CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — On Sunday Jan. 7, William Roland died suddenly. He was a legend in the South Texas baseball scene. Thursday night was the opportunity for the community to say goodbye.
Something Roland always used to say is “we don’t get tired.” Words he passed on to the many ball players he coached. The community demonstrated why they’ll never get tired of remembering William Roland.
Thursday night, a vigil was held at Cabaniss Athletic Complex on the baseball field. It was evident the impact Roland had on the Corpus Christi community, as people packed the stands to say goodbye.
The Miller Buccaneer graduate was a standout football and baseball player in high school and only got better as he got older. Roland was inducted into the Miller High school Athletics Hal of Fame in 2007. He was drafted into Major League Baseball and would go on to spend over a decade with the Kansas City Royals. If he wasn’t already a role model, he returned home to be a trailblazer in the foundation for select travel ball.
Over a dozen family and close friends shared stories at the vigil, exemplifying what Roland meant to them and the type of person he was.
His friend Michael Cantu Sr. talked about a piece of advice he gave Roland 25 years ago. He said about five years ago, Roland told him how he followed up on it.
“We’re sitting in that dugout in Atlanta, GA and we’re playing on the first Citius team…And, I said you’ve done a good job promoting baseball for Corpus and everything. For everyone around you really do a tremendous job keep doing it. He said about 20 years ago someone told me to leave my mark. You’re his mark,” Cantu said speaking to the crowd.
Roland’s cousin Ricky Garza spoke about how he looked up to his older cousin. It was the first time he saw him play football, he knew he wanted to be like him. Garza got emotional recounting a story about a time when Roland returned home from College.
““i remember one morning, he came to pick me up. He was sleepy tired, I’m excited to see him pulling up," Garza said. "He said boy why’d you miss your bus? I said come on Will. He kind of shrugged off me, like...I didn’t tell him then because like I said, where we was raised around was to be strong, was to be a man and not to give flowers. He didn’t understand it that I would miss my bus on purpose so he could come pick me up, because I wanted to see him, because he was a big deal to me."
To learn more about William Roland you can read about him here.
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