Justin Dumas and Shadarious Plummer have been fixtures on El Dorado’s baseball team during their careers with the Wildcats.
Now they will both get the chance to continue their careers in college.
Earlier this week, Dumas signed with Arkansas-Monticello while Plummer signed with Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
Dumas, a two-way standout for the Wildcats who went 3-2 with a 1.60 ERA with 61 strikeouts in 43 2/3 innings, said he will only be a pitcher at UAM and is happy to be joining the Boll Weevils.
“UAM is the school that I really wanted to go to,” Dumas said. “They offered me and I took the opportunity while I had it. It’s close to home, and I really liked the program there. I really like the coaches.”
Plummer, who was a standout on El Dorado’s football team, will be focusing on just baseball with the Golden Lions.
“It’s definitely a weight off my shoulders,” Plummer said. “I’ve been thinking about this for a while now. I wanted to play baseball in college. Football was on my radar, but I was mainly just trying to play baseball.”
Dumas, who hit .286 with no home runs and 20 RBIs along with seven stolen bases, said he would like to get into the coaching profession.
“It’s going to be an educational thing because I want to be a coach,” Dumas said. “Being a coach, I really like hanging around kids and teaching them baseball, especially if they like it. It’s something I really like to do.”
Dumas added that Cannon Lester and Jeff Burson, his coaches at El Dorado, had a great influence on him.
“Cannon taught me the importance of hard work and what you need to do. He really put a bunch of confidence in me for that,” Dumas said. “Coach Burson is also about hard work and work ethic. There’s a lot of detail with coach Burson.”
Plummer, who hit .250 with no home runs and eight RBIs along with 18 stolen bases, had similar thoughts on Burson.
“He’s done more than grow me as a baseball player,” Plummer said. “He also put in life skills. He’s more than just a coach, he’s actually like another dad when I get on the field with him.”
Plummer added that he would like to study industrial technology at UAPB that will lead to a career in mechanical engineering.
Plummer, who rushed for 1,134 yards and 18 touchdowns in 10 games as a senior, said he takes a football mentality to the baseball diamond.
“Yes,” Plummer said. “Toughness takes you a long ways in baseball. If you’re not tough in baseball, you won’t last long. It’s a tough game.”
Dumas, who collaborated on a no-hitter with Hunter Lawrence against Hot Springs, said he enjoyed his senior year.
“I loved senior year,” Dumas said. “I impressed myself on the mound. I started gaining speed getting in the weight room and it showed on the field. I’m proud of it.”
Plummer said he was happy with his senior year both in football and baseball.
“Football was good,” Plummer said. “We had a lot of ups and downs. I missed a couple of games. I got hurt around the Jacksonville game, and I couldn’t play at my best during the first playoff game. Overall, it was a good season. Baseball, we had a good season. We also had a couple of ups and downs.”
As far as the summer is concerned, Dumas and Plummer both said they will be working on polishing things before heading to college.
Dumas said he will be playing for Southern Attitude.
“I really just want to have fun and get better,” Dumas said. “That’s really all it is.”
Plummer said he will be playing American Legion baseball for Texarkana.
“I mainly want to work on my hitting, using the whole field and hitting gap to gap,” Plummer said.
With their careers at EHS completed, both Dumas and Plummer reflected on what impact they had with the Wildcats.
For Dumas, it was a team-first mentality.
“I really put selflessness in a bunch of the younger guys,” Dumas said. “I taught them to care for the team more than you care about yourself and be a strong leader.”
For Plummer, the MVP of the 5A state championship game as a junior, it’s about giving back to the community and pitching in to help out.
“Everybody knows me for the state championship game MVP, but I think people know me than for just sports,” Plummer said. “People know me around the community with community service and just helping out in general.”