I first met Gabe Jones in January, 2020. I taught and coached at Red Bank Middle from 1995-2011. After retirement, my wife and I moved to Clearwater, Florida for the climate, beach and, yes, the abundance of MLB teams that train in the area.
Tyler Phillips played baseball for me at Red Bank from 2007-2009. He earned his teaching degree at UTC and became the head baseball coach at Red Bank High and this would be his first year. At the urging of my sweet gal, Emily, Tyler and I talked at length and I agreed to be his hitting and infield coach.
So, I came up to Chattanooga for a week to work out with our players and just to get to know them a little bit. It was a rainy, foggy day. I went to meet the three seniors, along with Tyler. When I got there, I noticed that the three guys were sitting in the third base dugout. It was Gabe, Maddox Wilkey and Eli Massengale. I stuck my head around the corner of the dugout and said, “Hey! I’m supposed to meet the Three Stooges here today. Do you guys know where I can find them?” They all turned and immediately started laughing. I remember Gabe saying, “Oh! You’re Coach Carter? Wow! You’re not what I expected. I thought you would be an old, fat, bald man.” I said, “Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you buddy.”
After Tyler got there, we went inside our clubhouse. We had a really good chat about expectations, goals and just getting to know each other a little bit. Sadly, our season was cut after the first two games due to the pandemic. It was a sad and scary time. I always tell the guys “Live the moment and Enjoy the day.” If nothing else, they learned that is very true.
I got to know Gabe well during our spring training and we have stayed in contact. He was always smiling, eager to learn and said yes sir and no sir. I worked with him a lot on his hitting and bunting, which he absolutely loved, because he had some speed. We worked on his footwork and glove work at second. He has a natural side arm motion that’s just perfect to make throws at second. The side arm was great for pitching, too. Hitting in past years had been a struggle, so he made great strides in that part of his game. He even had a couple of hits his first two games. He was an excellent second baseman with a great arm and good range. I really felt, if the season had progressed, he would have been able to play somewhere whether at a junior college, Division II school or NAIA school. He just had a real love and passion for the game. He played on the UT club baseball team this past year as a freshman.
He said he really loved our positive environment and “Enjoy the Day” attitude. His smile and outgoing personality were infectious to the whole team. He and Jake Brune even did a little dance in the dugout before our first game while the pre game music was playing. I videoed it and we all had a good laugh!
Tyler was the assistant head coach earlier in Gabe’s high school career. When I asked Tyler for his thoughts on Gabe, he said, ” For as long as I’ve known Gabe, he liked to act goofy and always kept a positive attitude. Gabe was everyone’s friend and didn’t have any enemies. He was outgoing and, most of all, loved his teammates. Gabe positively radiated through everyone he met. He was always willing to do whatever was required of him and more.”
Bailee Phillips, Tyler’s sister and our “adopted” granddaughter, told me Gabe was the Red Bank Lions mascot for the sporting events and that he was really good. I remember discussing that with him and he said, “I really love performing and I hope I can continue to perform in college. You can get scholarships for being mascots and if I can’t play baseball in college, that’s what I want to do. I asked Gabe when he started liking mascots. He said, “I’ve always thought mascots are so funny and I really wanted to do it for the kids. Their reaction is everything.”
That’s Gabe in a nutshell to me. As soon as I met him, I knew he was an easy going and fun loving guy. Hey, he gave me that “old, fat, bald man” zinger with his first comment. So, when the Lions mascot gig became available his senior year, he jumped at the chance. As expected, he did an incredible job.
So, when he got to the University of Tennessee, he tried out for Smokey, which is the mascot of the University of Tennessee sports teams. For folks not familiar with UT, the Vols use both a live and a costumed version of Smokey. There is an actual Bluetick Coonhound mascot, Smokey X, who leads the Vols on the field for football games.
Gabe did such a great job, not only did he become the mascot, he earned that scholarship he dreamed about in high school. He now entertains at all of the Vols sporting events. I asked him what his biggest thrill being Smokey has been thus far. Without hesitation, Gabe said,” The highlight would definitely be walking out onto Neyland Stadium the first football night, with over 100,000 fans and hearing the crowd get loud!”
Two years ago, Gabe Jones was talking about his college dreams playing baseball and being a mascot. Today, Gabe is living both of those dreams!!!
Well done, Gabe Jones, well done!!!
“Live the moment and Enjoy the day.”
coachdeesays 