Father-son duo denied final year
Saints’ Wilson had hoped to play for his father this season
PAWTUCKET — It’s beyond comprehension, the time and effort Cam Wilson put in to ensuring a successful senior spring campaign not only for him but also his St. Raphael Academy baseball squad.
He gave up playing varsity football last fall and basketball this past winter solely so he could spend that time training for baseball. He went to the gym at least three times a week to lift weights, put in mileage on his own to become better conditioned and traveled to the cages miles away to work on his swing, particularly improving his power.
Wilson, a shortstop/relief pitcher, would have his father, assistant coach Joey, hit him grounders and flyballs to improve his glove work. He’d hit off a tee into a net in his garage on snowy afternoons.
Heck, even the elder Wilson, veteran mentor Tom Sorrentine’s valued assistant, purchased a brand new pitching machine, one called the “Hack Attack,” and used by Major League Baseball and top NCAA teams, all so the Saints had a premier batting apparatus.
Deep down, Joey reveled in his son’s commitment and dedication, as they were going to enjoy this – their final high school campaign – together.
So detailed on delivering a successful season at Saints, Wilson had even selected his uniform number. (By the way, those unidforms, both home and away, were brand new. ySchool officials planned to unveil them on SRA’s Division II Opening Day).
After three years of “dealing with No. 3,” he now proudly would wear No. 11 (aka “Sticks”).
Then, however, in what can best be described as a snap of the fingers, it all disaprpeared, courtesy of – to the Wilsons – the catastrophic coronavirus.
“I was in my room (that Thursday morning, April 23) when I found out he governor announced that we wouldn’t be going to back to school, and I knew right then, ‘That’s it. mNo season,’” Cam stated Sunday afternoon as he relaxed in his back yard, dad by his side. “Still, it didn’t really sink in. I was thinking, ‘This can’t be real.’
“It took a couple of days for it to finally dsink in, that all I had worked for was gone,” yhe added. “I was angry, I was upset. I knew we were going to have a tremendous season because we had so many guys coming back nfrom last year. We were going to be solid up and down the roster.
“I knew we had a lot of guys who had worked really hard for this season, guys like A.T. (DePina), Cayden Dupras, Adam Gomes and Braxton (Fontaine). We worked so hard during the offseason, though Brax ran indoor and did great. We were ready to pull off something special.”
Last spring, the Saints rolled to a 14-4 mark in Division II and won the title, then drew a playoff bye before facing Prout in a quarterfinal. In that one, held at Vets Park on May 31, the Crusaders eked out a 2-0 upset triumph, and SRA’s campaign came to a disappointing close.
“I was left on third to end the game,” Cam sighed.
Added Joey: “It still stings … I actually told the guys after that game. We were standing on the first-base line at Vets, and I said, ‘Remember this feeling, how bad it stings. Most of you will go off and play summer ball, and once that’s over, you’ve got to get back in the weight room and begin training for next year. And when you hit the weights, remember what happened here.
“That was going to be this year,” he continued. “The guys looked at me then and said, ‘Yes, Coach.’ They all bought in. Like Cam said, this group was ready.”
Offered Sorrentine, whom Joey refers to as “The Legend”: “I’m sure Cam is as disappointed as anyone. I mean, he had gotten so much stronger with all the weight work he had done. He was in the cages, and he worked really hard all year. I thought he had a chance to be an All-Stater.
“He was a good pitcher for us in relief, but he was just as good at shortstop. He could get to a lot of balls most guys can’t. This year, because he’s gained so much strength, he was going to hit for power as well as average. Right from the beginning of the season, he was ready to go.”
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The Wilsons also indicated their were so many more reasons for their displeasure, first and foremost the weather.
“We haven’t had a spring like this in years; the weather’s been phenomenal,” stated Joey, who’s also the city’s Highway Department director. “We haven’t had snow or a lot of rain, and the fields were ready to go much earlier than usual.”
Noted Cam: “This would’ve been the first time in my four years we would have tryouts outdoors and not in the gymnasium. I really thought we were going to start sometime.”
He hesitated, then said, “It just hit me. We would have played Scituate (Monday, May 4) at home, then would have hosted Wheeler on Wednesday before playing them (in Seekonk) on Friday. Then we would’ve had Bishop Feehan in a non-league next Saturday.
“Thinking about that, it makes me want to play even more,” he continued. “We could have done so much this year, and I feel it was just kind of been stolen away from us. I still feel we could have played during this, if we were careful. But state officials didn’t think so, and that’s the way it is.
“I’m just bummed because this was going to be it for my dad and me. We both thought we could have won a (Division II championship) ring.”
The shock and anger, Cam says, slowly is beginning to fade, but only because he has decided to throw himself even deeper into training. He says he’s trying to focus on new goals; he’s hoping (praying) that he’ll have the opportunity to reunite with some of those SRA teammates and his dad for the Collette Vacations/Riverside Post 10 American Legion season.
Right now, that’s still on.
“I had been working out, like, three times a week and going to the cages, but now I’m out every day, taking swings (at a local field) with (former Tolman standout) Izzy Rivera-Lopez and (would-be Tolman catcher) Jeff LaRose,” Cam stated. “We’re also working on agility drills, fielding, long toss, running, etc.”
He’s also trying to maintain his strength and endurance for later in August, when he attends American International College in Springfield on a partial ride. At that time, he’ll begin training for “Fall Ball.
“I’m hoping,” the younger Wilson shrugged. “I want to play Legion, but I’m also putting in all this work because the NCAA has come out and said that the (collegiate) seniors this year will have another year of eligibility because they didn’t play this spring.
“I have to get a lot of work in because now, if I want to start as a freshman, I’m going to have to beat out even more people. I’m going to be ready for that challenge.” Joey Wilson just smiled sadly. “These kids are so damn strong. To have their final season yanked out from under them, I don’t know if I could have handled it when I was at Tolman. Think about it, and
I’m not just talking about Saints kids – the kids go to school K-12, and now they’re seniors with only two, three months left to the end of the school year. They’re so close to the finis, and they all want to go out with a great spring season, something memorable, but then something like this happens.
“I give each end everyone of them a ton of credit. My heart actually aches for the Class of 2020, but I’m very proud of them all.”
“I was angry, I was upset. I knew we were going to have a tremendous season because we had so many guys coming back from last year. We were going to be solid up and down the roster.”
— SRA’s Cam Wilson