Leeds High School honored one of its fallen sons before the Green Wave opened the spring baseball season against Mortimer Jordan on Friday.

Johnathan “Dougie” Douglas died June 11, 2022, in a drowning at Logan Martin Lake. He was 18 and had just completed his senior year at Leeds.

Teammates, classmates, coaches and administrators at Leeds remembered Douglas as a bright spark of a young man whose smile was never far away and whose joy in playing the game he loved was evident on the field and in the dugout.

The Leeds High School home dugout was renamed “Dougie’s Dugout” in honor of the Green Wave’s No. 8, and his number and initials are memorialized on the right field wall of Leeds’ baseball stadium.

In many ways, Dougie’s teammates, friends and coaches are still processing the loss.

“It took a huge toll on us and really shocked our community,” Leeds baseball coach Jake Wingo said. “He meant so much to us and to our baseball team with his leadership, his attitude, his character.”

Leeds is a tight-knit community. The kids all know one another, and many of them grew up playing baseball or basketball or soccer. To lose a friend and family member like Dougie was devastating to the city. But the tragedy brought the school and its supporters closer together.

Because of Dougie’s character and contributions to the Green Wave, people wanted to honor him and remember everything that he had given. The idea to name the home dugout in Dougie’s honor came from several different places, Wingo said.

“He won’t ever be forgotten,” he said. “That’s one of the reason we wanted to make this day special. It was an idea that came from the community, from our boosters and our supporters, coaches, players — everyone thought it was a great idea to remember him like this.”

Dougie’s parents — John and LaKesha Douglas — were on hand to see the dedication of the dugout and to watch their younger son, C.J., throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

LaKesha Douglas said she hopes that Dougie is always remembered for the love he had for other people. That’s one of the things, she said, that made him a special young man not only to his family but to the community at large.

“The one thing I know that my son brought to so much of Leeds and everywhere he went is loving everybody,” said LaKesha Douglas. “He loved everybody. It didn’t matter if you were white or black, gay or straight, it didn’t matter. He was about love and having fun.”

As the city of Leeds mourned Dougie, his mom said that seeing pictures of him everywhere — in convenience stores, in restaurants, in other businesses — made it hit home just how much Dougie was loved in return.

The loss of his brother hit C.J. Douglas hard. The brothers were both athletic, with Dougie choosing to concentrate on playing baseball while C.J. chose to pursue football and wound up with an athletic scholarship to Samford.

“I had my brother by my side for 17 years and six months,” C.J. said. “I’ll never forget the things he taught me. There was some stuff, to be honest, after he transitioned to God, I had to learn on my own, stuff I didn’t know because my brother had always been there to show me how to do things a certain way … my brother was a special person to me, and he’ll forever be a special person to me and my family.”

For the people of Leeds, this tragedy has brought them closer together. Already the kind of town where everyone knows everyone else, the Green Wave circled the wagons around the Douglas family, loving and supporting them during the long days of grief that followed the accident that claimed Dougie’s life.

“It was big,” John Douglas said about the outpouring of love in the days and weeks following Dougie’s death. “We’ve been in Leeds a long time, and there’s been a lot of growth and change in the city, but at the end of the day, Leeds is a testament to the fact that no matter where you come from or what you have, it’s about loving one another and building that family atmosphere.”

Dougie’s legacy as a great student, supportive friend and dedicated athlete will live on, said Leeds High School principal Rayford Williams.

“Dougie was a great kid, smart, great kid,” Williams said. “He was a joy and a delight to be around … he will be remembered here for a long time. Leeds is a better place because Dougie was here.”

The Green Wave lost their season opener against Mortimer Jordan, 11-1. But in the end that didn’t matter to the Leeds faithful who had shown up in force to honor one of their own.