BE '97 TITLE TEAM REUNITES

The evening shadows fall on Father Kelly Field a bit differently than Johnson Hagood Stadium used to cast onto the Sandlot. Two decades ago the Bishop England baseball team practiced on what’s now a parking lot outside The Citadel’s football stadium. A lot’s changed for the Bishops in the past 20 years — namely the trophy case. Bishop England baseball is now a seven-time state champion, a perennial contender synonymous with winning. The rich tradition had to begin somewhere though. Twenty years back it was the 1997 Bishops team digging balls out of the sand downtown that captured the program’s first state title. “Somebody has to break the ice, and these guys did that for us,” Bishop England coach Mike Darnell said of the Bishops’ 1997 championship team. “They had a good run too. There were a lot of guys who went on to play in college. That really was a good team.” Six members of the ‘97 title team reunited Friday on Daniel Island at Bishop England’s game against Hanahan to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Bishops’ first state championship. Derek Anderson, Drew Meyer, Scott Howell, Peter Barber, Lawrence Crosby, Charles Sharp and the family of the late Dave Morrow joined the current Bishops team on the field for the national anthem before first pitch. “I know a lot of these guys haven’t seen each other since high school, so it’s pretty special,” Anderson said. “That team truly built this thing from the ground up. To come full circle and see the gorgeous facilities they have now at Bishop England and all the state championships that have transpired, to know that we were a part of it, that’s pretty cool.” The ’97 players know Hanahan especially well. Bishop England didn’t have its own home field that season and had to share Hanahan’s to host its home games. The team would practice on a makeshift field downtown and had to take a bus to its home games but won 30 games along the way, culminating with a state championship series against Abbeville. “I remember practicing in Johnson Hagood parking lot and home games at Hanahan and always just bouncing around but we were close and we continued to get better and kept winning,” said Meyer, a first-round pick in the 2002 MLB Draft. “It’s a really special family bond. And to relive the glory days with these guys, it’s pretty fun. A lot of good memories.” Many of the underclassmen on the ‘97 team, including Anderson and Meyer, were some of the first to play on Bishop England’s current field, Father Kelly Field when it opened on Daniel Island in 1999. Most even helped build it. The field has since hosted generations of Bishops players, tournament games, championship series and even college games. “We spent countless hours picking the rocks from the clay, building the batting cage and all of that stuff,” Meyer said. “To come back this many years later and see what it’s turned into, how good it looks and obviously how well the team is playing since we laid the foundation, it’s fun to watch.” The ‘97 season was Bishop England’s first and one of its only 30-win seasons. The 43 home runs the Bishops hit that year are still a school record. And it was the first half of the only back-to-back title run for the program. The Bishops went on to win state titles in ’98, ’03, ’05, ’07, ’09, and ’11. “Knowing the athletic prowess of Bishop England around the Lowcountry and the state, it’s special for the team to still be remembered a little,” Anderson said. “At that point we were just a small, private catholic school trying to get our wheels underneath us in terms of baseball talent. Then to really solidify that entire season from that point on as the catalyst for everything that’s transpired since then, it means a lot.”

BE '97 TITLE TEAM REUNITES

Photo Credit: Frankie Mansfield

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