SportsJuly 2, 2016
Bell City's Cole Nichols takes team-first approach, earns Southeast Missourian Baseball Player of the Year
The numbers are impressive, but they don't define Cole Nichols. A multi-sport athlete at Bell City, Nichols is more concerned with being represented by his baseball team's accomplishments, and those don't pale in comparison. The Cubs have gone 49-6 during the last two spring seasons, wrapping up their most recent campaign by becoming the first Class 1 school to win back-to-back state championships since the state diverged to more than two classes in 1980, and it was Nichols who turned in the performance of his life in a 7-2 win over New Covenant Academy in the championship game.. ...
The numbers are impressive, but they don't define Cole Nichols.
A multi-sport athlete at Bell City, Nichols is more concerned with being represented by his baseball team's accomplishments, and those don't pale in comparison.
The Cubs have gone 49-6 during the last two spring seasons, wrapping up their most recent campaign by becoming the first Class 1 school to win back-to-back state championships since the state diverged to more than two classes in 1980, and it was Nichols who turned in the performance of his life in a 7-2 win over New Covenant Academy in the championship game.
Heading into the game, Nichols was yet to record a hit in three combined games at the final four, but he broke through with a two-RBI, 3-for-4 outing and went the distance on the mound to guide the Cubs to victory.
On top of that, it was Nichols' 17th birthday, and coach Justin Simpher was thrilled to see him reap the benefits of his hard work.
"It just goes to tell you what kind of kid he is -- he was like, 'I don't care if I don't ever get a hit up here as long as we do what we need to do to win,'" Simpher said about Nichols. "... Obviously he wants to do good for his team and for himself, but with him, it's just a team-first kind of mentality."
The junior infielder/pitcher/leadoff hitter finished the 2016 season with a team-high .495 batting average, was never beaten on the mound and was a first team all-state selection by the Missouri High School Baseball Coaches Association.
Now all those days of wavering in confidence are long gone for Nichols, who stands alone as the 2016 Southeast Missourian Baseball Player of the Year.
"He's never satisfied," Simpher said. "He's one of those kids that you never have to get onto about something. If he messes up, he knows it and goes and takes care of it himself. You might have to remind him occasionally, but it's one of those things where he expects a lot out of himself. ... He takes a lot of pride in everything he does."
Growing up
Nichols moved from Morley to Bell City in 2004 when his mother, Rhonda, bought a daycare in the small town, which has a population of less than 500.
He first took the field playing T-ball before moving to coach pitch at the age of 6. Even at a young age, speed set Nichols apart from the others.
"A dribbler that a shortstop or a second baseman would field in high school baseball, I could run over there and field that real fast and throw to first, or if our first baseman wasn't good at catching, I could run all the way over there to first and beat somebody," Nichols said. "I was pretty fast when I was little. I'd say I'm probably still pretty quick, but compared to everybody else, I was fast."
The combination of that speed and athleticism has been a defining asset for Nichols in his three years at the varsity level with the Cubs.
He's a multipurpose athlete who's been the driving force for Bell City on the basketball court. He averaged 21 points per game in the 2015-16 season and earned all-state honors in Class 1, guiding the Cubs to a 14-11 record.
Even in the middle of his baseball season this spring, Nichols took some time to represent the Cubs at the Class 1 state track meet, finishing 14th in the long jump with a leap of 18 feet, 4 1/2 inches. His best performance in the long jump came a week earlier at the sectional meet with a leap of 20-2. In addition, he was a district champion in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.87 seconds and a third-place finisher at districts in the 200 (24.05).
But early in his high school career, Nichols faced plenty of hurdles on the diamond.
He claims to have batted around .200 in 2014, a freshman year he describes as "pretty rough." The Cubs were competitive against some formidable teams but were unable to clear one hurdle in particular -- the Oran Eagles.
It was Simpher's first season as head coach, as Bell City finished with an 8-12 mark, dropping a 7-3 decision against the Eagles in a district semifinal on May 20, 2014.
Even now, Nichols recalls a revelation from his father, Scott, who coached his son all the way from T-ball through little league. His father noticed something special after Nichols and his teammates won a tournament during their days playing coach pitch.
It was a prognostication that came true.
