In just one year's time at Chattanooga Christian School, Ethan Stoddard managed to pack great memories into his initial year living in the states.
The game of baseball and musical theater combined to be two major parts of his experience.
Growing up as a missionary kid, Stoddard spent 15 years living in Berlin, Germany, and traveling to many European countries. There he played in the Baseball-Bundesliga league, where he competed against grown men in Germany's form of professional baseball.
This past spring Stoddard was a utility infielder and right-handed pitcher for CCS' varsity high school team in his senior season after moving to Chattanooga last June. He also proudly had the lead role in his school's performance of "Fiddler on the Roof," in which he starred as Tevye, the dairy man.
"I got involved really quickly at CCS in sports and music and loved my time in both," Stoddard said. "My dad got me into baseball at an early age and I grew up a big Pittsburgh Pirates fan. From a young age I also had a lot of friends who had a love for musical theater, specifically, as well as choir. The 'Fiddler on the Roof' play required a lot of energy and time, but I loved it and was able to make it work along with baseball at the same time."
Stoddard put on the Chargers' baseball uniform one final time in Tuesday's Tennessee-Georgia All Star Baseball Classic at Ridgeland High School, where he scored a run in a 9-4 defeat at the hands of the Georgia team.
CCS head baseball coach Ben Wharton remembers fondly Stoddard's epic performance on Senior Night this past season in which he threw five shutout innings to earn one of the biggest victories of his career.
"The stands were jam-packed on Senior Night and a lot of those were CCS students who participated in theater and plays with Ethan and Elias Huffine," Wharton said. "The baseball team also went to 'Fiddler on the Roof' to support Ethan and Elias. It was really cool to see both sides of our school, theater and sports, come together to support one another. Ethan has even been nominated as outstanding lead at the national level. He did so much here at CCS in his one year with us."
Stoddard plans to go on to Covenant College, where he has a desire to continue playing baseball and pursuing his love for the theater.
The Georgia All Stars were led to victory Tuesday night thanks in part to the powerful left-handed bat of Cartersville's Luke Miller, who smoked a three-run home run down the right field line in the top of the first. Ridgeland's Ethan Waters helped deliver a 4-0 lead in the second with an opposite field line-drive homer down the third base line.
Howard's Camron James provided a spark in the bottom of the third as he hit a sharp single to center field before proceeding to steal second and third base with ease before speeding home on a wild pitch for Tennessee's first run. Stoddard would score soon after in the biggest inning for Tennessee, which faced a dominant pair of Georgia pitchers in Ringgold's Sebastian Haggard and Heritage's Max Owens.
Haggard won the Stump Martin Memorial Player of the Game, award while Miller won Georgia MVP honors. Hank Adams won the Tennessee MVP award with three hits.
Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com.