CRESTVIEW — Anita and Ronnie Richards have faithfully volunteered with Crestview High School's baseball for more than two decades.
And the past 20 years, they have scheduled a few days in early June to help with their mission of love: The Justin Richards Scholarship Baseball Tournament. The event commemorates their oldest son, Justin, who died in a Jan. 20, 1996 car wreck after taking part in a doughnut sale benefiting Crestview's baseball team.
BIRTH OF A TOURNAMENT
Anita credits Ronnie with creating the tournament, but he said it evolved after Justin’s death.
“I don’t know when we came up with the idea, but the first thought was instead of flowers (at Justin’s funeral) to give money to the Crestview baseball team,” Ronnie said. “That’s how it got the start: to have a scholarship and a tournament in his name to raise money for the scholarship.”
Quietly, the Richardses have used Bulldog baseball as a healing tool.
“I could never believe that 20 years would pass so fast,” Ronnie said. “If I get a phone call early in the morning, that’s the first thing (the day Justin died) I think of.
“For a long time, it was hard for me to come out and watch a ball game. You would see a kid that looks like your son….”
Even in their pain, Anita and Ronnie supported the program as they watched their younger son, Carson, play the game his big brother loved.
“It’s always been that way — to be with the kids and watch them play,” Anita said.
'QUALITY, QUALITY PEOPLE'
The couple's not just around during the annual tournament; they're fixtures at baseball games.
If one looks around the baseball complex, they might find Anita in the concession stand mixing ingredients for homemade ice cream. Ronnie is close by, working the grill to assure hungry fans have burgers and hot dogs.
For all their team support, Crestview baseball Coach Tim Gillis said Anita and Ronnie are more than just the tournament's heart and soul.
“I’d say they are the heart and soul of the program in general, even on top of this tournament,” he said. “They are here all the time and they work it. Ronnie and Anita come to a lot of games. They come up to practice sometimes and they’ll talk afterwards from time to time during the season. They are a big part of our program.
“Nothing surprises me with them because they are just quality, quality people. They are people that are genuine and hard working. They do things with their soul.”
QUESTIONS WITHOUT BITTERNESS
No time will heal all of Anita and Ronnie's wounds, and they sometimes face difficult questions.
“I’m sure a lot of people have lost their loved ones in war, or car wrecks — they’ve just lost their kids,” Ronnie said. “And they probably will be driving down the road and look over to the side and say, ‘Wow, that’s my son.’ Obviously, it’s not.
“I’ve actually helped out on some accidents on the side of the road that are just tremendous. I’ll be one of the first to get there and people getting there, helping these people at the scene, and in my mind I go, ‘Why didn’t my son survive because his wreck is a lot worse my son’s?’
“Or you see some drunk driver in an accident. It’s not that you want them to be killed in the accident, but you wonder, why did he survive and my son didn’t.
"I ask God, ‘Why?’ a lot.”
FAVORITE MEMORIES
With 20 years of tournament memories, there are a lot for Anita and Ronnie to chose from.
Anita said her favorite was during a heavy rain several years ago.
“Seeing Matt (Gillis, the older son of Tim) in a garbage can in rain,” she said. “Vacuuming up the water and trying get to the field ready to play.”
“Matthew Gillis was just a young un,” Ronnie said. “We had a lot of rain with a lot of mud and he ended being put in a garbage can.”
Tim Gillis also has fond memories of rain-soaked fields.
“About seven or eight years back, we had a tournament and man it just poured the whole time,” he said. “We would be out there pushing water and mud and they are right there with us in the middle of it. We are in it up to our shins in mud and pushing the mud.
“There were a couple of times when we looked up (to Heaven) and said, ‘Where Justin is, he’s absolutely dying laughing, looking at us trying get ready for a game.’ It’s something he would be in the middle of, too.”
A LEGACY FOR JUSTIN
The Richardses aren’t worried about their own legacy, but they hope the scholarship and tournament will allow Justin to live on as a part of the program he loved so much.
“Yes, this is his legacy,” Ronnie said. “He was a hard worker. He loved the game. He might be joking around in the parking lot, but when it came time to play ball, the jokes were gone and he was all business.
“He was serious about what was going to take place. If he wasn’t starting, you couldn’t tell it because he was very vocal. He was in the dugout cheering his teammates on."
Anita said, “He was constantly pushing his team.”
Nate Gerard, the 2015 Justin Richards Scholarship recipient, is now part of that proud legacy.
“He was something else,” Gerard said. “He was the spark to the whole program. He started a tradition that can’t be broken.
“The scholarship will help a lot with books and my dorm room. College is not cheap and this scholarship is a big plus in my life.”
TOURNAMENT'S FUTURE
Anita has retired from teaching and Ronnie is at or near retirement age. There will come a day when they can no longer give their heart and soul to the tournament.
But Gillis said he is committed to fielding the tournament for years to come.
“As long as I’m here, we are going to continue to do it and do it in a way that will make them proud,” he said. “It will keep going and people will step up. We have such a good group and family atmosphere here at Crestview that aren’t afraid to stand in the gap if something happens.”
Ronnie said he believes the tournament will go on even when he and his wife can't..
“Tim Gillis is just unreal,” he said. “He’s an awesome guy. He’s the one that gets all the teams and organizes things. We just pretty much show up and make ice cream.
"It’s just unreal the support that you get, and we could never repay the people that help us do this every year.”
Email News Bulletin Sports Editor Randy Dickson, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview baseball's 'heart and soul'