"He was like, 'Someday you guys are going to do something greater than this in high school and hopefully win a state championship,'" Nichols said. "It was pretty awesome when we won our first one. I remember him talking about that. It was pretty great. ... He coached us all the way up and said we were going to do some great things whenever we get older. We did, and it was pretty awesome."
Refining form
Maturity has acted as a catalyst for the Cubs in achieving back-to-back state championships, and Nichols might be the prime example.
His offensive numbers skyrocketed as a sophomore in 2015, during which he hit .416 with 16 RBIs and 43 runs scored. He was used sparsely in a crowded pitching staff, finishing the year with a 4-0 record in 20 1/3 innings. He didn't allow a single earned run and had 33 strikeouts and three walks.
"It was really tough playing with Coach Simpher my freshman year," Nichols said. "He was hard on us, and we ran a lot. Mentally, it kind of took me down a little bit, but then going into my sophomore year, I knew what to expect. ... Coach Simpher knew what we were like, and it was just a lot better. I had a lot more confidence."
Likewise, Simpher returned the favor and began to place more trust in Nichols' hands.
"He was our shortstop. It was one of those things where we felt like he was very beneficial at shortstop, so we kind of kept him there," said Simpher, who first met Nichols when he came to Bell City five years ago. "... He kind of got more innings this year because he was just dominant on the mound."
Dominant might even be an understatement.
On a team that featured a first team all-state pitcher in fellow junior Austin Hicks, Nichols was 7-0 this spring with a 0.651 ERA, allowing only four earned runs all season. He finished with 64 strikeouts and 13 walks.
"He can throw multiple pitches for strikes. He throws harder now. He just pitches with confidence. He's not scared of people," said Hicks, who's been best friends with Nichols since kindergarten. "He just goes out there and battles. What else can you ask from a pitcher?"
Offensively, he hit the weight room and became much more of a power hitter, finishing the 2016 season with 10 doubles, four triples and four home runs. The result was an increase in his slugging percentage from .525 as a sophomore to .811 as a junior.
"More or less, he's up there to punish the ball, so to speak, when it comes to hitting," Simpher said. "I saw a lot more line drives from him this year. Last year, he was popping up, and I think it was just an adjustment period with getting stronger and having to tweak your swing. ... This year, I think everything has just kind of come together with his timing and his strength and everything and just the little adjustments.
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"He's been able to center up the ball a little more and just drive the ball. He hit the ball hard a lot."
The Cubs took the program's biggest step on May 22, 2015, when Bobby Wright delivered the game-winning single that upended the Eagles 4-3 in the Class 1 District 2 title game. The win gave Bell City its first district title since 1990 and brought an end to Oran's four-year reign as district champion. Better yet, it gave the team the confidence it needed to make a run to the final four.
"We knew all year that we could win and play with some good teams, but Oran's always been the team in our district," Hicks said. "Ever since I can remember, it's always Oran. It's the powerhouse. After we got that win, there was just a confidence that kept building inside of everybody. It was like, 'You know what, maybe we can do this. Maybe all this hard work's going to pay off.' And ultimately, it did."
Bell City entered the game as the No. 1 seed in the district, but Nichols believes it was a defining moment that proved why his team was deserving of the top seed.
"Oran was very good, and a lot of people thought that they were going to win in a landslide," Nichols said. "They played a great game with us. ... Those were moments where you're not really down, but it's getting close to the end and you have to do something. That's whenever a true baseball player comes out. It's about whenever you can perform when those times come. We did that, and that's the moment I feel like we proved that we could really play baseball."
The Cubs went on to outscore their postseason competition 22-1 until being forced to rally again, this time in the state championship game. They fell behind 3-0 against Atlanta but came back to tie the game down to their final out in the top of the seventh. They tacked on three runs in the eighth, as Hicks entered in relief to secure the final three outs and deliver the program's first-ever state championship in a 6-3 decision.
After all those close calls, it was almost surreal when Bell City found itself back in the final four a year later with another chance at a state title.
In a state semifinal against Silex on May 31, a pair of crucial errors and some timely hitting put the Cubs in familiar territory, as they faced a 4-0 deficit heading into the second inning.
After a productive meeting on the mound, Hicks responded with six scoreless innings, and Bell City chipped away at its lead to advance to the championship game with a 5-4 win.
While Nichols and Hicks struggled at the top of the lineup, players like Nate Finney (3-for-4), Wright (2-for-4) and Jesse Smith (2-for-3) came through when their team needed them the most.
