When meeting Kennesaw State baseball standout Griffin Helms, there are a few things that are instantly noticeable. He’s ripped, his right eye socket is stained blue, and his hand is bruised. Yet through this jagged facade, he lets out a friendly chuckle as he grazes his handlebar mustache so reminiscent of Yosemite Sam.
The hard-nosed catcher has been a key component in Mike Sansing’s teams over the years, winning all-conference second team honors twice and being a workhorse when not injured. This season, he led the team in slugging percentage and won a conference player of the week honor.
The breeze sent chills up spines at Stillwell Stadium where the Owls played against their conference rival, Stetson. Every time Helms walked up to the plate, one section of the stands would shout his name. The section was filled with children that were given some of Helms’ old batting gloves before the game started.
“It feels cool,” Helms said. “It feels good because, to me, I’m just a normal college student playing a sport. That’s really what I am — but to kids, they always look at you a lot different than you look at yourself in the mirror.”
It was at the bottom of the 10th inning when the deadlocked game needed a spark. Helms got hit in the hand by a fastball so hard that it sounded like the snapping of a hundred drumsticks, but he jogged to first base as if he felt nothing.
Later on, Helms scored to give KSU the 4-3 win. The moment he touched home plate, the home crowd erupted with cheers — the children cheering loudest.
The relationships that Helms built through baseball are essential to his story, and no relationship is more important to him than the one he cultivated with his parents.
Helms recalled a story told to him by his mom where he would play baseball with his father at the beach just a short time after he learned how to walk. His father would pitch him a whiffle ball, and Helms would hit it with a yellow plastic bat before screaming and jumping for joy. This early experience with baseball grew into his passion as he got older.
“She loves baseball probably more than I do,” Helms said. “She sacrificed so much for me to be where I am today. She never missed a game ever, and we’d play a hundred games in the summer.”
Helms started playing tee ball at four years old. He tried almost every position but decided at age nine to stay at catcher. He was awed by their unique interactions with the pitcher and capability to stay involved with every throw.
“I always wanted to catch as long as I remember,” Helms said. “I think I liked the fact that they wore so much gear; it looked to me like they were a transformer or something. As a kid, I think the gear always stuck out to me, and it was something cool and a little extra to have.”
Helms recalled another time where he was hitting in batting practice at Anthony Byrd’s training facility, and he overheard his former youth coach and Byrd having a conversation.
“This is the guy,” Byrd said while pointing at Helms. “If we’re going to have a kid who makes it, this is going to be the kid.”
Helms walked up to the coaches after batting practice, and Byrd bluntly asked, “Are you going to be the one?”
“Yes, sir. I got it, I’ll be the one,” Helms said.
“That always stuck with me because they believed in a 12-year-old kid who wasn’t even one of the best kids on the team,” he said.
Helms continued working, but it was not until he was 16 and with his travel team, the East Cobb Titans, when he believed he had talent. That summer saw some of the best moments of his career.
The Titans played a game at Furman University in South Carolina where his grandfather lived. Because of his advanced age, it was the only time his grandfather got to watch him play.
“I remember seeing him in the stands when I was catching,” Helms said. “We ended up winning. It was really cool to have him at the game and be able to see him there. It was one of my best baseball memories — with him.”
That same summer the team won a national championship.
Later that year Helms went to a baseball showcase and was surprised at how well he did compared to other players. Afterward, he started receiving offers from colleges. The hype increased, and Helms was looking forward to a breakout season. Those expectations were postponed after he broke his wrist skiing on vacation.
“That whole year was really, really tough for me,” he said. “I was hurting all season, and I didn’t play well. It was really tough for me to get over that season.
“The team didn’t do well. We had such high expectations and they all crumbled,” he continued. “That was my biggest obstacle.”
By the time his senior season rolled around, he was rejuvenated. According to KSU’s athletics website, Helms was ranked the number one catcher in Georgia and number five in the country.
As a freshman, he had to scratch and claw his way into an Owls line-up that went to super regionals the previous 2014 season. Relearning the game at the next level and adjusting to the learning curve proved to be significant challenges.
When Helms is on the field, it’s obvious he’s a vocal leader. During his freshman year, Helms would hang out with the older guys, and they instilled some leadership qualities in him. He just finished his senior season at KSU, and the coaching staff looked to him to run the show.
“Griff brings a lot of leadership to our team and our pitchers,” said KSU head baseball coach Mike Sansing. “He has a feel for them mentally and what they want to do, I think his leadership is vital for us.”
“He brings so much energy, and he’s just so much fun,” said teammate Grant Williams. “Whenever Griffin is in the in the dugout he’s cutting up, keeping everybody in the game, keeping everybody relaxed, and that’s the type of guy you want in the locker room and in your dugout.”
On March 9, a week before KSU was scheduled to play against the University of Oklahoma, Helms’ dad called him. His father told him that his grandfather died in his sleep after dinner. The funeral was the next Thursday — the same day the team was flying to Oklahoma.
At the funeral, after the Navy folded their flag and handed it to Helms’ grandmother, his dad wrapped his arms around him and told Helms to hit a home run for his grandfather that weekend.
He flew to Oklahoma after the funeral. He struggled through the first two games of the series and wasn’t scheduled to play in the last one, but with the backup catcher sick, he had one more chance.
In his first at-bat, Helms found a juicy fastball to hit, making contact with full force and perfect timing. When he looked up, the outfielders were at the fence and he was halfway to second base as the ball left the stadium.
He didn’t realize he had done exactly what his dad told him to do for his grandfather until the 8th or 9th inning when the game was about to end.
“This is a week after he died. I wasn’t even supposed to be catching this game,” he said. “That’s bigger than me. All I can do is thank God.”
After four successful years at KSU, Helms is a major league prospect and has met with multiple teams, including the Atlanta Braves.
When the interview was over, and after I thanked him, he let out a huge smile. We talked for a few minutes, and he asked me what I was going to do. I told him I was going to write this article, and then I echoed his question back to him.
“I have to go to the grocery store and get aluminum foil,” he grinned.
One thought comes to mind when talking to Helms — just like his mother, just like his coaches and just like those kids in the stands — “He’s the one.”
