Byng catcher helps spread the word with Ambassadors

Bob Forrest Sports Writer

Byng July 21, 2008 01:58 pm

— Faith has carried Wyatt Fisher through more than most kids his age. This summer, it carried him to a roster spot on one of Oklahoma’s most unique baseball teams.
Fisher, who survived cancer to become one of the area’s best catchers while at Byng High School, is a member of the new Oklahoma Ambassadors, a squad based in Oklahoma City and built on a lot more than the considerable baseball talents of its players.
“The told me it was a Christian-based team and I was chosen on athletic ability but also on character,” said Fisher, who started as a freshman on Byng’s 2005 spring state tournament squad before the cancer was discovered, then, after missing the Pirates’ fall campaign that year, returned in the spring of 2006 and started behind the plate for the rest of his high school career. “I expected to be around a bunch of good guys who weren’t going to get in trouble on trips, and that’s exactly what it’s been — it’s a bunch of all-around good guys.
“I thought going into it that these were going to be nice kids who weren’t competitive, but it’s the exact opposite,” he added. “It’s the most competitive team I’ve ever been a part of of.”
Orginally formed as a tribute to former Elk City All-Stater Justin Sullivan, who was killed in a freak automobile accident in Oklahoma City in 2002, the Ambassadors have players from across the state and from Kansas and Texas. Their 25-man roster includes former high school stars from Byng, Yukon, Carl Albert, Duncan, Marlow, Chickasha, Santa Fe South, Washington, Bixby, Stillwater and Altus as well as from Wichita, Kansas, and Keller, Texas.
“We have three Division I players, one that was drafted (by a major league team) and a huge number of kids who have signed to play junior college,” said former Washington High baseball coach Dave Vallerand, who is serving as an assistant to head coach Lee Tunnell (himself a former major league coach and player) this summer.
“I was able to get a lot of good contacts while I was coaching, and we went through Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and church youth ministers,” he added. “We didn’t do one single tryout. We just kind of prayed about the roster, we would get a recommendation from their youth minister or their coach, and it turned out a lot of them were really good baseball players as well. When we came up with the idea for this team, we were trying to find 20 guys. People told us we could find 20 Christians, but we couldn’t find 20 good Christian ballplayers. I think we’ve proven those people wrong.”
After playing a schedule so far that ranks with that of any 18-and-under team in Oklahoma, the Ambassadors will enter their own Justin Sullivan Memorial Tournament this week with a sparkling 27-7 record. The Oklahoma Travelers, Oklahoma Outlaws and the Durant Legion team — all perennial state summer powerhouses — are on the list of the Ambassadors’ victims, and the team — which opens tournament play Monday evening at the Bricktown Ballpark against the Edmond Travelers — will be in the same pool with the Ada Legion Post 72 Braves this week (the Ambassadors and Braves are due to meet at 11 a.m. Friday at Southern Nazarene University in Bethany).
“We were hoping to get everybody a game (at Bricktown), but the rest of the tournament will be played at OU, Southern Nazarene, Oklahoma City University and Putnam West High School,” Vallerand said.
Fisher — whose coach at Byng, Charles Copeland, is an old friend of Vallerand’s and recommended his former catcher — is in the minority on the Ambassador squad in that he hasn’t yet signed to play college baseball. He said he hadn’t even planned to play this summer but added that his experiences with the Ambassadors have changed his thinking somewhat.
“I was set to chill this summer and not play baseball at all, then this came up and it sounded fun,” he recalled. “I wasn’t going to play in college and just focus on school, but you get exposure playing on this team because (Tunnell) was a pro scout and has every contact in the world. It’s definitely made me want to play at the next level if the opportunity arose.”
Vallerand said getting exposure to college scouts for his players was near the top of the list of priorities when the Ambassadors were formed in May. At No. 1, though, was to make the team a fitting tribute to Sullivan, who was a senior at Elk City High School when his car was crushed after the rear axle came off an 18-wheeler on I-40 and crossed the median. Sullivan, who was driving (and who just a day before had been named the Oklahoman’s Large School Player of the Year for 2002), turned his car so that the driver’s side took the force of the impact. He was killed while his two passengers escaped with minor injuries, and after his death, his thoughts during the weeks leading up to the accident survived in his journal.
“In the last six weeks before he passed away, Justin kept a journal, and when he passed away, his mother gave the journal to the youth minister at his church (Chris Wall, who is also an Ambassador assistant coach),” Vallerand explained. “Chris put Justin’s journal into book form, and it sold 2,500 copies within a month.
“People started talking that we needed to take this a step farther,” he added. “Throughout the year, we go around and do free baseball clinics for churches, and when we play in tournaments we tall people Justin and about his testimony.”
When Vallerand and Tunnell started assembling their first Ambassadors squad, they called coaches and asked for recommendations. Copeland was among the first on Vallerand’s list.
“Charles Copeland is a really good friend of mine,” Vallerand recalled. “I called him to see if he knew of any players around that area, and the first thing out of his mouth was to give me Wyatt’s name and tell me his story.”
Vallerand, who stepped down this spring after five years as Washington’s head baseball coach to spend more time with his 6-year-old son, Jackson (who is autistic), said joining the Ambassadors’ coaching staff (which, in addition to Tunnell and Wall, also includes Santa Fe South High School head coach Adrian Savedra), was, literally, a godsend.
“Quitting as a high school coach frees up 10 months out of the year to be available to my son,” Vallerand said. “When I stepped down, God opened a door so I could still coach and be a part of this ministry.”
Fisher, one of three members of the Ambassadors’ catching rotation, said playing for Vallerand, Tunnell and Savedra has been one of the most enjoyable parts of his experience as a charter member of the team.
“Coach Tunnell is the coolest,” Fisher said. “He’s probably the most patient person I’ve ever met in my life. It’s hard to mesh at times because we’ve never played together before, but I love all our coaches. They’re awesome.”
And Vallerand said Fisher has been a true asset this summer — a quality kid on a team made up of quality kids.
“Wyatt has definitely been a blessing,” Vallerand said. “He’s quiet, but once you get him going, he’s pretty funny, and he’s super talented.
“The thing about this group is that they are all low-maintenance, hard-working kids,” he added. “They’ve done so much more than just baseball in giving their time, but we’ve made sure our baseball was top-notch so these kids could be seen by some college coaches. We hoped we would get that elite-type kids, and we’ve been able to to it. We’ve had a good balance of good kids and good baseball players.”

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