Mount Olive Family Rallies Around Matt Stokes

Matt Stokes Personal Letter on the Powerful Legacy Left by Mia Stokes (Click Link to Access Letter)

This is the continuation of a series of Body, Mind & Soul stories that highlights member student-athletes, coaches and administrators of Conference Carolinas.

MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. - This is a story of profound loss and heartbreak. It’s also a story of courage and unconditional love.

Matt Stokes, a redshirt junior outfielder on Mount Olive’s baseball team, will never forget the phone call he received from his mother on Feb. 7, 2020. The unimaginable news she delivered caused his world to come crashing down.

“It was late at night, probably about midnight,” remembers Emry Jackson, one of Stokes’ teammates, housemates and closest friends. “Matt usually goes to bed at a decent hour so I found it unusual to hear him on the phone. He was crying, so I knew something was wrong.”

Matt’s mother, Holly, told her son that his sisters--identical twins and both freshmen softball players at the University of South Carolina Union--had been involved in a serious car accident but had no other details. She and Matt’s father, Eric, were en route from their hometown of Charlotte to the hospital in Union, an hour-and-a-half drive.

“When Matt got off the phone he was understandably hysterical,” said Jackson. “He tried to tell me what had happened but he was experiencing a panic attack. Finally he got the words out. I just hugged him and told him I loved him.”

Thirty minutes later, Matt’s mother called back.

“My mom was screaming and my dad was punching the steering wheel, saying, ‘It was a drunk driver!'" said Stokes. “A drunk driver hit them!”  

Moments later, Matt learned that one of his sisters, Mallory, had exited the mangled car and was talking. Then 15 minutes later, Mrs. Stokes called back.

“It was the worst news I have ever received,” said Matt. “My sister Mia didn’t make it. She was killed instantly in the accident alongside her good friend and college teammate, Grace. Mallory and another teammate survived, and to this day, we do not know how.”

The twins shared a 2012 Ford Mustang, and originally it was Mia behind the wheel. However, the sisters and their two teammates stopped at a local sporting goods store on their way to a softball game to buy long sleeve undershirts for their uniforms.  

“When they came out of the store, they switched drivers,” Matt said. “A teammate asked if she could drive, so Mia let her.”

Matt says he finds comfort knowing the close relationship Mia had with the Lord growing up in a close-knit, religious family.   

“I think it’s helped knowing she had faith before taking her last breath,” he said. "Of course, you still have the ‘Why did this happen?’ I’ll always have that question."

He also found solace in an unexpected place: his baseball teammates and coaches at Mount Olive.

“I wouldn’t even call us a team,” he said. "I would call us a family. To this day, Coach (Rob) Watt and the guys check in on me almost every few days with texts and phone calls. They’re just amazing.”

In a bit of divine intervention, it so happened that the Mount Olive baseball team was scheduled to play a three-game series against Queens in Charlotte the same weekend as Mia’s funeral services were held there. Or as Matt said, “It was 100 percent a God thing.'”

Riding a bus from Mount Olive, the entire Trojan team arrived in time to attend the church funeral.

“It’s still hard to put into words for me,” said Matt. “They all wore their game jerseys, stood in line to view the casket and offered me and our family hugs and handshakes. It just meant the world to me.”

Stokes, a Presidential Honor Roll student who batted .353 with 6 RBIs in an abbreviated 2020 season that saw the Trojans post a 19-4 record before COVID hit, asked some of his teammates to serve as pallbearers.

“Mia got to know a lot of my teammates and I know she would have wanted it,” said Matt. “When Mallory asked them, everybody agreed and said they were honored to serve in that way.”

Jackson and other Mount Olive teammates surprised the Stokes family by bringing dozens of roses to the funeral, laying them on the casket.  

The turnout for the funeral was astounding. Mia’s and Mallory’s softball teammates and coaches all attended, also wearing their team jerseys, but  approximately 1,200 people were turned away at the door of the 500-seat church which was filled to capacity.

“I couldn’t believe that many people came until I saw the photos afterwards,” Matt admitted.

Coach Watt could not be prouder of how his team responded.  

“They’re a close group to begin with,” Watt said. "It’s an older crowd, so they’re more mature than if the team was full of freshmen and sophomores. They really rallied around Matt. I feel like when we were at the service, it probably was the most powerful thing that many had ever experienced. I think they all left that place realizing how precious things are.”

Stokes told Coach Watt that he wanted to dress in uniform and be with the team during the Queens series that weekend, but that emotionally, he wasn’t ready to play in a game yet.

All followed as planned until Saturday’s second game of a doubleheader. Seeing how many family and friends of Matt’s were sitting in the stands--not to mention a large banner on the left field fence that simply said: Mia, #22 with a purple heart, Watt decided to give Stokes one at-bat in his hometown. 

“And just give him two minutes of normalcy that weekend,” said the coach.

“I was visiting in the stands between games and one of my teammates yelled, ‘Hey Matt, you’re batting lead-off in the next game!’ Coach then told me he wanted me to have one at-bat and then would pull me out of the game.”

His teammates gave him high fives and hugs in the dugout, as Stokes began to loosen up in the on-deck circle.

“I was as nervous as I have ever been,” he now admits. “But then I heard the dugout going crazy for me. They were behind me one hundred percent and that meant so much to me. All of the sudden, a strange calmness kind of came over me.”

