Since graduating from Mississippi College, Hickory native Mark Fanning has made a career out of coaching baseball at St. Andrews Episcopal School in Madison.
During his 21 years at St. Andrews, Fanning has fielded one of the most consistent baseball teams in the state of Mississippi.
But during that 21 years, Fanning watched his Saints come up just short of that elusive state championship time after time, often running into teams with future SEC players.
But 2018 was St. Andrews’ season as the Saints rolled to a school-record 33 wins and the Class 3A state championship.
“We finally got it done,” Fanning said. “I think the story is how close we had been so many different times. We have had some talented teams over the years that fell just short and ran into some really good teams. It meant a lot because this group knew how hard it was to get there and win it. I think you have to lose one to appreciate it. I certainly know they understand the difference between winning and losing a state championship.”
Under Fanning, the Saints lost state championship series in 2001, 2009 and 2016. They lost in South State finals in 2012 and 2015. During that stretch, they often came head to head with some of Mississippi’s best teams such as Lumberton and then it was Sumrall.
But that’s all history for the Newton County native, who is son to legendary coach Mack Fanning, who has the sports complex named after him at the Decatur school.
“It was fun to win that last game and get to see our kids go out on top,” Fanning said. “Winning that last game changes everything and that had to sink in. The difference in being there and winning couldn’t be further apart. Those years that we lost it, people would tell you that you should feel fortunate because there are so many teams that would love there. Now we can check that one off the list. It just changes everything.”
While he’s often been on the wrong end, this finally worked out for Fanning this season as they beat North Pontotoc in two games at Trustmark after fighting back from an 11-1 loss to Seminary in Game 1 of the South 3A finals.
“We finally had some things go our way,” Fanning said. “You hear it all the time that not only do you have to be good to win it, but you have to be lucky. We finally got some calls, finally made some plays and had everything fall our way. Seminary beat us 11-1 in South State and threw their ace. I pulled my No. 1 after two innings and had him to come back in Game 3. And then we win two one-run games in the championship series. We just had things fall our way. Some would say we were lucky but I don’t think people understand what these kids go through to prepare for a season and play and stay on top of their academics.”
While Jackson has become a hot-bed of baseball with powerhouses like Jackson Prep, Jackson Academy, Northwest Rankin, Clinton, Brandon, Madison Central, Madison St. Joseph, St. Andrews is known more for its academic prowess, despite excelling in sports.
The Saints graduated six seniors this year but only two of those are going to play college baseball. Fanning said senior C.J. Caron and Sam Roffwarg signed to play at Rhodes college in Memphis while centerfielder Banks Tolley will play soccer at Mercer. Fanning said five of the six seniors scored at least 32 on the ACT while Caron had a perfect score.
“We just play with a different kind of kid,” Fanning said. “For example, last year, we went to a camp at Louisiana Tech and coach (Lane) Burroughs was telling me how good a group we had and how he really liked my team but he wasn’t interested in signing any of them. I had one kid who was a good player get an academic scholarship to Vanderbilt but wasn’t good enough to play there and another at Arizona State. And these kids aren’t going junior college, they are going Division I for academics. These kids come out of high school knowing where they want to go and what they want to do. They know they are going to medical school or law school. So for them, when they leave St. Andrews, it’s the last time they will ever play baseball so it’s that much more special for this group of seniors to go out winners.”
Fanning said with graduation and one starter moving, he will only have two starters back for next years squad but also has eight juniors waiting in the wings.
“We thought this was a year that we had a chance to win it,” Fanning said. “We had a very experienced group. And while we won’t go into a rebuilding mode, we will only have two starters back so it’s sort of like starting from scratch again. But we’ll start summer baseball in just a few weeks and get going with that.”
Fanning said after beating North Pontotoc 3-2 in eight innings in the championship game, it was a wild celebration and missed talking to his parents after the game but caught them on the phone on their way back to Hickory.
“It was crazy after the game,” Fanning said. “You have to do the trophy stuff and then I had to do the radio. And then I looked around and realized they had already left. I talked to him the phone as they were going back to Hickory. Normally after a game, we’ll talk about why we did this or didn’t do that and he’ll give me his thoughts. This time, he just congratulated me.”
