Corona del Sol baseball finds strength within its community, remains #AztecStrong

George Sanchez found himself in the breezeway Tuesday at Corona del Sol (Tempe, Ariz.) with three other people. The others were the school resource officer, fellow baseball coach Tanner Vesley and student Marcus Wheeler.

The saddening end result – Wheeler, a cross country state champion, taking his own life on campus – has hit everyone hard.

Imagine being one of the people attempting to persuade Wheeler to make another choice in his final moments.

"Myself and coach Vesley tried to talk him out of it," Sanchez said. "It's been tough on many of us. … I'm doing alright. It keeps running through my head. It was a tough thing to see, a tough thing to be around. But like I've said, the staff, everyone reacted amazingly. We locked the school down. Closed everything up. Everybody did what they needed to do. But it doesn't make it any easier."

Sanchez found himself in the dugout at Maryvale Stadium Wednesday with about 25 others wearing Corona's black jersey, but missing their leader.

Aztecs coach Dave Webb was in the hospital with a heart condition, leaving Sanchez to run the team in his absence.

"His heart's not pumping the way it should be," Sanchez said. "The doctor is pretty confident and they got it figured out. Get him on the right medication and he should be back up and running.

"I was in the hospital with him last night."

Hospitals, adversity, death. The Corona baseball team and everyone involved with the school have had to deal with too much of all three this year.

The Aztecs began the season by shaving their heads to help raise money for the Children's Cancer Network and in honor of classmate and boys volleyball player Ridge Vanderbur. Unfortunately, cancer doesn't take such gestures into consideration. Vanderbur died April 4.

"It's been so tough," senior Eric Schwalbe said. "Starting with Ridge, shaving our heads… It just brought us closer together. Webby in the hospital. He is a special part of our team and he can't be here. It's just bad.

"It was just so hard."

And yet Corona played baseball on Wednesday in the Division I postseason, a day later than originally scheduled after the school was locked down after the Wheeler incident played out. It was an elimination game against No. 3 Liberty with the latter prevailing 5-2 to knock Corona out.

Despite the loss the players remained #AztecStrong.

"It was really a tough year for the campus as a whole, emotionally with all of the things that went on," Sanchez said. "We are extremely proud of this (baseball) group. They did a great job and battled. They never gave up. We told them it was one of the most fun groups we've been around."

The sports season for Corona has had its moments – the boys hoops team winning its fourth-straight title comes to mind – but will mostly be remembered for all the hardships and how the school community rallied around each other.

"It's tough on 15-, 16-, 17-year-old kids," Sanchez said. "A student grabbed me and told me there was something going on in the breezeway (where he found Wheeler). There was definitely something going on between the two gyms. We just tried to calm everyone down and get the kids out.

"We were able to get all the kids before anything (bigger) happened. The staff, the school and everyone did a phenomenal job. Our resource officer was right on the spot. She was great. It was tough day, a tough thing to go through."

Jason P. Skoda, a former Arizona Republic and current Prep Sports Director for 1013 Communications, is a 20-year sports writing veteran. Contact him at jskoda1024@aol.com.