What’s next for players after Furman baseball cut? ‘God’s got a plan.’
According to record books and stat sheets and box scores that will document the last season in Furman baseball history, Joey Tepper was a Paladin for only 17 games.
Last summer, the Fort Mill High School alum transferred into the Division I program from Spartanburg Methodist, a junior college baseball program in Spartanburg, S.C. But the moment Tepper stepped on campus, he said, his teammates made him feel like one of them.
He had made a home at Furman.
“We were all super upset the season got canceled,” Tepper said, referencing the initial cancellation caused by the coronavirus pandemic. “But we were just thinking, ‘Alright, next season. Let’s get back to work.’
“Now, that’s not a possibility.”
Tepper and Northwestern High School alumni Rob Hughes and Jordan Starkes were on Furman’s final baseball roster. They were all on the Zoom video call their head coach told them to be on Monday morning — the one where athletic director Jason Donnelly told them the baseball and men’s lacrosse programs were being eliminated.
“Honestly, there wasn’t much said,” Tepper said. “He kind of told us, and then said we need to spend time with our team. So once he and the other managers hopped off the call, we kind of just sat there in silence. People were trying to process what was going on, but there wasn’t much to say.”
And soon, they’ll all begin on separate paths.
Tepper, who said he battled a strained quad muscle this season and who played in seven of the team’s 17 games, entered the transfer portal Tuesday morning. Another offseason, another grueling recruitment cycle.
“At this point, I feel like I just have too much left to give to the game of baseball to stop now, so I’m definitely going to transfer and find a new home. We’ll see where that takes me in the next month or so.”
Furman players enter transfer portal, start over
For Tepper, Hughes and Starkes, their new realities are taking shape.
A Furman spokesperson confirmed that Furman baseball players who transfer to a school outside the Southern Conference are eligible to play immediately, in accordance with NCAA rules. If a player chooses to transfer within the SoCon, he has to sit out a year.
Also this week, the program announced that it would honor all scholarships for current players and incoming recruits, a respectable move by a program that cut two of its teams because of financial problems.
That said, many of the players at Furman weren’t on athletic scholarships. And many others had partial scholarships.
Starkes, who led Furman in hitting in 2020 with a .328 batting average and started all 17 games in the shortened season, told The State this week that his initial reaction was that the situation “can’t be real.”
“For some guys, this could be their last chance at playing baseball ever, and that’s not just talking about the seniors,” Starkes said. “Some people might not have the opportunity to go play at other schools.”
Starkes has retweeted his teammates’ future plans, but hasn’t publicized his own. He told The Herald in a direct message on Twitter that he’s “open and listening to anything and everyone.”
Hughes said he’s still letting everything sink in.
As far as Furman athletics? Cuts aren’t unprecedented. Furman eliminated the golf program in the spring of 2014 and brought it back in August 2017. But per reports from The State, Furman’s baseball program is likely gone for good.
“It honestly still doesn’t feel real, just not being able to return to where I made a home last year with those coaches and those guys,” Tepper said. “It’s definitely tough, but I think God’s got a plan. He’s got a plan for the coaches and everyone on that team.”
This story was originally published May 20, 2020 at 12:28 PM with the headline "What’s next for players after Furman baseball cut? ‘God’s got a plan.’."
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