- March 20, 2025
-
-
Loading
Loading
The last name, Metcalf, has become synonymous with Sarasota High School over the past 90-plus years.
Mark Metcalf is doing his best to make sure it stays that way.
Beginning in the 1930s with Roland Metcalf, there have now been four generations of Sailors baseball players thanks to Mark’s determination to keep his family legacy alive.
However, when Mark's father, Mike, moved the family up to Tallahassee, those dreams seemed as if they might never come true.
“I was out here (at Sarasota High) since I could walk,” Mark said. “Ever since I can remember, I’ve been out here fielding ground balls with the older guys and looking up to them. (Moving away) was really tough. It was something I thought about all the time.”
Mark, now a junior in high school, convinced his parents to let him move back to Sarasota this year so he could finally play for the Sailors.
It's likely no coincidence that Sarasota (11-3-1) has turned back into a winning team following one of its worst seasons in program history last year.
When Roland Metcalf went to Sarasota, baseball was just a club sport, but that's far from the case today.
The Sailors are regarded as one of the most storied prep baseball teams in the state. They've won eight state championships — tied for fourth in state history — and have sent countless athletes to play beyond high school.
Roland’s son, Clyde Metcalf, is a big reason why that came to be.
After his playing days at Sarasota were over, Clyde came back to coach the baseball team for 41 years and serve as the school’s athletic director for 22.
Clyde, now in the Florida High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame, won six state championships, two national championships and helped several of his baseball players go far beyond Sarasota High.
One of those players was his son, Mike Metcalf, who finished his playing days at the University of West Florida.
Mike followed in his father’s footsteps at first, coaching at Charlotte High and South Florida Community College. Then, for 11 years, he was a scout for the San Francisco Giants.
When Florida State University hired Mike as the recruiting coordinator in 2019, it looked as though Mark wouldn’t be able to live out his childhood dream of playing for Sarasota.
Mike moved his family to Tallahassee and they remain there today — except for Mark.
Mark played for Florida State University High School, beginning as an eighth grader in 2021 until this past year as a sophomore, and life was good.
In 2024, he hit .433 with 25 runs and 13 stolen bases in 21 games and that was good enough to earn him a commitment to play for the University of North Florida.
There was just one problem. Mark wasn't playing for Sarasota.
Clyde said if not for Mike moving to Tallahassee, there’s a good chance he would remain at Sarasota.
Clyde retired after the 2022 season to spend more time with his wife, Jan, who had become ill, and so he could make trips to Tallahassee to visit his family.
Though Clyde is no longer coaching, he can shape at least one more high school baseball player.
Knowing his opportunity to play for the Sailors was growing less likely by the day, Mark pitched an idea to his parents: He’d move back to Sarasota to help his grandparents around the house and live out his dream of playing baseball as a Sailor.
“He brought it to our attention and then we had a lot of long conversations,” Mike Metcalf said. “It’s really hard. When you get home and a quarter of your family is missing every night, that’s hard, but they all leave at some point, and the Sarasota community is very supportive. If you’re gonna do it before they go to college, we couldn’t ask for a better support system.”
Having Mark in the house has encouraged Clyde to come out to watch more Sarasota baseball games, and he said having a 17-year-old around has given him and his wife a burst of energy.
Clyde said he tries his hardest not to be a ‘dinner-table coach’ with Mark and steers their conversations toward school rather than baseball.
Mark said he views his grandfather as his mentor.
"It's awesome. He's like my best friend," Mark said of Clyde. "We go home and talk. He'll tell me little things I mess up on. We go out and hit all the time. It's a great relationship."
There have been some adjustments for Mark, the biggest one being his wake-up call.
He said school starts 30 minutes earlier for him now, which means he has to go to bed before 9 p.m. to be well-rested for his 5:45 a.m wake-up.
Another difference is that baseball is ‘more intense’ in this area, which means longer practices and tougher competition.
So far, that’s been no issue for Metcalf.
Mark’s impact with the Sailors was immediate.
Locked in a 0-0 game with Palmetto in its preseason opener on Feb. 5 is where Metcalf made a difference.
After reaching on an error to open up the home half of the sixth inning, he stole both second and third before scoring on an error by the catcher. Sarasota won the game 1-0.
"That first game when we went to watch him play, I'm not a big emotional guy, but I got as close to emotional as I'm gonna get," Mike said of watching Mark play for Sarasota. "It was cool seeing him in orange and black on the field where my dad helped put together the program that I played in and dear friends of mine played in."
Starting off the season with a win like that was sorely needed.
The Sailors went 9-17 last season and eliminated in the first game of the district tournament against North Port. It was one of the worst seasons in program history.
That already looks well behind the Sailors.
Sarasota was missing an offensive spark last season, and Metcalf is providing that now. The team’s starting shortstop and often its leadoff hitter, Metcalf is leading the team in batting average (.435), runs (21), hits (20), walks (10) and stolen bases (13) through 15 games.
Mark said he thinks his baseball IQ and his speed — he said he runs a 60-yard dash in 6.2 seconds — are his best attributes.
Clyde agrees.
“He grew up around really good players and I think his baseball IQ is pretty high,” Clyde said. “He grew up on that field. He came to every camp we had. He would take pre-game BP with the team when he was 5-years-old. He grew up in that dugout.”
Clyde added Mark is the best athlete of the Metcalfs, possessing a ‘fast-twitch muscle’ that neither he nor Mike had.
As a team, Sarasota holds a No. 137 ranking in the state, which is far below its glory days, but it couldn’t be more fitting the Sailors are playing winning baseball with a Metcalf.
“Obviously the goal is a state championship, but right now it’s just game-by-game,” Metcalf said. “My goal for today is to win tomorrow, and my goal for tomorrow is to win my next game. Big-picture, I’d love to win a state championship, but I really just go day-by-day.”
