BY NOAH GRIFFITH
FOR THE OBSERVER
SMITHS STATION —
As if it couldn’t wait another second, the Glenwood baseball team lined up like an Olympian preparing for a race on the third base line, and then junior Brandon McCraine bolted and snatched Glenwood’s first AISA State Championship trophy since 2017.
After a few jumps and cheers among the team, several team captains hauled the trophy over to head coach Tim Fanning.
It was Fanning’s first title in six years. But it isn’t a first for the 20-year coach — not even close. It’s his ninth state championship as the Gators’ head coach, but it will be one he remembers forever.
The triumph over Macon-East Academy might not have been his first rodeo at Paterson Field in Montgomery, but it was Fanning’s first since he was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer in July 2019. The Glenwood faithful showed up in bunches, and many were wearing shirts that read “Fight like Fanning.”
Fanning was “not surprised at all” that the Glenwood crowd flooded the stands at Paterson Field, but he didn’t foresee the overwhelming support they showed their baseball coach and current Glenwood athletics director.
“I didn’t know it was coming,” Fanning said. “They actually had shirts made, and I showed up at the field Wednesday morning and they all had them on. I started crying — you know, I had no idea. It’s just a testament to how good of kids they are and how much the program means to them and them being selfless.
“This wasn’t about them. As a coach, that’s the biggest thing that you can try to do for a group of young men is get them to understand that, and obviously they get it.”
In a year where Glenwood was loaded with talent, the Gators finished 45-4, winning 29 of their last 30 games. They finished ranked No. 15 nationally by Collegiate Baseball Magazine and No. 10 in the state regardless of classification, and several individuals broke program records.
“There’s a lot that makes this team special,” Fanning said. “Talent is one; I mean, they’re super talented. Their work ethic and commitment is another, and then their pure love for each other and playing baseball.”
The talent was, in fact, historic.
Senior Jaxson Milam broke the program single-season home run record (with 19) while playing a solid shortstop, and senior third baseman Lane Griggs broke the program record in at-bats (152), runs (68), doubles (23) and RBI (73). Along with those two, senior Jacob Page dominated on both sides of the ball, leading the team in on base percentage (OBP; .611) while only striking out eight times in 131 at bats and going 12-0 on the mound with a 1.65 earned run average (ERA) in 72 innings’ pitches.
Page, a lifetime Gator, pitched complete games in the semifinals versus Lee-Scott and again in game one’s five-inning, 11-1 state championship win over Macon-East. He capped off his time at Glenwood boasting a .181 opponent batting average and 84 strikeouts opposed to 14 walks on the mound in his senior season. At .435, he was also one of four batters to finish with a batting average above .400, along with McCraine (.435), Milam (.430) and Griggs (.487).
“I remember him as a skinny seventh-grader making his way into the program,” Fanning reminisced about Page. “He’s served this team well, and he’s done it for a long time. I think he won 11 games as a junior but had his only loss up in the state playoffs. Just coming back and finishing, plus doing what he did on both sides, makes him a really special player.”
Before the season even started, nine seniors — including Milam, Griggs and Page — inked college commitments, along with the McCraine brothers — Brandon and sophomore Mason — committing to Auburn University.
It didn’t all go exactly as planned, but Glenwood displayed the “next man up” mentality while sweeping its way past Monroe, Lee-Scott and Macon-East in the playoffs, outscoring those teams 50-8 in six games.
The Gators had one of the deepest teams in program history, according to Fanning. Several of the team’s top arms didn’t even step on the mound due to injuries, but the team finished with a 2.32 ERA as a team, and sophomore Tyler Sykes became a dark horse go-to arm behind Page.
Fanning said he would never have expected it at the beginning of the season, but Sykes started game two of the state championship, going six innings and allowing three runs, with the 9-3 win making him 7-1 on the season. The week before, Sykes downed Lee-Scott, 1-0, with a complete-game shutout. He finished the season with 66 Ks and just 10 walks with a 1.68 ERA.
Before he hoisted the trophy, Brandon McCraine put the exclamation point on the Gators’ season, just as he did with a game-winning buzzer beater to defeat Macon-East in the basketball state championship.
He didn’t pitch all season due to arm soreness, but he took over for Sykes in the seventh inning of game two and pitched a scoreless frame that ensued in a dogpile, with Sykes being the cherry on top — jumping onto and sliding off his teammates with a smile stretched from ear to ear.
For Sykes, it’s just the beginning, but for those 12 seniors, it was a matter of finishing unfinished business. Glenwood advanced to the state championship in 2022 but was denied by Pike Liberal Arts.
That dogpile meant finished business, but the Gators did it all for something bigger than themselves. The motto all season has been “23 for 23,” and Fanning has written two books titled “Serve to Lead,” which encapsulate the value of servant leadership.
After fighting through nearly a year of cancer treatments, Fanning rang the bell to signal his final chemo treatment in June 2020. But his journey didn’t end there. He kept fighting — for Glenwood athletics, for Gator baseball and for another taste of a state title.
On May 10, 2023, Fanning’s fight and the lessons of putting others above yourself that he’s instilled in his team came full circle when his team captains marched toward him with the AISA State Championship trophy hoisted high.
“I feel like we did all this for coach Fanning,” Milam said with a smile. “Every grind, every game was for coach Fanning. We had the talent and we put in the work. It means everything.”