For those of us who have been involved in baseball for a long time, invitationals and memorial tournaments are a nearly weekly event. Sometimes a name is attached to a tournament – and we think nothing of it.

Tomorrow (May 15, 2010), Holland Christian will be hosting the 4th Annual Jon Hooker Memorial Tournament at their field, Hope College, Zeeland East and Zeeland West. Again this year, it should produce some great baseball.

Click here for the brackets: Jon Hooker Memorial Brackets

But, we felt it is also a good opportunity to tell you who Jon Hooker was and why the tournament carries his name.

To do that, we are publishing an excerpt from the program as written by Holland Christian Head Coach Mike Ott, Jon’s very good friend and the driving force behind this tournament.

Thanks to Coach Ott for allowing us to share this with our readers.

If you are looking for a game or two to watch on Saturday, please stop by one of the venues for the Jon Hooker Memorial. You’ll see some great baseball – and help raise money for a good cause.

Jon Hooker

                         4th Annual Jon Hooker Memorial Tournament

Comair Flight 5191, was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Lexington, Kentucky, to Atlanta, Georgia. On the morning of August 27, 2006, the jet that was being used for the flight crashed while attempting to take off from Blue Grass Airport.

The aircraft was assigned the airport’s Runway 22 for the takeoff, but used Runway 26 instead. Runway 26 was too short for a safe takeoff, causing the aircraft to overrun the end of the runway before it could become airborne. It crashed just past the end of the runway, killing all 47 passengers and two of the three crew members.

On that flight was Jon Hooker, and his wife of merely 12 hours Scarlett Parsley Hooker. They were headed to California for their honeymoon.

Just twelve hours earlier, Jon and his wife, Scarlett Parsley, were married in a fairy tale wedding at a prestigious Kentucky farm known for their breeding of horses used in the Kentucky Derby.

It was a storybook event that had everything from a horse drawn carriage to the couple leaving in a classic Bentley. Beyond the glitz and glamour of the surroundings, the one thing most captured that evening was the utter joy and excitement that the two shared for one another.

This became the small piece that people clung to after the crash knowing that Jon and Scarlett’s final hours were the happiest of their life.

The crash not only took two young lives of promise, it claimed one of my dear friends. Jon and I had been teammates for a season and a half in professional baseball.

Before his professional career, Jon had pitched at the University of Kentucky, where his #33 is now retired, and was teammates and close friends with N.L. Cy Young Award Winner Brandon Webb. We were traded the same day midway through the 2004 season in hopes of bolstering a bullpen for a playoff run. We both arrived at our new team the next day and for the next two and a half years we became inseparable.

We did everything together from rooming together to talking daily in the off-season about the happenings in our lives. We even were back to back in our bullpen roles with me filling the 7th inning slot and Jon following me up in the 8th.

In public perception, the professional sports world can be filled with egos and substandard behaviors. There could be no statement less true of Jon Hooker. Hook was a devout Christian man who was devoted to his family and his moral belief of the simplest truths. Treat people the way you want to be treated.

Jon’s life impacted all those he came in contact with as he always had a smile on his face and genuine care and concern for those surrounding him. His personality drew people in and everyone always remembered him.
From where that came from is tragedy in itself.

At the age of 12, with a budding baseball career beginning to show, his father was killed in a car crash as he was on his way to one of Jon’s baseball games. This left Jon as the eldest of three children with his mother. He was forced to encounter things many of us do not at a young age and matured beyond his years.

After his passing, many in the community always spoke of how Jon’s pride was not in his own achievements, but in family.

This is the man I knew.

The one who hated the spotlight.

The one who wanted everyone around him to get their credit and be celebrated.

The one who graduated from college three months before his wedding, with a degree in Social Work, so he could continue caring and helping people.

The one who when people say it is important to impact lives, is the first person that comes to mind.

The quiet personality that never needed reassurance and could fill a room just by walking into it.

The utterly honest and unselfish personality that people truly envy.

A man who lived for others.

I had the great fortune of knowing Jon Hooker. I also was lucky enough to be a part of his wedding and be one of the last people to see him alive. Those memories I will never shake.

I now have a nearly one year old child and it is my greatest hope that he will grow to be half the person that Jon Hooker was, and if that happens, the world will be a better place. This is a very joyous, and sad day, all mixed into one as a large part of me was lost on that day. His life, and death, have greatly shaped who I have become today and why I have chosen to remember Jon in the best way I can, by hosting this tournament in his honor.

This is the fourth year we have hosted the Jon Hooker Memorial Tournament. Over the previous three years we have raised nearly $17,000 and given it away in the form of college scholarships in Jon’s name.

As much as this tournament is about good baseball, it also encompasses the scope of Jon’s life in great sportsmanship, impacting others and teamwork.

This year we again thank Hope College and both Zeeland East and Zeeland West for their generosity in allowing us to use their fields for our tournament. Participating this year are Covenant Christian, Forest Hills Central, Grand Rapids Christian, Grandville, Holland Christian, Traverse City Central, Whitehall and Zeeland East.

Please enjoy the day and I thank you for your support in honoring a tremendous friend, teammate and overall wonderful person and hope that Jon’s presence is felt throughout the day. I know he’ll be with me today and forever.

Mike Ott
Head Varsity Baseball Coach
Holland Christian High School