Before and after every home baseball game, Florala High players run to the right-field fence and touch a sign that reads: “Max Whittaker’s corner.”

Travis “Max” Whittaker, the school’s beloved principal, died Feb. 19 at just 58. Following his abrupt death, the school’s boys basketball team went on a memorable run to the Class 1A state semifinals.

Two months later, Florala’s spring sports teams are still winning and still playing for Whittaker.

“His vision changed this place for the better,” said Jordan Cantrell, the school’s football and track coach as well as the athletic director. “His passing was very shocking to us. We still hurt day-to-day. We work in honor of him and what he established here in the classroom, hallways and the sports fields. The sports year has been great. Everyone has been rocking and rolling. It’s really a tribute to what he did and the ideals he set forth, and these kids buying into all of it. We have really good kids.”

Since Whittaker’s death, the basketball team lost just one game – the semifinal against eventual champ Covenant Christian – and now the baseball team enters the playoffs with just two losses. The Wildcats are 12-2 and ranked No. 5 in the state entering Thursday’s best-of-three first-round playoff series against Notasulga.

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“Max cared about this school and the kids so much,” head baseball coach Tyler Zessin said. “He put the kids and the school before anything else. He didn’t care what anyone thought or said. It was all about him and his relationship with those kids and his love for this school.”

Whittaker died from medical complications just three days shy of his 59th birthday. The New Brockton native served as principal at Florala, a member of the Covington School System, since 2016. He had previously served as Geneva County principal. Whittaker’s relationships with the students of Florala was memorable.

“In today’s world, a lot of people are all business,” Cantrell said. “Mr. Whittaker developed relationships with the kids. He was always greeting them, always in the hallways, in and out of the classrooms. He truly cared about the kids, the teacher, the coaches.

“We lack that sometimes in the world today, but the kids saw it. Maybe some weren’t cared for at home, but they knew he cared about them, and they bought in and really gravitated to his character. He held them accountable when they did wrong and congratulated them when they did right and loved them no matter what.”

Florala’s baseball team is anchored by seven starting seniors – catcher Judd Goolsby, first baseman Seth Bundy, shortstop John Howell, third baseman Wyatt Brooks and outfielders Zane Weeks, Colby Strickland and Johan Zamora. Sophomore Dalton Jackson leads the team in hitting (.538, 20 RBIs) and pitching (5-0, 1.355 ERA).

“Mr. Whittaker would be the first to tell you that baseball was not his favorite sport,” Zessin said. “He didn’t like sitting in the cold, didn’t like the long games or the slowness of the sport, but he sat in the right-field corner with his hat on every game. The sign is a cool way for the kids to always be reminded of him.

“I don’t think they dwell on it, but when times get tough in a game, I have heard one of our seniors speak up and say something like, ‘This is not what Mr. Whittaker would have wanted.’ He is always in the back of their minds.”

Whittaker is also always on Zessin’s mind.

“He offered me this job basically on a whim,” he said. “I’m forever grateful. They needed a baseball coach. I was an elementary PE teacher. I didn’t have any experience or anything. He just trusted me and gave it to me. I’m forever grateful.”

Zessin is now in his fifth season as the school’s baseball coach. There were some tough times early when this current group of seniors were young, but he said he never lost the support of Whittaker.

“It didn’t matter how I coached the team or what decision I made, he always supported me and had my back,” Zessin said. “In the early years when we had a rough year or two, I felt bad and was thinking maybe I wasn’t doing a good job. He just told me, ‘Keep working. You are doing great.’ His support helped us get to where we are now.”

Where they are now is competing for state titles.

The boys basketball team finished two wins shy of a crown. The baseball team needs 10 victories from this point to win a title. The track team could contend as well.

“It’s all because of him and the foundation he set forth,” Cantrell said of Whittaker. “(Acting principal) Mrs. (Carie) Turman is built from the same mold.”

There is a hurdle ahead in eyeing deep postseason runs for baseball and track. Zessin said six members of his team also compete on the track team. Scheduling could come into play in the coming weeks for those multi-sport stars.

“We share athletes, and that is a good thing,” Cantrell said. “We want the kids to play whatever they can. It’s a wild dynamic with kids wanting to do everything, but it’s also beautiful. You see so much specialization in sports these days, but these kids want to help their school. It’s that old school mentality that we love. That’s the mentality Mr. Whittaker had.”

Obviously, no one knows what might happen for Florala sports in the coming days and weeks. But Zessin thinks he knows how Whittaker would be reacting to the success right now.

“You wouldn’t be able to keep him off his phone,” he said. “He would be videoing and Facebook live and all that stuff. He was all about sharing anything positive our kids did. He was all about Team Wildcat.”