‘He was ready to roll.’ Football star’s last shot at baseball stolen by pandemic.
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The Stories of the Spring
High school sports seasons across Kentucky were canceled this spring because of the coronavirus pandemic. This series by the Lexington Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com is telling some of the best stories of the spring that we were denied from each Lexington high school. Click below to read all the stories published to date.
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Editor’s Note: High school sports seasons across Kentucky were canceled this spring because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Herald-Leader continues a series today telling some of the best stories of the spring that we were denied from each Lexington high school.
After bouncing around a bit during his high school athletics career, Josh McClurg found the perfect home as a senior.
McClurg spent two years at Lexington Christian and another at Paintsville before winding up back in Lexington at Frederick Douglass, where he quarterbacked the Broncos to the Class 5A state championship game. McClurg threw for nearly 1,500 yards and 18 touchdowns and ran for more than 1,000 yards and 10 more TDs this past season, earning a scholarship from Morehead State.
With a wildly successful high school football career behind him, McClurg decided to make one last run at his first love before moving on to the college gridiron.
“I played baseball for most of my life and it was something I always loved. I liked baseball the best, honestly, until I got to high school,” McClurg told the Herald-Leader in a recent phone interview.
As a freshman at Lexington Christian, McClurg played both sports. Success came quickly on the football field, so he decided that’s where his future lay.
“I started as a freshman on the football team and was fortunate to play a lot and I ended up loving that, so I just ran with it,” McClurg said. “I decided I wanted to focus on football so I gave up baseball. Every year when baseball season came around I really missed it, but I had to focus on spring football. But after my senior season when I finished football I went to some of the spring baseball workouts and enjoyed it a lot. I decided I’d go to tryouts and I ended up making the team.”
McClurg was set to return to the baseball diamond after a three-year absence and be a major contributor for a young and promising Broncos squad. Then, the coronavirus pandemic struck and ended that feel-good story before the first chapter was written.
“I hate it, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I can’t let myself dwell on it,” McClurg said. “I held out hope for the longest time, hitting and throwing and training, thinking we might get to play even just a shortened season. But once it became clear that nothing was coming back I had to accept it. It’s something I’ll always miss and wonder what I could have done.”
‘He didn’t back down’
Frederick Douglass Coach Eddie Brooks has no doubts about what McClurg could have done.
“He was going to be a big, big plus for us on the mound and everywhere else. He could do it all,” Brooks said. “It was going to be a huge addition having that senior guy, plus a guy who was hungry and had the work ethic to get himself ready. He was going to help us defensively, at the plate and on the mound. He was ready to roll.”
When McClurg approached Brooks about joining the team, the veteran coach who won a state championship as a player with Lafayette in 1989 offered no guarantees. After all, the Broncos made a remarkable improvement last year — going 19-17 in the program’s second season after winning just nine games in its first. Plus, they were getting nearly everyone back.
“We were returning almost every starter at every position. We lost a couple of key guys, but I was returning 90 percent of my team. When Josh decided he wanted to play he came to me and told me at school and I said, ‘no problem, I’d love to have you. But don’t just assume you’re going to play,’” Brooks said. “I told him ‘it’s not going to be easy.’ But much to his credit, he didn’t back down. He went to work and he got himself ready.”
Brooks envisioned McClurg as a key contributor all over the field and in the clubhouse, as a veteran leader for a team with just one other senior.
“He possesses some things that you just can’t teach kids; the work ethic, the attitude … I was excited about this team even before Josh came along. Add him and I didn’t see any reason we couldn’t win 20-plus games,” Brooks said. “He had a chance to start every day. In the two scrimmage games we played he had three or four hits, he stole like five bases. It turned out he was going to be a big contributor, both on the field and as a senior leader in the clubhouse.”
‘A kids’ game’
Even over the phone, you can almost see the smile on McClurg’s face when he’s asked about the appeal of baseball.
“It’s almost like a kids’ game. It just brings me so much joy to be out there playing, it’s almost like I was a little kid again,” McClurg said. “In football I had to take everything so serious every day. With baseball it was almost like I could turn a switch on immediately when it was practice or a game. It was time to play baseball, then after that I could have fun and goof off with everybody.”
McClurg certainly had some childhood memories in mind when it came to gearing up for the season.
“I was really looking forward to playing against all of my friends that I played with at Southeastern when I was in little league that all go to Tates Creek. I was really looking forward to that,” McClurg said. “They won state last year and I know all those guys. I was happy to see them win state but I was looking forward to trying to beat them.”
McClurg was bullish on the Broncos’ chances to make their first appearance in the state tournament this season.
“I think we had a really good chance to win district and make a run at the region tournament and get to state. We’re a very young team, but we’re very talented,” he said. “And Coach Brooks is great. He keeps everyone’s head together and keeps everyone humble. We could have been a really special team and done something big this year.”
Brooks also saw big things on the horizon for the Broncos this season, and he was excited to see just how big a role McClurg would have played.
“It would have been so great to get a chance to coach him for a year. From what he showed me, he was going to be really, really good. Unfortunately, we won’t get the chance to find out, which really stinks. We were all looking forward to it,” Brooks said.
Though he’ll also always wonder what might have been, McClurg said he’s ready to return his attention to football and he’s eager to begin his college career at Morehead State.
“I’ve very excited. My dad’s from Rowan County and I have a lot of family near Morehead. A lot of my family will be able to come and watch me play that didn’t get to see me in years past because of travel,” McClurg said. “I hate that I didn’t get the chance to play baseball again, but I’m ready to move on to the next phase of my life.”
This story was originally published May 12, 2020 at 7:28 AM.
