As seen in FCA: "Heroes of the Faith": Travis Larson

Editor's Note: This article was previously published by Williamson County FCA, and published on 360 Sports to generate more interest in the "Heroes of the Faith" series, highlighting area coaches and athletes, playing for Christ and competing at a high level.

By Riley Zayas, Managing Editor of 360 Sports, @ZayasRiley

“Brothers, each person should remain in God in whatever situation he was called.”

Paul’s simple, yet key words in 1 Corinthians 7:24, point directly to a modern-day example in Stony Point High School’s Travis Larson, a dedicated baseball and football coach, a hard-working teacher, and an encouraging FCA huddle leader. Larson is each of these things and more, because his positive impact goes far beyond the classroom and the field.  He has been called by multiple players, a “players’ coach” and lives out Paul’s words Colossians 3:23, do everything as if he was “doing it for the Lord”. That is because, in the end, he is doing it all for the Lord. In everything, Larson is a light for Christ and excels on his mission field at Stony Point.

Having led the Stony Point FCA for the past 13 years, he has brought Christ into countless hearts and lives, and worked hard to build up a program that reaches kids where they are and provides for a  weekly “refresher” to keep them focused.

His success on the baseball diamond at Stony Point has been phenomenal. When he took over the program in 2007, the Tigers had reached the UIL playoffs just once. However, as he began working with the various freshman teams and implementing some of his “baseball philosophy”, those inexperienced freshmen turned into standout seniors, upon whom a foundation was built. Now, with the 2020 season cut short due to Covid-19, that playoff streak has spanned 12 seasons, the longest in district 13-6A, one of the most competitive districts for baseball in central Texas. The district includes programs who have produced multiple D1 players and draft picks, such as Round Rock, Cedar Ridge and Vandergrift.

Some of that philosophy included Larson reading through the rule book, and finding ways, inside the rules, to score more runs. When he came into the program, the Tigers had always been great defensively, but offensive production was not their strong suit. By implementing certain plays and strategies, the teams, from varsity to JV, began improving when it came to scoring. One such play was enacted when runners were on first and third with Stony Point up to bat. Larson would direct his runner to stand in right field, confusing the defense while the runner on third raced home, or the runner on first jogged to second.

Not only is he a dedicated coach at Stony Point, but also is the head coach/player on the Austin Shockers, a team in the Centex Collegiate League that he started back in 2002 as a college student at The University of Mary-Hardin Baylor. Each summer, he has fielded in a team of current college ballplayers, giving them an opportunity to hone their skills, while enjoying the sport that they love. In recent years, he has also taken over as commissioner of the league. While the CCBL may not get as much attention as it deserves, it is a competitive league that feeds into the National Baseball Congress World Series each year, held in Wichita, Kansas.

Through it all, Larson says that the relationships and seeing kids grow in their faith has been what he has enjoyed most about his position as a coach, teacher, and FCA leader at Stony Point.

“I try to give back to the kids what I got through FCA,” said Larson. “It’s been a really strong program at Stony Point. It’s great seeing kids grow as Christians.”

He is also a great husband to his wife of 15 years, Crystal, a teacher at Old Town Elementary in Round Rock, and his two young kids, Brock and Addie.

I got the chance to catch up with Coach Larson following a 2020 baseball season in which the Tigers posted a 6-6 record prior to Covid-19 ending the season prematurely, regarding FCA, coaching, his faith, and time as the skipper of the Austin Shockers.

Travis Larson with his children, Addie and Brock (From left to right)

1. Was FCA something you got into as a coach, or were you involved with it as a student first?

TL : I went to McNeil high school and I was involved in FCA. Coach Goodwin, he was a baseball coach, ran it. [FCA] had a great impact on my life, because after you go to church on Sundays, it was a good refresher midweek, with great fellowship. Then I was really involved with the FCA at the University of Mary Hardin Baylor, and it was the same thing there, kept you going, kept you focused. So when I went to Stony Point, God really lined all the things up for me, because I coach baseball and teach computers. There was a computer teacher opening, the coach was football and baseball, and an opportunity to be the head FCA guy. So Craig Chesser was like, ‘I hear you’re involved with FCA, would you like to lead it here at Stony Point?’ I said, ‘Oh, without question’. I try to give back to the kids what I got through FCA. It’s been a really strong program at Stony Point. It’s great seeing kids grow as Christians.

