Continuing to build

Editor’s note: Jay County and Fort Recovery spring student athletes are dealing with a new reality of not having school in session as well as having their sports season canceled. This “Senior Spotlight” series will recognize those spring senior athletes who had their final year as a Patriot or Indian cut short.

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The Indians had done a lot of losing.

Not having a steady coach was one reason for it.

So after compiling the first winning season in more than a decade, the Fort Recovery High School seniors were anticipating another climb, this time up the conference standings.

As the surrounding states began canceling their respective spring sports seasons, Macy Day was holding out hope as Ohio held off on giving the season the axe.

“Especially with everything our team has been through, we really needed this season,” Day said.

Esther J. “EJ” Stephen, who coached Fort Recovery the last two seasons, is being charged with murder stemming from the Jan. 12 death of Shea Briar in northwest Jay County. The Indians, with former assistant coach Ryan Thien since promoted to lead the squad, were desperate to move on from the offseason stresses.

“We’ve really been encouraging each other to go out and make ourselves better,” Day said of how the team was getting through the offseason and the early part of the spring when the season was still in limbo. “Especially the younger kids so that we can build the program that we’ve built.”

But on April 21, those hopes were dashed for Day and seniors across the state as the OHSAA officially nixed the season because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Day, 18, the youngest child of Kim and Elaine Day, was part of a resurgence in the Indian softball program. A typical bottom feeder in the Midwest Athletic Conference, Fort Recovery went five full seasons without a conference victory. Over that span, the team was 9-87 overall.

The Indians snapped that long MAC losing streak during Day’s freshman season — 2017. They went 1-6 again the following year — overall records of 3-18 and 3-15 respectively — before completing the turnaround last season.

Fort Recovery was 14-10 (4-3 MAC) for its first winning record in more than a decade, and won a sectional title as well.

Day and her classmates were itching to get on the field this season to continue the climb.

“It’s hard because we all had high hopes,” she said. “Even my other fellow seniors, just watching our past and how much we’ve grown together, not being able to play because we put in all this work.

“I was looking forward to actually having a great season. We thought we could go far. Every year we saw a little bit of an improvement. This year we were like ‘We can really do this.’”

In addition to softball, Day played basketball for four seasons, helping the Indians win the program’s first MAC championship this winter. She is also a member of student council, Spanish Club and Future Business Leaders of America.

Outside of school, Day has followed in the footsteps of three Day generations by being involved with the fire department. Her grandfather and father were both fire chief. Her uncles were firefighters, and her older siblings — sister Lauren, 28, and brother Giles, 25 — were junior firefighters as well.

Essentially, Macy joining the ranks as a junior firefighter just seemed right.

“I basically just help out with the little things,” she said, noting she may pursue a position as a firefighter depending on where her college degree takes her. “Clean trucks and attend meetings, when there’s a run I go down to the station and if they need anything I get it ready.”

After graduating from FRHS, Day will continue her softball career at Clark State Community College in Springfield, Ohio. She plans to study radiography.

“I knew I wanted to go into healthcare,” she said. “I wasn’t exactly for sure. I did a whole bunch of job shadowing and decided that’s what I wanted to do.”

Day chose Clark State, which is approximately 80 miles from FRHS and has about 6,200 students, because of its proximity to home and the small size of the school.

And if she could go back to her freshman year and do anything differently, it would be taking time to enjoy the moment more.

“I probably would have not taken anything for granted,” she said. “Cherish things a little more.”