FLOYDS KNOBS, Ind. (WDRB) – They hadn’t even stepped into the gym yet. From the hallway outside, the Floyds Knobs 12-under Little League Softball World Series runners-up could hear it — the rumble of packed bleachers, the chants of “F-K-C-C!” rolling toward them. Fans had spotted the team lining up behind oversized championship banners, ready to make their entrance.
They were tired — 24 games in 31 days will do that to you — but this was the good kind of exhaustion. The kind that comes with adoring fans, an invitation from Caitlin Clark to an Indiana Fever game, and the pride of a state ready to rain down on them.
Tuesday morning, they’ll be back in homeroom. One night, you’re the lead-in for the Disney movie of the week on ABC. The next, your coach has turned back into a pumpkin and you’re staring at a stack of homework.
Except that Floyds Knobs coach J.R. Drummond is no pumpkin.
“To say it has been a whirlwind,” Drummond said, “doesn’t seem like enough.”
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About 24 hours earlier, Drummond had gathered his players on the field at the end of an amazing odyssey. They were crushed, the 1-0 defeat to Johnstown, Pa., in the title game still glowing from the scoreboard.
This is where Little League coaches say things that matter not only in sports, but in life. Drummond, a 20-year teacher and coach who returns to his classroom at Doss High School on Tuesday, has earned that voice. And he gave it to them straight.
“They were tore up,” Drummond said. “And I gathered them and said, ‘Listen, if you don’t like this, don’t play sports. This is part of it. Let your preparation prepare you to win, and sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. Let that drive you to make adjustments and get better. They've been around me enough to know that I'm going to speak reality to them, even in low times. And in my experience, that kind of moves the needle for kids’ development.”
Fans at Floyd Central High School cheer the Floyds Knobs Little League World Series runners-up.
It was the end of a summer that began with a sprint. Weeks on the road. Nights in Little League villages or dormitories. Drummond learned the team’s flight to Greenville, N.C., was leaving just 11 hours before departure. By the time they arrived — and then sat for days before their first game — they were wound tight.
In some ways, that opening-game loss wasn’t the worst thing. Had they won, Drummond said, it would have meant yet another day of waiting.
“Two more days off after having four off?” he said. “Our team was on the brink – let’s say it was a season on the brink – because they needed to play. They were in the dorms together the whole time. Playing is their common denominator. What brings the group together is when we focus on softball.”
Once they did, they never looked back. They clawed through elimination games until they reached a semifinal showdown with defending World Series champion North Carolina — a team playing just seven miles from home, with a trophy already in its case and one win over Floyds Knobs in the tournament.
For the Indiana squad to win that game in that setting might have been the biggest accomplishment of all.
“There's over 3,000 people, and probably 2,900 of them were cheering for North Carolina,” Drummond said. “That's the game we wanted to get to. We felt we gave the first one away. … We knew we had the better team. We just needed to finish the deal. Having that opportunity in front of their crowd was fantastic. I told the girls, unless you play in the College World Series, you'll never have that big a stage again in softball.”
Coach J.R. Drummond talks the crowd about his Floyds Knobs Little League team that earned a runner-up finish in the Little League World Series.
The next afternoon, the stage shifted to the championship. A rain delay. A hot pitcher. A triple erased when a foot strayed out of the batter’s box. On a regular Little League field without cameras everywhere and an SEC umpire at the plate, maybe it stands. Instead, the right call turned it into an out. And later, a bases-loaded line drive that could have changed the game went straight back to the pitcher’s glove.
So it went.
Drummond had seen this potential years earlier. He knew the girls, their talent, and the work it would take to get here.
“We sort of spoke it into existence,” he said. “… But they had to work really hard.”
And so they’re back home. Drummond thanked the crowd for its support and sacrifices. On Sunday night, back at the dorms after the loss, he asked each player to take out a Little League postcard and write a note to her family.
His words concluded, Drummond gave a final thank you, then welcomed the crowd down to meet the team. The girls disappeared into a court-storming of embraces.
“We talked about it constantly,” Drummond said. “This will be a summer you never forget. They don't know that now. But it will, I think, resonate more and more. We just kept saying, own the moment, love it, accept it. Whatever. It's softball. There's no reason to be anxious about anything. You've been prepared. Well, go have fun and make the most of the moment.”
They sure did.
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