Ty Long

I’ve covered a lot of coaches over the years. It’s extremely rare that a coach stays in one place for more than a decade nowadays. It’s even more rare that those long time coaches have the universal respect and love from all of their former players. Joel Gafford was one of those coaches. He became synonymous with Ripley baseball. He demanded the best from his guys but one thing was clear…those were HIS guys. A prime example of that: the media swarmed Ty Long after his masterful pitching performances at the state championship final game, a tough loss for the Tigers. Gafford came up to Ty, put his arm around him, and was right there with him the whole time. Me and Gafford would text and talk occasionally, about sports mostly. Over a decade+ of covering him, we became friendly. He thanked me for covering his Tigers, never wanted any credit for anything, and always said the program was bigger than him. Thanks for all the baseball banquet invites and signing day heads up over the years Coach. I’ll miss the “eat breakfast. Go Tigers” Tweets and I’ll miss you.