Adam Sparks

USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee

Vanderbilt pitcher Donny Everett was honored and remembered in any way possible Friday, following his drowning death the night before.

Coach Tim Corbin called Everett “a fun-loving teddy bear and a real Midwest American kid” late Friday night after Vanderbilt’s NCAA Regional game versus Xavier was postponed by inclement weather.

Clarksville High painted "14" — his high school jersey number — on the light red dirt of its baseball field, where Everett became one of the nation’s top prep pitchers.

Everett’s parents grieved in the driveway of their Clarksville home as Vanderbilt players and coaches tearfully spilled out of a team bus that traveled there Friday to share the shock and sorrow of his death. A Vanderbilt flag and the Everetts, with open arms, were waiting in the front yard when the Commodores arrived.

The NCAA held a moment of silence at every college baseball regional game across the country as a tribute to the right-hander, though it didn’t have a chance for such a moment at the postponed Vanderbilt game. The Vanderbilt-Xavier game will be played at noon Saturday. The loser will face Washington at 4 p.m., and the winner will play UC-Santa Barbara at 8 p.m.

Joe Rexrode: Tim Corbin will guide Vanderbilt through tragedy

Vanderbilt players scribbled “DE41” in gold marker on their hats — signifying Everett’s initials and his No. 41 as a Commodores player — but they never took the field amid the thunderstorms.

Corbin said Everett’s father, Teddy, told him, “We’re going to watch (the game).”

Roger Wright, father of Vanderbilt pitcher Kyle Wright, said his son and the other Commodores were eager to play in Everett’s memory.

“Getting back on the field and in the dugout is how they can get close to Donny again,” he said.

Everett, 19, drowned at Normandy Lake in Coffee County on Thursday night. According to a report from the Coffee County Sheriff’s Department, he tried to swim across the lake while fishing with two friends as well as two Vanderbilt teammates, whom Corbin identified as pitchers Ryan Johnson and Chandler Day.

Everett called for help to his friends, but they thought he was “just joking around because he was smiling and did not seem to be in distress,” the report said.

One person swam to Everett, but he told police that he struggled to stay afloat and had to let go and swim back to shore. “When he looked back, Everett had gone under and did not re-surface,” the report said.

Corbin said Johnson and Day were “the first two kids that were comforted by the team” on campus after the pair initially went to Corbin’s house.

Vanderbilt players had been off Thursday evening following a morning practice in anticipation of their NCAA Regional game, and players often went fishing when they had free time.

Corbin said an off night at this time of the year is “normal” for the Commodores — whose practices end about 6:30 p.m. during the spring semester, about 4 p.m. in the early summer break, and even earlier in the postseason. On Thursday, Vanderbilt, as the No. 1 seed in the Nashville Regional, was assigned by the NCAA a practice session that ended at 11:15 a.m.

“To go fishing is not out of range for our kids,” Corbin said. “I told them when I left them (Thursday) morning that the most important thing was to make sure they got enough rest. I allow them to make decisions within a certain range. I trust them. Not that their decision (Thursday) night was poor, but it was just tough.”

By 5:05 p.m., Coffee County police had responded to a 911 call at Normandy Lake. And at 6:49 p.m., divers found Everett’s body about15 feet off the shore line in water about 25 feet deep.

Associate athletics director Kevin Colon said most Vanderbilt personnel got the news first from Corbin, who also informed his players of Everett’s death Thursday night in a team meeting.

On Friday morning, an NCAA representative said the Commodores were given the option of playing their regularly scheduled game or postponing it until Saturday to provide players more time to cope with the loss. Weather ultimately pushed the game to Saturday.

“They decided to go ahead and play to honor the young man,” NCAA site representative Bob Jones said. “They could have delayed it a day. I talked to the other three coaches (at the regional), and they were all on board with whatever would be best (for Vanderbilt). They had heartfelt sympathies for the Vanderbilt family.”

Athletics director David Williams was at the SEC spring meetings in Destin, Fla., until Friday afternoon. More than 24 hours after Everett’s death, Williams said he was still in shock.

“You can go through this 100 times, and the 101st time is as bad and sad as the first time,” Williams said. “We will do what we will have to do. I don’t know what that is or what (the team) needs, but we’ll get it.”

Everett just finished his freshman year at Vanderbilt. He was one of the nation’s top high school pitchers and a projected first-round pick in last year’s Major League Draft. But Everett balked on a signing bonus of up to $2.5 million in June 2015 to instead play at Vanderbilt, according to CBS Sports baseball reporter Jon Heyman.

“My heart just sunk,” Clarksville Northeast baseball coach Dustin Smith said. “Everyone knows Donny and loves him because he’s the most successful pitcher to come out of Clarksville, and they knew that his future was so bright.”

Likewise, Corbin called Everett “the next great one,” in a long line of exceptional Vanderbilt pitchers. “He wasn’t intimidated by anything,” he added. “The young man had a chance to play professional baseball at the highest level for a long period of time.”

Everett is the second Vanderbilt student-athlete to die in a drowning accident in just over a year. On May 28, 2015, former Vanderbilt basketball player Dai-Jon Parker, 22, drowned in Indianapolis. His death also occurred on the night before the Commodores’ NCAA Regional opener a year ago.

“Something so close, so tragic is challenging for these guys to absorb,” said Jeremey Kendall, father of Vanderbilt sophomore right fielder Jeren Kendall.

Some Vanderbilt fans wore black-and-gold ribbons in Everett’s memory at Hawkins Field, where the hard-throwing right-hander looked to be a rising star in his debut season.

Personal messages poured out on social media from current and former players.

Dansby Swanson, a former Vanderbilt player and No. 1 draft pick, wrote on Twitter: “My heart is completely broken. May you rest easy in heaven, Donny.”

Similarly, Johnson tweeted, “Your mansion in heaven was done being built and now you’re settling in looking out the window at us.”

Former teammates, coaches remember Everett

Everett was a popular and humble player for the Commodores. As a high-profile high school player and the 2015 Gatorade Tennessee Player of the Year, he had relationships with some Vanderbilt teammates long before enrolling at the school.

Kyle Wright tweeted that “Donny impacted my life in such a powerful way, he could make any place bright.”

Everett, a 6-foot-2, 230-pounder, was a hard-throwing right-hander who clocked a 97 mph fastball on his first pitch at Vanderbilt in mid-April after sitting out the first half of the season with an injury.

Everett was among the top signees in Vanderbilt’s No. 1 ranked recruiting class a year ago. He pitched well once he recovered from his injury and took the mound, logging a 1.50 ERA in 12 innings.

Reach Adam Sparks at 615-259-8010 and on Twitter @AdamSparks.

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