Built By a Community, Carried By Generations: Rosewood Baseball’s Legacy Continues Another Chapter

Built By a Community, Carried By Generations: Rosewood Baseball’s Legacy Continues Another Chapter

Rosewood baseball has never simply been about wins and losses.

Not in a small community where the field itself was built by the people who call the area home. Not in a place where former players become coaches, fathers, mentors and lifelong supporters. And certainly not in a program where generations have poured themselves into something far bigger than baseball.

Now, four decades after the first night game was played on the field that community members helped build in 1986, the Eagles are once again knocking on the door of history.

Rosewood, the No. 2 seed in the East, sits at 20-5 and is the highest remaining seed still alive in the eastern bracket. A win in the fourth round would send the Eagles to the Eastern Regional Finals as the program continues another postseason run in a tradition that stretches from the mid-1980s to today.

For former Rosewood player and parent Scott Adams, the current run represents much more than a successful season.

“What they’ve done, with such a small enrollment, alongside all of the private and charter schools that has become all the rage is really remarkable,” Doug Neal said. Neal is a former player, Dad of former Eagles, and helped coached the players through up travel ball.

The roots of that success run deep.

According to Adams, the current Rosewood baseball field turns 40 years old this season. The field itself became a symbol of the community’s commitment to the program long before the Eagles became annual contenders.

“The community built the field,” Adams said. “The National Guard and Army Corps of Engineers laid it off and landscaped it. CP&L donated the lights and poles.”

The first night baseball game at the field was played in 1986, beginning a new era for Rosewood baseball.

Over the next several decades, the program produced standout players and memorable teams. Adams pointed to names such as Howard and Davis Whitfield, Kevin Hatem, Curtis Whitley, Jay Holland and Jason Smith among the many players who helped shape the program’s reputation.

“I’m leaving out a ton of others,” Adams said.

The Eagles’ rise into one of eastern North Carolina’s most respected 1A programs accelerated over the last 15 years.

Rosewood reached the 1A Eastern Finals in 2010 behind Matt Neal before falling to a Dixon team led by future professional player Rookie Davis, who eventually reached the New York Yankees organization.

In 2014, the Eagles again advanced to the Eastern Finals with Reed Howell leading the way before falling to Whiteville and future MLB Draft top-three selection McKenzie Gore.

Three years later, Rosewood returned to the Eastern Finals in 2017 behind Derek Neal, once again running into Whiteville and Gore.

Then came 2019.

That season remains one of the defining moments in program history as Rosewood reached the state championship series for the first time before falling to Uwharrie Charter.

What made that run even more impressive was the makeup of the roster.

“They made it to the 2019 state championship with zero seniors on the roster,” Neal said.

The following season carried enormous expectations. Rosewood returned essentially its entire team and looked poised to make another deep run before COVID abruptly canceled the 2020 season six games into the year.

“Returned their entire team in 2020, would have almost certainly won the state championship, and the season got cancelled by COVID,” Adams said.

That unfinished chapter still lingers around the program.

“It was,” Adams said of the 2020 team being special. “And if we can get back to that game we will use them as motivation. Already got a few of those guys wanting to talk to the team.”

Yet the story of this year’s team may be even bigger than championships or playoff banners.

This senior class has spent nearly its entire baseball life winning.

Eight seniors anchor the roster, with six serving as starters. They reached the fourth round as freshmen, the third round as sophomores and another fourth round as juniors. From middle school through high school, the group has compiled a staggering 93-29 overall record.

Even more impressive is what they’ve accomplished at home.

The group has lost only 10 games on its home field throughout that entire stretch.

“They never lost a middle school game,” Adams said.

For Adams, the success carries personal meaning beyond the scoreboard. He helped coach many of the players growing up alongside Jeff Waters, watching them develop from children into one of the best teams in the state.

“I coached them all from T-ball to coach pitch to travel,” Adams said.

That continuity — former players investing in younger generations, families building the program together and a community rallying behind its team — is what has allowed Rosewood baseball to sustain success decade after decade.

From Lynn Barber to David Lawson to Coach King and Heath Whitfield returning from retirement, Adams said the program has always been built around people who cared deeply about the school and community.

“Great people and a lot of wins,” Adams said.

Now another Rosewood team stands two wins away from returning to the state championship stage.

And regardless of how this postseason ends, the latest chapter has already become part of a legacy that started long before these players were born — on a field built by a community that believed baseball mattered.