Baseball practice brings a hint of healing

COCONUT CREEK – Marjory Stoneman Douglas High’s baseball team, which has long provided pride for the school and the Parkland community, practiced at North Broward Prep on Friday, the first school-related activity since 17 people were killed and 16 injured on campus two days earlier.

The campus remains closed at least through Monday, so the Coconut Creek private school lent a helping hand and a place to practice.

“At the end of the day, I think you have to get back in a routine,” Douglas coach Todd Fitz-Gerald said. “It’s very easy to put your head down and mourn and continue to mourn, but what a greater opportunity than to get out here and do something that you love to maybe uplift the 17 families that are feeling down and have a sense of loss.

“In this tragic time, these kids need to do something they love. They love being around each other, and they love the game of baseball. They need to get back out to work and start moving on and pressing forward.”

Fitz-Gerald first met with his team Thursday night to let them know they’d be practicing Friday.

“We cried. We hugged. We loved. I told them that they had a responsibility to the rest of the community and school to uplift the spirits,” he said.

Fitz-Gerald started Friday’s practice by getting his Eagles, who two seasons ago won a state and national championship, huddled around him.

“I just told them that we’re going to play for these individuals — win, lose or draw — but we’re going to dedicate our season to the families that have lost their loved ones,” Fitz-Gerald said. “One of the things we talked about was just being a stronghold group for the whole school. Give them something to be happy and be proud about.”

Then the Eagles got started.

Players stretched and warmed up. They participated in baserunning and fielding drills. They wrapped up the two-hour session by taking some swings.

When someone made a stellar play, teammates and coaches cheered him on and congratulated him. They joked around with each other. They laughed. When someone did something incorrectly, a coach let him know what he did wrong. It was … normal.

“I’m all right now that we’re playing baseball — just got to try to make it as normal as possible,” senior center fielder and captain Ricky Shimko said. “It feels great. It feels like a normal day.”

Several players’ parents, a tight-knit group that has gathered so often for their sons’ games and practices, were on hand, watching from the third-base dugout as player equipment occupied the one on the firstbase side.

“We are now truly bonded for life,” said Marnie Auerbach, the mother of senior second baseman Brandon Auerbach. “This is something that most do not ever have to go through nor want to. We’re going to be closer than ever.”

Auerbach added that it was “a miracle” that no one in the baseball program — with 50-plus members among varsity, junior varsity and freshman teams — was injured in the shooting.

The neighboring Eagles, North Broward Prep, were happy to help the Douglas Eagles in their time of need.

“This is the very least that [North Broward Prep] can do,” said baseball coach Brian Campbell, whose relationship with Fitz-Gerald goes back 16 years. “I wish we could do more to help, but if we can give them a baseball field to help them get together and work on baseball and put everything aside for a while, we’re more than happy to do that.”

Douglas played a preseason game Tuesday night against St. Thomas Aquinas. Thursday’s preseason game against North Broward was canceled. The team plans to practice today and Monday before a scheduled regular- season opener Tuesday against Miami Belen Jesuit, which is part of the Flanagan Falcon Challenge tournament.

The Douglas girls basketball regional quarterfinal game at Cypress Bay that was to have been played Thursday has been pushed back a week.