Friday's Internet Edition, July 25, 2008.
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| Erik Walker |
Tragically, Larry and Peggy Walker suffered that pain last Saturday afternoon when they received the news that their son, Erik — a pro baseball player and former West Forsyth High School and UNC-Charlotte standout — was missing after a canoeing trip down the New River in Independence, Virginia.
Along with his girlfriend, Christy Murray, a pitcher on the UNC-Charlotte softball team, Walker drove to the New River campground located in the Blue Ridge mountains last Saturday morning for a five-hour canoeing trip.
But shortly after noon, their canoe became stuck on a group of rocks at the top of “Molly Shoals,” a set of long rapids. As they climbed into the chilly, 40-degree water — only three deep at that point — they freed the watercraft and were attempting to wade it downstream when Erik stepped into an eight-foot trough and was pulled underwater by a strong current. Murray eventually managed to get back into the boat and reach the shore before running to a nearby summer cabin and calling 911 for emergency help.
As of Tuesday morning, search and rescue parties had been unable to locate Walker. Monday’s recovery efforts were hampered by strong winds, water currents that reached six knots and temperatures that peaked at 38 degrees. Loren Hibbs, Walker’s college baseball coach at UNC-Charlotte, was among those onhand.
“It was a tough day for everyone involved,” he mentioned during a phnoe conversation from his home in Charlotte on Monday night. “The conditions (for the search) were terrible but the divers and volunteers were amazing. They were doing everything they could to find Erik.”
Like everyone who knows Erik, Hibbs is still in a state of disbelief over the accident.
“Erik has been a special player for our program and, more importantly, he is just a special person. I reiterated to Larry and Peggy how proud I am of him and how much he has meant (to UNCC). He is a tremendous individual who has a positive effect on everyone around him. They should be extremely proud, they’ve done a darn good job of raising him.”
Word of the accident circulated quickly throughout the weekend and became widespread on Monday, even reaching the national level as a headline on the official website of Minor League Baseball.
Walker, a former star pitcher at West and at UNCC, had just completed an all-star professional season for the Hudson Valley Renegades, a Class A affiliate in the Tampa Bay Devil Rays baseball organization. He was selected in the 20th round of the 2006 Major League Baseball draft and was on his way to moving up in the organization next spring. He had returned to Charlotte this fall for his final semester at UNCC.
“Erik is a true professional,” noted Renegades general manager Dave Burke. “You wish you’re entire team could be made up of guys just like him.
“I had the chance to drive him down to Aberdeen for the all-star game this summer and we had a great time talking. He is a charismatic, friendly person who is loved by our fans.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with with his family and everyone down there. I believe in miracles and have definitely not given up hope.”
Like his father, Erik was a well-known and popular member of the local sports community.
“We’re all in total shock at this point,” mentioned West athletic director Durwood Pack on Monday. “Erik is a great athlete but he’s an even better kid. I know that sounds like a cliche but it is the absolute truth. He is a special young man.
“The past 48 hours have been extremely difficult to handle.”
Titan head baseball coach Randy Pope said he has been besieged with phone calls, ranging from former Titan players to family and friends of the Walkers.
“Erik is the kind of kid that everyone likes,” he said. “He’s modest, hard-working and has a great disposition.
“And as a baseball player, he has meant so much to our program. He was a team leader when he played here and he still comes back each year to help with our camps. The young kids look up to him and with good reason — he is a true role model.
“Like every player that comes through our program, he is a lifetime member of the West baseball family. Right now, as a family, we are all feeling about as low as you can get.”
West assistant baseball coach Kevin McIntosh echoed Pope’s sentiments. He has known Erik since his dad, David McIntosh, began working with Larry as a SWFLL volunteer years ago.
“Brad Bullard ( a former Titan player and teammate of Walker’s) called me on Saturday evening with the news that Erik was missing,” he explained. “I didn’t believe it and to be honest, I still don’t want to believe it. Erik has always been a happy-go-lucky kid, someone who is friends with everybody. Having something like this happen to him and his family is really hard to understand.
“He’s a great player but he is also an extremely humble person and someone who leads by example. When he played here, other guys may have been more vocal but Erik always stepped up when the team needed him.”
McIntosh added that an indication of Walker’s impact on the Titan program occurred at school on Monday when he was approached by Dylan Pfingst, a West freshman nearly 10 years younger than Walker.
“Dylan stopped by to ask about Erik and it dawned on me right then how many people have been affected by this.”
As president of the Southwest Forsyth Little League, Barry Leonard has certainly been affected. A longtime friend of the Walker family, he has aided in the search.
“I was standing on the bank of the river today just praying that Erik would walk up beside me,” he said. “I’ve known him for years and consider him to be the posterboy for Southwest Forsyth. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen him and Larry practicing together on one of our fields. And he was loyal to our program. He could’ve elected to play USSSA or AAU ball but he stuck with Southwest Forsyth all the way through.
“I still can’t believe that this has happened.”
Sharing that disbelief are Erik’s longtime friends — Brad Bullard, Travis Hancock, Ryan Denny, Ryan Musumeci and Cass Ferguson. Like Walker, all four graduated from West and are currently living in Charlotte.
“I had just hung out with Erik on Thursday night,” explained Bullard, a former Titan baseball standout who was a teammate of Walker’s from their early days in the Southwest Forsyth Little League all the way through high school. “Cass (a former Titan student manager who is now the head student manager for the UNCC men’s basketball team) called me about it and I didn’t really believe him until I saw it on the news.
“And I’m still struggling with it. Erik has been a close friend of mine for about as long as I can remember. He’s always been a positive person and no matter what kind of mood you’re in, he will leave you with a smile on your face. I honestly don’t know of a single person who doesn’t like him.”
Like Walker, Bullard shares a close bond and long-standing baseball ties with his dad, Jack. He became emotional when discussing the relationship between Larry and Erik.
“I can’t imagine what (Larry) is going through right now,” he said. “His relationship with Erik is something very special.”
Hancock literally ran into Walker for the first time when the two were playing youth basketball years ago.
“Erik was already over 6-feet tall and my first thought was, ‘there’s no way that kid is legal,” he mentioned. “He was a giant!”
Hancock and Walker became best friends in high school and, like Bullard, were part of the 2002 West baseball team that reached the state finals. At Walker’s urging, Hancock became the team manager in ‘01 and ‘02, a move that Travis now says had a major impact on his life.
“At first I didn’t want to do it but then Erik talked me into it,” he explains. “But now I give him credit because it led me to start announcing sports and eventually into a career in radio.”
Hancock, currently the producer of the Mac Attack sports talkshow on Charlotte’s WFNZ 610, added that he is known for giving Walker a hard time.
“I am always on him for being the star athlete and being the guy everybody else wants to be,” laughed Hancock, who has the same birthday — October 15 — as Walker. “But he is really a goofball. He was right there with us as original members of the Simpson Psychos (West’s notorious student cheering section) but somehow he always managed to stay out of trouble.”
When asked to describe his friend, Hancock paused for a second and said that he couldn’t do it in just a few sentences.
“That question is just too complex,” he added. “But honestly, Erik really is the guy we’ve always wanted to be.”