TWU baseball healing in wake of Jeffcoat's firing

You read about the coach who stuck his foot in his mouth, and was subsequently fired, but you never heard from the players and coaches Mike Jeffcoat unintentionally left behind.

The collateral damage of former Texas Wesleyan baseball coach Mike Jeffcoat's dismissal is a team that was one month into its season when he was fired not only for his tone-deaf email to a Colorado high school recruit, but for an NAIA violation regarding the eligibility of some of his players.

Jeffcoat was going to be fired for the NAIA violations, and his email made his dismissal a no-brainer, according to a source.

The school likely could have lived with the infamous email to a potential recruit where Jeffcoat bemoaned liberal politicians in Colorado and the legalizing of weed. Had it been just that, the school might have just suspended him with a public reprimand, a private verbal lashing, and some sort of double-secret probation.

The story went viral overseas, and forced TWU administrators to field calls from alums, and news organizations all over the map. When ABC News calls, it's not a good day.

Although Jeffcoat, who is the winningest coach in the school's history, recruited and coached all of the current TWU players, he has not met or spoken with them since he was fired.

In the wake of his firing are students whose chances of going pro in baseball are less than a decimal point of a fraction of a fraction. The players and staff are left to find the lesson in all of this mess.

"It's a lesson that in today's world we have to be careful about what we say in certain situations, and how to handle things," senior pitcher Dusty Cloud said. "And not to put anything out there that can be taken to the extent of this."

Amen, brother.

This from senior outfielder Ted Wisdom, "You have to be careful what you say; with a couple of buttons, it can be screen-shot and sent everywhere and everyone can find out. Since I was a junior in high school, my coach was always preaching about whatever you put out there, it's out there forever. He always checked our social media accounts. It was the right age to do that, too. I am always really careful about what I put on social media."

The school had been conducting an internal investigation on Jeffcoat for potential NAIA infractions for a few days when his email dropped. When the email hit the net, everyone's phone lit up.

Wisdom's friends and former teammates began to flood him with messages and screen shots of the email. His first reaction was he thought the whole thing was a joke. Then it made national news. Then he knew it wasn't a joke.

"I know there are stories and examples out there of people who try to make them out to say something they didn't say," Wisdom said. "This was shocking. I didn't know what to think about it."

Assistant coach Bobby Garza was named the interim head coach, and he held a team meeting the next morning. Garza told the players that their coach was fired, and this was their new reality.

"I decided not to necessarily let him go; I think about (Jeffcoat) and I pray about him, but I have to focus on the team and what are goals are," Cloud said.

At the time of Jeffcoat's firing, the Rams were 11-2. After he was fired, the team lost three of their next four games. They are currently on a six-game winning streak, and 19-7 overall.

Texas Wesleyan Rams baseball was a national headline for about 48 hours. Whatever distraction was caused by the flurry of negative publicity feels like it has just about evaporated.

The sad part is Jeffcoat built a decent program in East Fort Worth. The Rams made the NAIA tournament in each of the past two years, and won 47 games last season, the second-most in school history.

He grew a little glib, maybe a bit arrogant, and got busted.

Garza slid into the interim head coaching position, and former Brewer, Baylor and Major League catcher Kelly Shoppach assumed the role of full-time assistant.

"I think the adversity we had opened up an opportunity for us to unite as a group," Garza said. "If we can be the one to help these players and unite this university, it is going to make us stronger and it is going to help these kids. That just because something happens in our lives, we still have to move forward. To link up together. That was our main goal."

This situation could have been considerably worse, but Garza and Shoppach made a few adjustments and helped to create a new reality for a team that appears no worse, but certainly wiser.

This story was originally published March 21, 2018 at 5:23 PM with the headline "TWU baseball healing in wake of Jeffcoat's firing."