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Thompson honored the life and legacy of former player Caidyn Harrington with the inaugural Caidyn Harrington Night as they stood united in grief and faith with rival Hoover in the wake of their communities’ losses. (Reporter Photos/Andrew Simonson)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

ALABASTER – While typically divided by the bitter lines of rivalry, the Thompson Warriors and Hoover Buccaneers stood with hands over each other’s shoulders in the middle of Thompson’s baseball diamond united by a common emotion: grief.

With both baseball communities still reeling from tragic losses, Thompson honored the life of one of their own, former freshman baseball player Caidyn Harrington, during the inaugural Caidyn Harrington Night on Tuesday, March 4 at Thompson High School.

With Harrington’s parents Jack and Amy and his sister Skilyr in the center of a circle with both team’s players united, Thompson coach Frankie Perez embraced them in an emotional hug before the entire Alabaster and Hoover communities got to show their support for their grieving family.

“This was beautiful. I hate it, but it’s beautiful,” Jack Harrington said. “The Thompson family, not just the baseball family, but the whole community, really, has been amazing, and to have coach Barton and the Hoover family join us, because he’s walking down a similar path, is overwhelming…Like we said, we want God to be honored, and I think He was today.”

Harrington died on May 27, 2024 at just 15 years of age in a tragic accident over Memorial Day weekend. In the nine months since, Perez and the baseball program has united along with all of Alabaster in support of his surviving family.

Perez had planned a special night for the team’s first home game for months leading up to Tuesday night to honor the life of a player who meant so much to the program.

“Honestly, I was pretty stressed out about it because I wanted to make sure it was perfect for them, especially being in the first year that we are honoring Caidyn and the Harrington family, so I wanted to make sure that all the details were to the T, and I was extremely proud of how everything turned out,” Perez said. “I think what meant the most to me is seeing how Mr. Jack, Mrs. Amy and Skilyr Harrington, the three of them really felt the love that we have for him, their son and brother, and I think that’s what I wanted the most is for them to feel love and support and that their son will forever be remembered as a Warrior, and that once a Warrior, always a Warrior.”

After a special presentation of the colors by the Thompson High School ROTC during the national anthem, both the Warriors and Bucs formed a circle around the mound before Perez presented the Harrington family with a framed jersey of Harrington’s No. 7 signed by each member of Thompson’s baseball team.

The Warriors’ public address announcer then read a statement written by Harrington’s family exemplifying the kind of person he was.

“Caidyn honored God,” the announcement read. “He gave his best on the mound, at shortstop, in the outfield and even in the dugout cheering for his team. His infectious smile made him the poster child for having fun, and he made people laugh everywhere he went.”

Dr. Kenneth Bruce, lead pastor of Westwood Baptist Church in Alabaster, then led both teams in prayer for the Harrington family. The ceremony concluded with Jack and Amy throwing out the first pitches of the game.

The ceremony was just one more way that the Harringtons have felt supported from the members of their community. Amy said that his death allowed them to truly see how wide-reaching his impact on Alabaster was.

“The kid left a legacy with the community,” Amy said. “We had no idea how much of an impact he had on this community and the baseball family.”

That legacy will live on forever in Thompson’s locker room, which now has a wall dedicated to Harrington displaying his No. 7 jersey and pictures of him that will remain there for the rest of the building’s life. In addition, Perez plans to make the first home game of each season Caidyn Harrington Night to keep his memory alive for years to come.

Jack said that having the night in Caidyn’s honor is special because he would still be a member of the Warriors baseball program today, playing the sport that he loved.

“To have coach Perez and the baseball staff pick a day, and it’s their first home game, to be Caidyn Harrington Night has been amazing,” Jack said. “Yeah, (it’s) some bit of closure because this is where Caidyn would be. He would be on this field playing this game that he loved so much from tee-ball at four or five years old. This is absolutely where he would be, and we’re honored that the Thompson family would honor us by having a ceremony in his memory.”

However, the night wasn’t just about Harrington’s memory. During the prayer, Dr. Bruce offered a prayer for the family of Dash Barton, the son of Hoover assistant coach Jason Barton who passed away in March 2024.

The Harringtons and Bartons have bonded over their shared grief in the months since the passing of their sons. Perez connected the two families after Harrington’s death and sought permission to honor Dash when he started planning the ceremony for the Hoover game, especially since the game was two days away from the anniversary of Dash’s death.

“I have three kids myself, and I can’t imagine and I don’t want to imagine and I hope God gives me the grace to never do it, is to lose a daughter or son, so knowing that this week is also going to be tough for Jason and Mrs. Barton and Atticus, Dash’s older brother, I wanted to honor them as well,” Perez said. “So, I was very respectful. I talked to Jason first and he said, ‘Absolutely. I would love to be added to the prayer.’”

The Harringtons didn’t know that Dash would be honored until the prayer was offered, but they fully supported including him in the evening’s proceedings.

“We learned that they would be honoring the Barton family as well when he said it,” Jack said. “And believe me, (we) 100 percent support that. It doesn’t take away from Caidyn or Thompson at all. He should be honored as well.”

As a whole, the day was about much more than winning or losing a baseball game in Perez’s eyes. Even though Thompson was playing its biggest rival, he wanted first and foremost for Caidyn and God to be honored through everything they did in the ceremony and the ensuing game, which the Warriors did win 15-5 in a rain-shortened affair.

“That’s what the message was yesterday to kind of make sure that what we do today honors the Harrington family, (the) Barton family, the Alabaster community and God because He’s given us the opportunity to share Caidyn’s legacy with our state, so that’s definitely what I wanted to do,” Perez said. “I knew that we needed to do it through baseball because baseball is my channel to spread the good news, and I was going to use it, and I was just proud of the way of everything went.”

Perez hopes that the unity between the two rival schools shows the power of sports to unify and change the trajectory of people’s lives.

“If there’s something that anybody can get from this night, it’s that it does not matter if we were in different uniforms,” Perez said. “At the end of the day, we’re all a big baseball community, a big baseball family, and our job as coaches and leaders gets harder and harder every day, but we’ve got to put on a strong front and let people understand that it’s more than about X’s and O’s. It’s about making sure that we lead young men and be good members of society and to understand that everything is much better when we do it together.”

The moment of unity between the teams exemplified a man in Harrington who brought people together over the course of his life. His family said he gained the nickname, “Sunshine,” because of how he lit up every room and made people feel better.

While an overcast March afternoon made it hard to see the sunshine, Jack remained convinced that his “Sunshine” had simply “relocated” to heaven. That unwavering faith in Jesus and the life to come is what he hopes people can take away from the loss of Caidyn.

“His legacy, just like we’ve said all along, we want God to be honored, Caidyn to be remembered, and people to find hope in Christ,” Jack said. “If we can use his tragedy and our suffering to point somebody to Jesus, that’s absolutely what we’re going to do.”

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