Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Waller leads way for Mavericks
FORT SMITH — Braxton Waller wanted Fort Smith Southside’s game against crosstown rival Northside to have a significance beyond the annual rivalry.
So, Waller organized a Stand Up To Cancer fundraiser to highlight the game last week, knowing a large crowd would be hand for the game itself as well as to celebrate Senior Day at Forsgren Field for the Mavericks.
“That came to me after going through a Snapchat memory on my phone,” Waller said. “Arkansas at Bud Walton Arena had done something similar but without the fundraiser part. I had a neighbor who was battling cancer at the time. I just wrote her name down, just something small. A photo of it got sent to her and her husband, and it was a big deal for her. Something small that you think about doing is so big to somebody in need like that. I just wanted the opportunity for that to happen to other people.”
Waller also had to look no further than the Maverick baseball program as an inspiration, like his coach Dale Harpenau.
“There are people around this program that have lost family members to cancer,” Waller said. “Harp’s mother, he lost her a couple of years ago to cancer. The Forsgren family lost a mother to cancer. It’s the way cancer is; it’s affected everybody. I knew we could do something like that because our program has so much support. I just felt like it was something that I was supposed to do.”
In addition to being a valuable player for the Southside baseball team, Waller has been a leader off the field as well.
“He’s one of our team captains selected by his teammates,” Harpenau said. “He has all of the characteristics that you look for in a team captain. He truly has the interest of the team and the betterment of the team to help in that regard. If we need to get something done, he’s the first one that comes to mind. He’s going to be a very successful young man someday.”
Last month, he was one of four students who earned the Arc Best Corporation’s Value Awards for Excellence and Growth. He’s also the Student Council President. Waller was also Marshall the Maverick, Southside’s mascot at sporting events.
He’s scored a 29 on his ACT and will play baseball for Hendrix College beginning next fall.
“This senior year has been awesome,” Waller said. “Especially after seeing the last couple of senior years and the classes ahead of us, Covid got ahold of them. I’m just living life; doing the things that I love, watching my classmates play sports, being a kid playing sports.”
On the field, Braxton fields, hits and pitches for the Mavericks and helped Southside back to the state tournament for the first time in five years.
“It’s been awesome,” Waller said. “It’s been a dream of mine since I was a kid in elementary school coming to watch guys play on this same field. It’s great living out a dream like that.”
A solid third baseman, Braxton is hitting .311 and leads the team in at-bats with 90, doubles with six, and 23 RBIs, and 15 walks.
On the mound, Braxton has been valuable as both a starter and a reliever.
“He wears a lot of hats for us,” Harpenau said. “He’s started at second, at short and a majority of his games at third. He’s that kind of guy.”
Last year, he teamed up with David Sorg to complete a no-hitter in an 8-1 win over Alma.
This year, he went the distance as the starter in a no-hit shutout in an 11-0 five-inning win over Cameron. It was the first of two no-hitters for the Mavericks this season with senior Bailey Mattingly also throwing one in a 10-0 six-inning win over Alma.
Saturday, in Southside’s 3-2 win over Springdale, Waller earned the win in relief to improve to 4-1 and has an earned run average of 3.32 for season.
“We know he’s going to throw strikes,” Harpenau said. “We trust him. He’s proven that he’s going to do that. We know he’s going to give you all he’s got. If you get those two things out of somebody, you don’t fear putting him into a ball game late or to get us off to a good start. He’s been a very important piece to our puzzle for sure.”