2. What are some of the life lessons sports has taught you?

TL: For sure, I’ve always learned that in sports, it takes a team. No one person can make a team blend. It also teaches teamwork, and hard work. It takes hard work to do well in sports, which is like in life. You can just sit back and expect things to come to you. You have to work hard in school, study, and in your job. Things aren’t always going to go your way. That’s why I love baseball. In baseball, you’re going to fail a lot. You have to be ok with that. In anything, you’re going to fail some and you have to have the right frame of mind to keep striving for that goal that you have.

Travis Larson at the plate playing for the Austin Shockers

3. Do you have a couple of specific memories from coaching 13 years for the Tigers?

TL: Before I got to Stony Point, we had only made the playoffs once in school history for baseball. Now we have the longest streak district history of making the playoffs. We have had that streak going for 12 years, and a lot of it is the continual buy in we’re getting from kids. One of the greatest memories is my first year, and I was coaching the JV Gold group, which was pretty much the freshman group, and I was able to input some of my baseball philosophy with that group, and they just observed it all. I do some crazy baseball stuff, and it worked that year, and by the team that group was seniors, they won the first district championship at Stony Point. It was by far the most fun I’ve had coaching.

4. I’m just interested. What was some of that baseball philosophy?

TL: : That year, the head baseball coach, Tom Collins, said, ‘Stony Point has always been pretty good at defense, but they’re not scoring runs”. So my job was to find ways to score runs. So I just read the rule book front page to back page, and little things you can get away with that are inside the rules.

Like the base path is established once the play is at the base runner. But if there is no play on the base runner, there really is no baseline. So if there were runners on first and third, I’d put the guy on first in right field! Team had no idea what to do. They would run out to tag the guy but when they did that, our guy on third would run home! Then they tried to throw the ball to right, but the guy on first would just go to second and the guy on third would run home. Then they tried to slow play it and walk to right field, but once the fielder got far enough, the guy on third would score. What ended up happening, teams would ignore the guy on first, which allowed him to walk to second and put two runners in scoring position. I had a friend who is an umpire in Houston and called me up one day and said, ‘Hey, we just had a mandatory umpires’ meeting because some team in Round Rock puts a guy in right field, so we had to go over the rules. Is that Stony Point?’ I said, ‘Yeah!’ The umpires had to meet to go over the rules.

5. In addition to coaching Stony Point, I know you coach the Austin Shockers, when did you start that?

TL: What happened there was I was in college and I had played a couple of years in what was the Zaragosa League at the time (now it is the Centex Collegiate League). It’s true baseball, it’s great. One day I was sitting around, looking at the league and I went up to the coach and I was 21 at the time. I said, ‘what all does it take to have a team in the league?’ He was like, ‘Oh, you got to talk to the commissioner and come up with the league fees’. So after the season I talked to the commissioner Wayne Elliot, and said ‘I’d like to have a team next year in the Zaragosa League,’ and he told me ‘If you can come up with the fees, you have it’. I was a poor college kid so I asked my mom and dad ‘Can you spot me the league fees and I’ll pay you back with the players’ register?’ They said ‘Sure’, so I’ve been heading up the Shockers since 2002. Since then we’ve made it to Wichita a few times. I actually came up with the team name because the Wichita Shockers play where the NBC World Series is, and I thought, ‘how cool would it be if the Austin Shockers were playing where the Wichita Shockers play?’. That’s where the name came from.

Larson serves as a player and coach for the Shockers

6. Do you recruit your team or how do you get your pipeline of players?

TL: Since I coach Stony Point now, a lot of the players want to keep playing for me after they graduate, so really I don’t do recruiting too much anymore. I get a handful of guys and I ask them, ‘do you have any friends that play college baseball?’ Usually it is about 80% new kids every summer, so we’re good some years, other years we’re more building skills, but it is just a fun, competitive, summer league.

7. Lastly, what has God taught you through this whole Covid-19 pandemic?

TL: He is always in control and always has a plan for everything. You just have to put your faith in him, you don’t have to be anxious, stressed, He knows exactly what is going on. Once I realized that, I stepped back and realized, ‘I got all day with my family! What other situation am I ever going to have, days where I have to be with my family?’ It is a really bad situation, but I don’t think ever again will I have so many days where I have nothing else but to spend time with my family. We’ve worn out our bike tires, going on a lot of bike rides and playing catch in the backyard. I’ve really learned you just have to hand it all over to Him.