Column: Thank you, Mr. Eubanks; an ode to algebra and softball

(Columns often contain opinions.)

The notice came across my desk not long ago.

Richmond County School Board member Walter Eubanks passed away after a brief illness.

While I’m sure he did a lot of great things for School District 3 and Richmond County in 20 years, I can’t tell you any of those. What I can tell you is that Mr. Eubanks directly impacted my education. He was my high school Algebra I and II teacher and my softball coach for four years.

I made the Aquinas High School softball team probably because we didn’t have enough people for a team otherwise. I wasn’t very good. It was slow pitch, and we played in the fall, which meant practices started in the summer. I’ll never forget running suicides in the Georgia heat in August. I don’t know why people subject themselves to that, but there I was sweating on the softball field that once lay behind Wood Park on Highland Avenue.

I don’t think he knew where to put me, but he gave me a chance. He believed in a kid and didn’t cut me from the team which ended up producing one of my longest and dearest friendships with third base-woman Lisa Maddox as well as my best high school memories. I ended up behind the plate because I couldn’t do much damage there. All I had to do was let the pitcher (Laura Garren) throw the ball into my glove, and I could throw it back to her.

Not too difficult.

Back in those days, The Augusta Chronicle ran high school sports scores and stats. Coaches would call them in. Being on the receiving end of those coach calls and recording those stats would be my first newspaper job.

One newspaper clipping I have stuck in one of my high school yearbooks highlights my only homerun. It was a homerun because the scorer felt sorry for me. What really happened was about three errors on the play by the other team. I simply kept running until I’d rounded the bases.

My parents were always at our games, and they got to know Mr. Eubanks too.

A highlight of my time on the softball team was our senior year when we were the Region 4A champs. I ended up earning my letter and proudly displayed a patch of our region title.

My freshman year Mr. Eubanks was my homeroom and algebra teacher in addition to being my softball coach.

He was a little intimidating or maybe just downright scary that first year. He was rough around the edges, like a grumpy old man who was only in his 30s, and you didn’t dare doze off in class. Despite that, he (and Joe LeVert) will always be my two favorite teachers from my Aquinas years.

He was a great teacher though – a little on the quirky side, but I grasped the concepts and really loved algebra. I remember one word problem he posed asked the question of how long would it take for a bathtub to drain with the drain open and the water still running. I couldn’t answer that now, but apparently there was a way to figure it out with the right variables.

It was more than algebra. It was the critical thinking piece it brought with it, trying to look at a problem in more ways than one to determine the solution. That has helped me more than learning how fast a bathtub would drain if the water was still running ever would.

During my junior year, we took Algebra II and my teacher was Sister Linda Marie. I did not like her and didn’t understand her way of teaching. By then, Mr. Eubanks no longer scared me. I begged my parents to have me transferred to Mr. Eubanks’ Algebra II class. They did, and I understood everything he taught.

After I graduated from Aquinas, I attended Augusta College, and my two math classes (I majored in English so I didn’t need much math) were a breeze thanks to Mr. Eubanks and the foundation he had given me. I got As in both of them.

He was a bachelor when we first met him, but he found his “bride” Beth, and the engagement was announced when I was a sophomore. I still have the engagement announcement stuck in my yearbook. Over the next two softball seasons, he’d continue to proudly call her his “bride”. It was sweet. I’ll never forget meeting their first children. She brought their tiny twins to a softball game.

After high school, I’d run into him on occasion, and later, my dad would see into him often. Mr. Eubanks left Aquinas and opened a hardware store. By then he had five children to feed. I remember writing a feature story on him and his Peach Orchard Road store for The Augusta Chronicle.

When my dad died in December 2020, many people stayed away from the funeral home because of COVID, but Mr. Eubanks was there. He said kind things about my dad, and then he reminisced that I wasn’t the fastest on the softball diamond.

In October 2023, I covered the “Real Men Read” event at Wheeless Road Elementary School and he was there. I saw a couple of surprised faces when I mentioned he was my softball coach and algebra teacher in high school.

I can’t remember the exact date of the last time I saw him, but I think it was about a year ago. He and several members of his family were sitting at the tables outside El Alazon on a Friday night. We chatted for a few minutes, and I was reminded how old those twins were. It was always good to see him.

 As I wrote earlier, I’m sure he did great things for District 3. I couldn’t tell you any of them, but I can tell you about my softball coach and algebra teacher.

A rosary will be at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, June 25 at St. Mary on the Hill Catholic Church, followed by visitation at 6 p.m. A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Friday, June 26 at St. Mary on the Hill Catholic Church.

Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards, is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award and was named best local writer by readers of Augusta Magazine in 2024 and 2025. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.