How Coosa Christian baseball has honored assistant coach late mother during semifinal run

Coosa Christian baseball has been on a special run this postseason.

They have made it all the way to the first semifinal appearance in school history, but it’s who they are playing for which makes the run more special. As always, they are playing for their school and putting God first.

But someone has been on their minds — and hats this postseason.

The Conquerors are playing for Amy Brooks, the late mother of assistant coach Logan Brooks. She passed away in November of 2023 due to esophageal cancer that later spread to other parts of her body. Logan remembers his mom as a "very beautiful women, a smart, god fearing woman."

She probably would have been around the ball park for this run.

"I'm just happy that we get to do this for her and get to play our hearts out for the Lord and it do it for her too. It brings me joy that we're able to do this for some many people and reasons," John David Justus said.

Before her death, the Conquerors were already planning on playing for her. It was something that head coach Dewayne Boyd decided on doing for one of his assistant's family.

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"Well it honestly didn't surprise me, coach Boyd is really the kind of person who would give the shirt off his back for anybody. Before we knew my mom was going to pass he already talked about it, that we were going to do it anyway but when she did it meant that much more to go ahead and do it," Brooks said.

Not only did the Conquerors dedicate the season to Amy but they put her initials on their hats overlaying a ribbon. For coach Brooks, having his mother's initials on his hat serves as a reminder that she's always with him and helps him out when he needs it.

"I tell you what, when I'm feeling down, just feeling out of place. I take my hat off and look at it, just remember what we're doing it for and that she's always looking down on me," Brooks said.

Brooks has been working mainly with the catchers and helps with hitting this season but is not a fulltime employee at Coosa Christian. This season he looks forward to the end of his day job to come to the ballpark and help out. It's in part to how the team has rallied around dedicating the season to his mom, but also how special the group is beyond that mission.

"Very grateful to have a team like this, love me the way that they do. I look forward to getting off work every day and coming here and spending my evening with these guys. It's just very surreal, I never take a moment for granted here, and I never will," Brooks said.

The Conquerors will once again take the field wearing hats with Amy's initials on Wednesday for the start of a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. at Sumiton County.

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: How Coosa Christian baseball has honored assistant coach late mother during semifinal run