had FSU’s facilities staff open the gate near first base at 4:30 so that more than 1,000 FSU students and faculty could gather just beyond the Dick Howser Stadium infield. Once there, they shared in a moment of reflection and silence.

They then listened to the Marching Chiefs perform the national anthem, the fight song, “Warchant” and more. They saluted the FSU Police officers and other first responders who saved countless lives with their heroic actions. And they watched Dr. Matthew Ramseyer, a Tallahassee Medical Healthcare trauma response surgeon, throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

There were alternating tears and cheers throughout the stadium.

A few hours later, after his team rallied for an 11-6 victory, Jarrett was asked if it was important to bring some “normalcy” back to the FSU campus.

Jarrett wanted that, of course. He said he wanted it, “more than anything.”

But he wanted the campus to feel something else even more. He wanted them to feel the love from each other.

“Normalcy didn’t seem like enough to me today,” Jarrett said. “Togetherness. ‘Come out there on the field.’ ‘Like, ‘Let’s all be in this together.’ So I hope that it was a positive experience for all involved. It felt like it. To me, I felt it. And I think the kids on the field and the band and our team and Stetson’s team … I think it served a healing purpose to step through a very difficult, difficult situation.”

It absolutely did. And as his mentor and coach, Mike Martin Sr., might have said, we should all give him a tip of the cap.

Make no mistake, there are a lot of college baseball coaches who would not have done what Link Jarrett did on Tuesday. I would wager just about all of them.

That doesn’t make him better, or them worse. It’s just a reflection of who he is and how he was raised. Of him being a Florida State Seminole from the day he was born.

His father played baseball at FSU. Link followed in those footsteps and became an All-America shortstop for the ‘Noles. He grew up just down the street from Howser Stadium on Chapel Drive. His wife, Jennifer, was an FSU cheerleader. His family and his wife’s family still live in town.

They’re from Tallahassee. They are Tallahassee.

So, returning to the field on Tuesday was important. But Jarrett knew it had to be more than that.

“Wanted to open the place up,” he said of the pregame gathering. “We are a family. This is the Florida State University family. This campus, the athletic facilities are wound tight here. And we wanted this moment.”

Jarrett also knew it might not be pretty once the game started. And he was correct.

After taking the extended weekend off, then running through a practice Monday that he described as not very sharp, Jarrett did something he probably hasn’t done once in his decade-plus as a head coach. He drastically altered the Seminoles’ normal routine of infield, outfield and base-running drills to carve out the 30-minute window for the pregame ceremony.

And sure enough, FSU struggled badly in the early innings. There were poor at-bats, defensive lapses and ill-timed errant pitches. By midway through the fourth inning, the Seminoles were trailing 4-0.

“As bad as we’ve been,” Jarrett described those early frames.

But a three-run homer from outfielder Gage Harrelson got the Seminoles back in the game in the bottom of the fourth, then teammate Max Williams blasted a solo shot one inning later to give FSU a lead it would never relinquish.

By the end of the night, Jarrett’s Seminoles had cranked out three home runs, including another three-run blast from catcher Hunter Carns to blow the game open in the seventh. And reliever Chris Knier pitched a flawless final two innings to close it out.

The giant replay board in left field then flashed a familiar message, “Noles Win,” while “Seminole Wind” blared over the speakers. And the sold-out crowd headed to the exits as FSU’s and Stetson’s players and coaches shook hands, dapped each other up and even shared a few hugs.

Those Stetson players, by the way, were wearing garnet patches on the front of their jerseys that read, “FSU Strong.” It was a symbol of solidarity. And support. And respect.

“Classy,” Jarrett said.

A return to normalcy? Not exactly.

A perfect performance? Not at all.

But thanks in no small part to the university’s born-to-be-a-Seminole head baseball coach, it was maybe just what the FSU family needed.

Contact Warchant managing editor Ira Schoffel at [email protected].

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