'It's my favorite week of the year': Roosevelt's Haney reflects on David Starkey's legacy

KENT — The David Starkey Memorial Tournament begins with a trip to the Cuyahoga River.

Every year for nearly two decades, Roosevelt baseball coach Mike Haney has brought his seniors to Starkey's grave in the cemetery across the street from the high school as the tournament in Starkey's name is getting underway.

"It literally is right on the river, all the way in the back," Haney said. "And so I take the boys, my seniors, over every year and we sign a ball and leave it for Patty [Starkey's wife] and the kids and I get to stand around for 10 minutes and tell them about Dave and tell them stories that nobody knows."

It's a beautiful spot to remember a beautiful legacy, to reflect on one of the Rough Riders' most decorated athletes who also made a massive impact coaching in Ravenna.

And then they return to the diamond, a fitting tribute to Starkey, who shone on that field, even winning Plain Dealer Player of the Year honors.

For Haney — who won a memorable district championship playing alongside Starkey on the latter's walk-off blast against Solon in the title game — the David Starkey Memorial Tournament is one of his favorite moments of the year.

"It's my favorite week of the year," Haney said. "Like I love Christmas and I love other things and I love the World Series week and a half, stuff like that, but this is just different because everybody around me — my players, my coaches, the parents in our program, the people I teach with — have embraced this."

The event is special in that it brings back those closest to Starkey, including his wife, father and kids with his family sitting right behind home plate Friday, but also those who never knew him.

"All the guys that come back every year that want to be here and want to be a part of it have never met that man," Haney said. "They don't know anything about him other than what I've told guys or what we've shared through pictures or stats or things like that, and for people to care about it this much and really want to be here and be a part of it, it's just humbling."

David Starkey was a legend on and off the field

Haney tells his players about a man in David Starkey who made an immense impression.

He was big and strong and a force on any number of Roosevelt teams, but baseball was the sport that had his heart.

When Starkey earned first team all-state honors, it wasn't just his .400 batting average and 21 RBIs. It was also his 14 relief appearances, in which he posted a 1.54 ERA. He struck out an absurd 48 batters in 22⅓ innings. The Rough Riders called him "horsey," and much like Theodore Roosevelt himself up San Juan Hill, they knew how to ride him to victory.

"We knew if it was close late, Dave was going in the game," Haney said. "Coach called him 'horsey,' and [Mike] Gasaway would always say in the dugout, 'You got the horsey, you got to use him,' and so we used him."

He was just as forceful off the field, per Haney.

"It did not matter who you were, where you were from, how much money your parents made, what color your skin was, any of that, everybody loved Dave Starkey," Haney said. "He could sit with anybody in that building and he could have fun with anybody in that building. He was a completely gentle giant."

The legacy he left is one of brotherhood, said Haney, and that's what he hopes his players learn from Starkey's legacy.

Haney talks about how deeply Starkey touched his life and the lives of those around him before his unexpected death in August 2007. He talks about how his friends will still go out of their way to help with the tournament, including last-minute work this year replacing the David Starkey Memorial Tournament sign that hangs on the right-field fence.

"High school sports to me is 100 percent about brotherhood more than anything else," Haney said. "Like, that's the most important part. Like, these are your guys that you've played Little League with, that you trained with, that you went to class, that you went to elementary and middle school and high school together, and you might have played two and three sports together with some of these guys."

Roosevelt's current players never got to meet Starkey, but Haney hopes they leave the dugout with that same sense of brotherhood he and his friends shared with Starkey.

"You're going to remember the good times and you're going to remember the brotherhood and you're going to remember going to Mike's Place [the] Saturday morning of the Starkey [Tournament] after you come and pull tarps and get the tires off and stuff like that," Haney said. "Those are the things you're going to remember, and Dave was my brotherhood. Dave was my brother."

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: 'It's my favorite week of the year': Roosevelt's Haney reflects on David Starkey's legacy