Wednesday July 19, 2023
COMMENTARY: The athlete of the year you didn't see coming
The athlete of the year you didn’t see coming
I was lucky enough to see him coming long before others …
by Martin Davis
My friends at the Free Lance-Star Steve DeShazo and Joey LoMonaco did well this past week when they named Riverbend’s Logan Eastman their male athlete of the year.
Such awards always come with good-natured (and some-not-so-good natured) debate. How does a person pick one athlete over all the others? Perhaps Riverbend football head coach Nathan Yates best summarized it in the article announcing Eastman’s award when he said, “He made the best of every opportunity he had.”
There are certainly bigger athletes than Logan, who stands well under 6 feet tall. And there are higher-profile athletes - Logan, after all, was Riverbend’s kicker for two years. But I’m fairly confident there wasn’t an athlete this year who did as much with every opportunity presented to him.
And I was lucky enough to be there at the beginning.
‘I just want to get on the field’
For the first four seasons of Yates’ tenure at Riverbend, I had the great joy of coaching the specialists - those guys that everyone overlooks on Friday nights. Until, that is, they make a mistake.
During my tenure, I grew accustomed to players wanting to try kicking, only to walk away when it got really hard - usually after two or three practices. Contrary to popular belief, not just anyone can handle the extreme pressure that comes with kicking and long-snapping.
So when a short, but muscular, Logan approached me at practice one day over the summer of his sophomore year and said he wanted to try special teams, I welcomed the interest and expected him to do what so many others did.
At the time, we had a high-caliber punter and place-kicker, but lacked a long-snapper. It’s a position most people barely notice.
“I need a long-snapper,” I said. “Willing to try?”
“I’ll do anything you need,” Logan responded. “I just want to get on the field.”
I had heard that line more than once, too. He convinced me not with his tone, but his eyes, that he meant it. Logan is a quiet young man with a big smile. It’s his eyes that reflect who he really is - focused, determined, and cold-blooded under pressure. All traits that specialist coaches value.
By the end of the summer, he’d mastered the mechanics of long-snapping, and then won the starting job. I don’t recall his exact numbers. I do recall this - Not a single bad snap. An unrelenting work ethic. And a compassion for his teammates.
As it turned out, our then-sure-fire kicker had some injury problems, and I recruited two young women from our soccer team to handle field-goal-kicking duties that season. And they exceled, in no small part because Logan worked daily with them on timing, encouraged them when they struggled with technique, all while continuing to develop as a long-snapper.
He was the model of what every coach preaches to their players - “Just do your job.” And that season, Logan did it to perfection.
Spring Surprise
The season ended, but training in football never does. In the spring, Logan joined the voluntary workouts I held for specialists. To encourage kids to come and train, I always tried to interject some good-natured competition at the end of every practice.
One practice, I had the specialists switch roles - so Logan, a long-snapper, had to kick.
From 30 yards out, I taunted him - “No way, no way,” laughing the whole time, sure he wouldn’t even carry the ball to the end zone.
And yet - he did, and converted.
From that moment on, he began to train exclusively as a kicker. And over the next two seasons, he had as good a run as any kicker Riverbend has ever had.
As the Free Lance-Star piece details, he didn’t just kick, he so impressed coaches that he worked himself into the defensive packages and picked off a pass in a game at Spotsylvania High School. And yes - he went 7 for 7 on his extra points that night.
What matters
Sports are about a lot of things - but the most important are the things that the fans never see. The endless hours of training, the relationships between athletes and their coaches, and the commitment to work for something more than one’s self. Logan excelled in each of these areas.
His sophomore year, he could have put himself before the ladies who stepped up to play football and made the case that he should be the guy. He never said a word. He had his job, and he was committed to doing that job to perfection and supporting his teammates in their jobs. And in no small part, he’s a reason that they did do their job so very well. Missing just one extra point all season, and being the difference in one very tight game late in the season.
When he got the opportunity to kick, even though it was a lark, Logan took advantage. And for two years, he trained harder than any kicker I’ve ever coached.
By his senior year, Logan was a coach on the field. He did more to train and support his fellow specialists than I did. They listened to him, admired him, and followed his lead. For a coach, it’s exactly what you want to see happen.
Your players become your leaders, and you can fade into the background as they take control of their season.
Everyone who was around Logan his three years on the football team (as well as his years on the wrestling and lacrosse teams) saw the same things.
A kid who just wanted to get on the field. And sacrificed self to make that happen.
DeShazo and LoMonaco saw that and recognized Logan for being more than an athlete, but for the being the kind of person we all strive to be.
Here’s the thing they didn’t say. There are more kids like Logan than get recognized. Kids who just want to get on the field, and will give you everything they have to get there. Traits that they carry with them well after school and their playing days are gone.
America’s future is in great hands. It’s in Logan’s hands. And the hands of all the unheralded athletes who do their jobs everyday without fanfare and attention.
How wonderful that this year, the one athlete of the year no one saw coming, two sports writers in our area did.