Varsity, alums battle to 4-4 tie in annual reunion game
Alums pull out all the stops, but varsity responds to earn draw
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The oldest player and the youngest player to play in Saturday’s Alumni game both were key players in the annual “rivalry” game that’s more about entertainment and fellowship than it is about victory, which is a good thing since this year’s game ended in a 4-4 tie.
With the alums trailing 2-1 in the top of the third inning and freshman catcher Charlie Joe Owen anticipating a possible play at the plate, Craig Russell, Class of 1974, legged out an infield single to plate Everett Williams, who had tripled earlier in the inning.
Russell might be considered the patriarch of Mac baseball. He played baseball for the Knights in the ’70s and had three sons, among them Phillip who also played in today’s game, go on to have distinguished Mac baseball careers.
Williams, the former 2009 second-round draft pick of the San Diego Padres who played six seasons of Minor League baseball, was the designated ringer on Saturday for the alums for the alumni. After tripling and scoring in the third inning, Williams came to bat again just four batters later after the alums had loaded the bases.
In his second at-bat in the inning, he drew a bases-loaded walk from pitcher Eric Worden to drive in Russell to make the score 4-2, alumni. As he shrugged in mock frustration on his trot to first base, Williams joked that by walking him, Worden had chosen the best option available to him.
It seemed to many observers that Williams magically appeared in the batter’s box for the alums whenever any of them advanced into scoring position.
The aforementioned Owen meanwhile ended up saving the day for the varsity a couple of times. He was at the tagging end of thwarted double steal attempt that kept the alums from scoring an insurance run, and then in the bottom of the fifth, he followed Davis Roe’s two-out RBI double with an RBI single of his own to tie the score at 4, which is how the game ended.
The baseball gets serious for the varsity starting Thursday when the team heads to the Texas Hill Country for the team’s annual season-opening appearance in the Fredericksburg High School tournament.
![A PRIDE-FUL WEEK OF CELEBRATION:
As part of AISDs week-long celebration of PRIDE, students of the McCallum Spectrum Club worked to create a week full of activities, prizes and helping hands to support the schools LGBTQ+ community. The club is widely available for anyone to join, and specializes in creating a safe space for students to share and give advice. While Pride month itself isn’t until June, AISD designates one week in March to celebrate and commemorate the importance of this part of the student body.
As part of the week of festivities, the club held a booth in the front hall handing out pride stickers, pins and merch to passers by. For junior Zane Joly, the booth idea was brought up as a way for students to engage with one another, and connect with the community.
“I call out to people in the halls, ‘hey, do you want stickers?’” Joly said. “We just give out free pride stickers and sometimes other free pride merch to the students of Macallum because everybody likes pride stickers.”
While the week itself is packed with a variety of different activities, the overall goal is to bring students closer together and create a safer environment for self expression at McCallum.
“The idea for the student panel largely came from the black [history] student panel that is done during Black History Month,” Joly said. “And the idea for giving out free stuff was developed at Spectrum last year.”
Joly is not only a member of the Spectrum club, but also holds a leadership position giving them a more hands-on role with the projects and Pride Week activities.
“McCallum has a very high queer population,” Joly said. “I think Its nice that we get a chance to celebrate Pride because Pride Month is during the summer, and I think its just a nice thing for the community and getting to just celebrate it.”
While the merch table at lunch was only a small part of the numerous parts of McCallum’s Pride week, for Joly this small impact made all the difference.
“The purpose of Pride is to make people not feel alone and to make them feel safe,” Joly said. “The goal is [to make people] happy about a part of themselves that theyre often conditioned to not feel good about.”
Caption by Chloe Lewcock. Photo by Shila Gill.](https://macshieldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/53597258192_6e7168d8ae_o-1-600x338.jpg)
![BACKGROUND IN THE BUSINESS: Dressed by junior designer Kaitlyn Gerrie, senior Chamila Muñoz took to the “Dreamland” runway this past weekend. While it was her first time participating in the McCallum fashion show, Muñoz isn’t new to the modeling world.
I modeled here and there when I was a lot younger, maybe five or six [years old] for some jewelry brands and small businesses, but not much in recent years,” Muñoz said.
Muñoz had hoped to participate in last year’s show but couldn’t due to scheduling conflicts. For her senior year, though, she couldn’t let the opportunity pass her by.
“It’s [modeling] something I haven’t done in a while so I was excited to step out of my comfort zone in a way,” Muñoz said. “I always love trying new things and being able to show off designs of my schoolmates is such an honor.”
The preparation process for the show was hectic, leaving the final reveal of Gerrie’s design until days before the show, but the moment Muñoz tried on the outfit, all the stress for both designer and model melted away.
“I didn’t get to try on my outfit until the day before, but the look on Kaitlyn’s face when she saw what she had worked so hard to make actually on a model was just so special,” Muñoz said. “I know it meant so much to her. But then she handed me a blindfold and told me I’d be walking with it on, so that was pretty wild.”
Caption by Francie Wilhelm.](https://macshieldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/53535098892_130167352f_o-600x400.jpg)
