After the Carroll Dragons defeated Flower Mound last Friday to win the Region I title, Carroll coach Larry Hughes celebrated and later walked into the Carroll dugout and immediately found a cup of water to quench his thirst.
He looked out at the field and wiped his brow.
"I can’t feel anything right now," he said. "I’m just numb. You know, I don’t think people realize how hard it is to get there."
In any season, the question a hardened team must answer is how it will deal with adversity.
You ask couldn’t for a more difficult dilemma for Carroll earlier this year. An ineligible player – Tyler Burt – was discovered and had to sit the rest of the season. Carroll forfeited 11 wins.
"I knew it was going to make our program look bad," Hughes said. "It was a mistake. I wouldn’t do anything on purpose. I deserved the blame."
The ballclub rallied from the distraction and advanced to the state baseball tournament for the first time since 2002 – sixth overall – and is making its inaugural appearance as a Class 5A school.
The two-time state champion Dragons (22-18) meet seven-time state champion Houston Bellaire (39-8) at 7 p.m. tonight in the state semifinals at Round Rock’s Dell Diamond.
Hughes has been coaching for 22 seasons and always taken pride in running a principled program. When Burt moved in, he went to live with a legal guardian. Hughes didn’t think there were any concerns.
However, the day after Carroll opened the District 5-5A season against Keller Central on March 11, Hughes submitted Burt’s previous athletic participation form to the district chair, Keller. Hughes fielded questions about Burt and then learned of the error. Automatically, the team lost a run producer, because Burt had 18 RBIs in his first 13 games.
The magnitude of this kind of episode produces an either/or scenario. Either the Dragons were going to overcome this setback or they were going to watch their season fall apart.
"It was pretty disappointing," junior center fielder Ronnie Mitchell said. "Everybody was already down, but we still knew we were a pretty good team and that other people would have to step up."
Hughes needed to see that response. When Carroll went to Colleyville Heritage, Hughes casually mentioned to his team that Burt would not be with them. He spoke in generalities. Seemed harmless enough, and the players responded with a 12-9 victory.
"I never detected any panic reaction from this group," Hughes said. "I can usually detect something stirring, and I tried my best to do that. But they way they played in that Colleyville Heritage game showed me that maybe we were mentally tougher than I had ever thought."
Call it a defining moment. The Dragons managed to finish second to Keller and make the postseason.
When every program opens a season, a coach can mentally go over a host of issues about his team. Will it play the game the right way? Will it understand the nuances? Can it handle success and failure? Will it fight to get into the postseason?
At Carroll, mental toughness is a common thread with most of its athletic teams. They expect to win and to compete at a high level.