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Friday, May. 22, 2009

HS Notebook: From shortstop to soldier

The Herald-Leader's 2005 All-City baseball team was stacked with talent, including future Mr. Baseball winners Chaz Roe and Ben Revere, who signed pro contracts out of high school, and nine other first-teamers who went on to play in college.

Scott Napier was the lone exception. As a senior at Tates Creek, he played shortstop, hit .423 and got an offer to play at Centre College.

But he had other ideas.

"To be honest, I'd been playing baseball for so long, I wanted a different take on life," he said.

So he went to the University of Kentucky as a regular student and had a part-time job in an accounting department at a Lexington business.

"That's when I realized I didn't want to spend the rest of my life sitting behind a desk," he said.

Then came a life-changing moment.

In the summer of 2006, Napier was watching TV coverage of Hezbollah's attack on Israel. "That's when it just kind of hit me," Napier said. "I looked at the Marine Corps as a back-up plan to do more with my life."

The reaction of his parents, Tom and Angie Napier? "They told me it was a man's decision, my decision," Scott said. Within days he had signed on with the Marines and was headed to Parris Island, S.C., for boot camp as an infantryman.

In October, 2007, Napier was deployed to Iraq with the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment. "It was a lot more challenging that I expected," he said.

He returned home in May, 2008, and friends asked him to compare his war experience to a video game. "I'd tell them, 'How can it be like a video game?' "

Now Lance Corporal Napier is preparing for another deployment to the Middle East. While most of his All-City peers are still wearing baseball uniforms, packing bats and gloves and dodging inside fastballs, Napier is wearing camouflage and body armor, packing around 100 pounds of equipment and a rifle and dodging bullets.

"There's not a day I regret joining," Napier said. "Somebody's gotta do what we do.

"Everyone here in the States takes the world for granted, but we've got to fight for what we have."

At one time Napier thought about trying college ball when his Marine days were over. That's no longer an option. The saying goes that one year as a grunt Marine is like four years in the NFL.

That's OK with Napier.

He had fun playing high school baseball, but it doesn't begin to compare with the pride and patriotism he feels in defending his country. He remembers Dom Fucci, his coach at Tates Creek, yelling at the team, "You think this is pressure. There are guys in Iraq getting shot at today. That's pressure."

That's Scott Napier.

■ Rockcastle County Coach J.D. Bussell is touting senior lefthander Tanner Perkins as Mr. Baseball. The 6-3, 195-pound senior has bounced back from an ACL injury he suffered in football last fall. He's 6-1 with a 0.61 ERA, 117 strikeouts and only six walks in 57 innings. He had 16 K's in a 4-0 win over Pulaski County in the district. He plays right field when he's not on the mound, and is hitting .448 with nine homers. In his career he has a 26-10 pitching record, with 377 K's, 40 walks and a 1.10 ERA in 222 innings. Bussell expects Perkins, who has signed with Western Kentucky, to get drafted by the pros next month. "His best attribute is that he's the best kid/teammate/player I have ever coached," Bussell said in an e-mail. "With his make-up and stats, he qualifies to be Mr. Baseball."

■ Woodford County baseball coach Jay Lucas was flooded by e-mails and calls on Wednesday — more than when he coached Woodford County's girls to a region basketball title a few years ago. What was the deal? His Yellowjackets upset No. 15 Western Hills and ace J.T. Riddle 4-3 in the district semis.

"I've been coaching here 26 years (18 as head coach), and this was one of the biggest wins we've ever had," Lucas said.

Western Hills beat the Jackets twice in the regular season, one of those a 5-1 victory by Riddle. But Woodford County got nine hits off Riddle in the rematch. Seniors Bradley Lucas and Omohundro Hunter had key RBI. Freshman Will Wireman pitched into the fourth before Josh O'Reel finished up the shocker. This has been a rebuilding year for the Jackets, who start four or five freshmen. But that didn't keep Woodford County from qualifying for the 11th Region, which starts Monday at Applebee's Park.