It all started for Zac Person as he headed out to the field with his mother at the age of four, younger than most of the players on his team.
The T-ball league was only open to five- and six-year-olds, but children were able to play at four years old if one of their parents was a coach. Tracey Person, Zac’s mother, signed up to coach his team, and he’s played the game ever since.
Person continued to play as he grew up, but he was not as fond of the game as some of his teammates because of his struggles on the field.
“I was awful,” Person said. “I was that guy in outfield that couldn’t make plays on anything. I didn’t really enjoy it because I wasn’t doing well, so I never had the urge to get better at it because I wasn’t having fun.”
When Person was heading into his eight-year-old season, one of his mother’s friends from high school called her up, asking for Zac to join his travel team. According to Person, his mother thought it was a joke because he “wasn’t travel ball material,” but the coach wanted to take a chance on him and see him play.
“The coaches from that team taught me how to love the game. Ever since then, I always had so much fun playing that I always wanted to get better at it. I’m still doing it almost 20 years later,” said Person.
As he continued to grow to love the sport, Person fractured the growth plate in his elbow, requiring surgery. While it was healing, the bone grew too tightly around it, and the screw that held the growth plate in place broke off, forcing the doctor to chip the bone away around it.
He was told he would never be able to throw again.
“At first I believed that because it hurt as soon as I woke up, but after a couple of days I got rid of that thought and did my therapy one day at a time,” said Person.
Slowly, Person was able to begin playing the game he loved again, but he faced another obstacle when he tore his ACL and lateral meniscus in his knee in his high school gymnasium playing basketball before a pep rally being held for a football game that night.
He was unable to play baseball his junior season, but a coach from LSU-Eunice, a junior college in his hometown, saw him play while he was scouting another player and asked him to join the team for his freshman year of college.
While at LSU-Eunice, Person helped lead the team to a national title in 2012 and a national runners-up finish in 2013, posting a 17-0 career record with 143 strikeouts and a 2.35 ERA.
The fall of his sophomore season at Eunice, the squad traveled to Alex Box Stadium to play in a tournament against other junior colleges. Person came out of the bullpen in relief of Brady Domangue.
“They were watching Brady, and I came in after Brady. Alan Dunn said he liked what he saw. He picked me up,” said Person.
Person received a voicemail from then LSU hitting coach and recruiting coordinator Javi Sanchez, and he quickly scheduled a visit to his dream school.
During his visit, he was offered and told head coach Paul Mainieri that he had to sit on it and think about his decision for some time before making it final.
Person said as soon as he got in the car, he told his parents his mind was made up, but he wanted to make sure his parents were behind his decision.
“I told Coach Mainieri that I was going to talk it over with everybody and get back to him,” Person said. “I called him before we even got back on the interstate. ‘I was like, hey, I did enough thinking, I’m ready to come. I’m ready to sign here.’”
Both he and Domangue committed to play at LSU during their sophomore seasons, bringing them closer and enhancing their “brotherly competition” with each other.
“He works hard on and off the field,” said Domangue. “He’s the kind of guy you like to have in your program as far as leadership goes. He gets the job done.”
After spending the past four years together playing collegiate ball, they have created an inseparable bond and both know how to get under each other’s skin. They can often be found slinging insults at each other and cracking jokes.
Person is always brightening the mood around the park, making the team laugh, taking music requests, dancing around in the locker room and singing in the dugout.
“I guess I kind of am the goofball. I enjoy having fun around here,” said Person.
However, when he heads out to the mound it’s all business, but you can catch glimpses of his goofy personality during his outings.
“Whenever he gets a big strikeout and comes off of the mound, he’s all fired up. He starts getting into it. That’s one of the coolest things,” junior outfielder Andrew Stevenson said.
“Zac’s always a guy you can count on late in the game, and he’s going to give us some good innings and throw strikes. He gets on the mound, and he battles.”
Person battled through his injuries and worked diligently in junior college to end up playing collegiate baseball at his dream school. He is grateful every day that he is able to lace up his cleats and continue playing the game with his closest friends.
“There is a brotherhood in the locker room that a lot of people would never understand. It’s just something about it. You go through the toughest part of every day, the toughest part of the semester, the toughest part of the year, the toughest part of your life up to this point with the same group of guys. You become so close that whenever I get up here, I just get in such a good mood,” said Person.