Courtesy, Wagener Monthly
By Valerie Sliker
Aiken County Parks and Recreation dedicated a Roy Warner Park baseball field in honor of Mr. Mickey Jeffcoat for his many years of service and dedication to the community. This came as a complete surprise to Jeffcoat, a humble man.
“It’s not just me,” Jeffcoat said, “It’s everybody. So many parents have been involved, I can’t name them all.”
In 1979, Dwight Yon called his best friend Mickey Jeffcoat to ask if he would help coach some kids baseball teams. Jeffcoat’s kids were not old enough to play yet, but Yon’s son Brad was, so Jeffcoat jumped right in and started helping out. Nearly 40 years later, he is still helping out, but it’s their grandchildren on the field now.
Back in the beginning, their team was called the Edisto Beagles. The Beagles practiced on the old Berlin Baptist softball field, the one down a dirt road across from the current Berlin field.
“We started out in blue jeans and ¾ length shirts with no sponsors,” Jeffcoat said. “Later, Carolina Eastman became our only sponsor and put us in some sponsored shirts.” Donnie and Lonnie Yon, Geno Demario and more parents began coaching as the teams grew.
The fighting Beagles moved to Rocky Grove Baptist Church’s field for awhile and then settled in for good at the Roy Warner Park in 1988 or ’89 when the field lights were acquired. More parents got involved and the Beagles became Wagener Youth Baseball. League secretary and treasurer positions were established and filled and Jeffcoat was named president, but, he says, “I was just the Go-Fer, that’s all I did.
“Dwight started this thing and all I did was like the rest of the parents, I just came up here and helped. Someone would call you and ask you about helping with something for your child, you’d jump right on it. It’s what you do as a parent. It’s not about one person, it’s about all the parents.”
Jeffcoat did a little more than “all the parents.” It wasn’t rare for him to coach two teams at a time and one year, he coached three. Dwight or his wife would get one game started for him and when he finished coaching where ever his other team was playing, he’d rush over and finish coaching. “I didn’t have a kid on the team, I was coaching so they could play. You know, it’s all for the kids.
“Back then, the county didn’t do anything. If I had a ball game, I had to take off sometime early from work and drag it and chalk it all ourselves. You come out here and chalk it the best you could, it’s just what we did. Now they have lawnmowers down here, we didn’t have that. Cutting that big field out there was terrible with my little old mower, but my daughter played softball out there. You know how it is. It’s a parent thing.
As the league developed, paperwork and insurance made it impossible to play without charging fees for the players. Wagener has always played in the lower Lexington league despite being in Aiken County. We played and continue to play Pelion, Swansea, North and Gaston.
At some point, Ralph Stroman and Tommy Strothers began coaching girls’ softball, slow pitch at first and the girls they coached later won 2 or 3 state titles for WSHS. Paulette Bolen became instrumental with the administration and many other aspects of the league.
Concessions developed around the early 1990’s. Joey Heyward met with Kathy Rawls and she got $10,000 to get the concession stand started. Heyward was in construction and Rawls was in the beginning of her twenty-years plus seat on Aiken County Council. Rawls was instrumental in securing the fields for the park and in overall development of the park.
“I’ll always care about this park,” Jeffcoat said as we talked beside the new playground while his grandchildren played. “Every time I drive by, I have to look at it. Many times, I’d ride by and the lights would be on or something else going on. I have to say, ‘It’s not mine anymore. I can’t cut the lights off, I don’t know what they’re doing with them.’ Willie and Carolyn know what’s going on.”
Jeffcoat and Yon worked at John Harland, printing checks until 1974. Yon went to the post office while Jeffcoat moved into construction. In 1980, Jeffcoat began at the Savannah River Plant where he remained until retirement.