"That was one game that really proved what kind of team we were and how well we worked as a team," Nichols said. "The top of our lineup that game hit really awful, and then the bottom of the lineup really came through. That was pretty awesome."
Although Nichols was once again held without a hit at state, Hicks praised his teammate for doing the little things in order to help guide them to a win.
"Just because he wasn't getting a hit didn't stop him from doing what he needed to do to help the team win the game, and that's what's awesome about Cole," Hicks said. "He could've hung his head and started swinging at bad pitches, but instead, he was like, 'You know what, I don't have it today, but I'm going to walk. I'm going to take pitches.' And then he stole two bases off a very good catcher."
Beyond the game
For the Cubs, whenever there's a misstep, there's no overt frustration or pointing fingers. Instead, it's all a part of the process and about understanding how to fix the situation.
"We don't really have a temper problem, but there was one time this year where someone did come in, threw a helmet, got into it with a teammate. We ran forever for that," Hicks said. "Where the discipline starts is with Coach Simpher because he's a no-bullcrap kind of guy. He wants you to come in, respect the game, have love for the game, but also have fun. I feel like we've really embraced that.
"We're brothers, so brothers are going to fight -- it's just a part of life -- but you can't fight on the field. We're representing our school. Every time we wear this 'BC' on our chest or on our hat, we represent our school."
The Cubs do a lot of running. Although he doesn't normally do it in the postseason, Simpher has his players run after each game regardless of the outcome.
No one likes being forced to run, but for Nichols, it's something he deems necessary in remaining humble.
"We just talk, like, 'We just won by a lot. Why are we running?' But I think it's a lesson he's trying to teach us without telling us, and I think we all learned it," Nichols said. "It's great to have a coach like that."
Shortly following their second straight district championship win over Oran, the Cubs volunteered at the Southeast Missouri Challenger Baseball event in Sikeston.
It was there they met Izaac Pursley, an 8-year-old who was born with a form of dwarfism. Pursley quickly fell in love with the Cubs and followed their run to a second straight title. He donned his Bell City hat the entire way and was one of the first people to take a picture with the team and their new trophy at CarShield Field in O'Fallon, Missouri.
"Coach Simpher always reminds us about how blessed we are to get to play the game, and then we go to that and get that realization, kind of like, 'These kids can't play the game, but they love the game,'" Nichols said. "You've got to love the game and respect the game, and that's something huge that Coach Simpher says. ... That was huge for us, and I feel like we did something huge for them. So that's always great. Good things happen whenever you do good things."
These are the moments that define Nichols.
His character transcends wins and losses and individual awards, and he's quick to thank his teammates and praise their efforts for everything he's accomplished.
When asked about his most memorable moment, Nichols dismisses the glory and feeling of winning a state title on his birthday and points to something more intangible: brotherhood. His mind scrambles as he reflects on all the moments he was able to spend with his departing senior teammates.
"I know I'm going to see them again, but I'm never going to be able to play on the same baseball team with them again," Nichols said. "I've played with them forever. I'm going to miss them. I know it's going to be a big loss, but we're going to bounce back."
For now, Nichols isn't consumed with playing baseball in college. He's spending his summer playing with the Missouri Rage Senior Babe Ruth team.
He'll face a tough test next season as the senior leader on a Cubs team that loses four key starters, but Simpher believes he'll be more than ready to handle that challenge.
"I expect him to come out and do exactly what he's been doing, just be a great leader and role model by his example," Simpher said. "His voice will be heard when it's needed, but you can be a silent leader as well and let someone else be the vocal leader. With his success and the things he's done to be successful, I think just his example will teach kids to step up, and they'll know what to expect."
Nichols doesn't know where he wants baseball to eventually take him, but what he does know is that his experiences on the diamond -- both failures and successes -- will provide him something valuable to carry forward through any walk of life.
"Coach Simpher always tells us, 'Sports teaches you something. It's not all about being good and going on to play. It's going to teach you something in life that a lot of people who don't play sports might not ever be able to learn,'" Nichols said. "I would like to see where baseball could take me. I'm always going to keep trying. I'd like to keep playing baseball after high school, but it's more about learning than anything -- what baseball teaches you, what sports teach you.
"You don't have to be good. Just learn from it, and it's going to teach you a lot of life lessons."
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