Not that his at-bat was an easy one. Here’s his description:

“The first pitch was thrown, and I swung out of my shoes and missed it completely. I chuckled at myself and thought, 'Well, don’t do that again.' The next pitch was painted on the outside corner and was called for strike two. I knew I was in a hole, but I kept battling. The third pitch of the at-bat was a slider off the plate for ball one. The count was 1-2, and I was getting more nervous. The pitcher threw another fastball on the outer half that I fouled off. Then I laid off another good slider that was called a ball. The count was now 2-2. The next pitch was a fastball up in the zone, and as it entered the zone, I got my barrel to the ball and felt it fly off my bat.”

The ball sailed to right-center field and caromed off the top of the fence, with Stokes motoring into second base with a double.

Tears began streaming down his face. The base umpire, well aware of his recent trauma, had tears in his eyes and tipped his cap. The Queens players, many of whom Matt knew from his high school and travel ball days, clapped and cheered on the field. And right on cue, the Mount Olive bench erupted.

Although he had walked multiple times in limited at-bats in his brief Mount Olive career, this double was Stokes’ first Mount Olive hit. But, of course, it meant so much more.

“Mia’s last hit before she died was also a double,” said Matt, shaking his head. “Then only two weeks later, I got my first official hit and it’s also a double. And the count was two-and-two, and Mia’s college number was 22.”

Jackson, his closest teammate, said he was not surprised that Matt rose to the occasion and launched a ball that almost left the ballpark.

“Everybody in the dugout knew he was going to get a hit,” Jackson claimed. “You just knew something good was going to happen. At that moment, that was the biggest at-bat of the year. He did make us a little nervous when he started fouling off pitches, though. When the ball was hit, everybody went crazy. I have never seen our coach jump up and down like that. It was the greatest moment I have seen on a baseball field.”

Stokes, who was met with a group hug at the dugout when he came off the field, still savors that special moment.

“Even today, he’ll watch the video of him getting that hit,” said Jackson. “And he has a picture of it in his room.”

But the emotional support of his teammates and coaches did not end that day. It was only the beginning. 

When Matt returned on the team bus to Mount Olive after the funeral and a three-game series sweep of Queens, he may have experienced the kindest gesture yet.  

Like most Trojan players, Stokes shares a locker with another teammate. The next week, he walked into the locker room before the team’s game against Catawba.

“I see an extra jersey in our locker,” recalled Matt. "I yelled at Bubba (Dylan Jeffries), ‘Who are we sharing a locker with now?”

There was a note also at his locker. It had been left by Coach Watt. It read: “As long as you are a Trojan, #22 is yours--Coach Watt.” Matt immediately called his mother and read the note, as both shared a good cry together.

Watt had given Matt his jersey number, which the coach had worn at Mount Olive dating back to his assistant coaching days since 2005.

“I’m not sure you’ll ever find a family as tightly knit as the Stokes',” said Coach Watt. “By giving him my number, I felt like I had given him the opportunity to pay tribute to his sister every day during his remaining time as a Trojan.”

With December being National Impaired Driving Prevention Month, Stokes wanted to do something to help others and also keep his sister’s memory alive. Mount Olive’s Director of Student-Athlete Development Quinton Upshur reached out to him about doing a public service announcement about this national problem. Matt did not hesitate in agreeing to do the PSA, which now is posted on social media. 

“Honestly, before my sister passed away I knew it could happen, but I never thought it would happen to me,” he said. “College kids think they’re invincible, so lots of times it’s overlooked. But it’s really a deadly thing. I figured if I could use my platform to keep my sister’s legacy alive and help others, I was happy to participate.”

Matt and his family have also established the Mia Stokes Foundation (https://miastokesfoundation.org), a non-profit organization designed to help families who experience similar tragedies and also create more awareness to not drink and drive. They have produced long-sleeve t-shirts with words and sayings that Mia wrote in past journals or other outlets. To the family’s surprise, more than a thousand people have already purchased the shirts.

Understandably, Matt still thinks about his fallen sister every day.

“Mia was the best sister I could have ever asked for,” he said. “From a young age, she was always my toughest competition. I grew up playing baseball in an age group or two older than me. No matter how competitive those games were, they did not compare to the competition I faced during our front yard wiffle ball games between my sisters and me. They usually ended in an argument with one of my sisters running in the house and not coming back out to finish the game!”

Stokes also can’t help but remember the final time the family enjoyed a meal together. As chance would have it, both Mount Olive baseball and USC Union softball were scheduled to play preseason games in the Tampa Bay area after the Christmas vacation.  

“My parents traveled to Florida and were excited to watch both our teams compete,” Matt said. “On a Friday night, after our first day of games, we all went to Olive Garden for dinner right next to my hotel in Tampa. There were laughs and picking on each other. Little did we know, this would be our last family meal together forever. Once we finished our meal, I hugged my mom, dad and sisters, and told them I loved them before heading back to my room.”

Stokes’ mind also turns to Mallory often, as her recovery from the loss of Mia has, perhaps, been the toughest.

“Mia and Mallory were not only identical twins, they were best friends and were inseparable,” he said. “They had their whole lives ahead of them. They were so excited to attend the University of South Carolina Union and play softball, fulfilling lifelong dreams of becoming collegiate athletes.”

The sisters were born six minutes apart, with Mallory the first child arriving in the Stokes family.

In the car crash, Mallory completely shattered her right arm--her pitching arm--and suffered a right thigh contusion. The day after the accident, she underwent a six-hour surgery to repair her arm. Two plates, each including eight screws, were inserted into the arm. Since then, she has undergone extensive physical therapy.

“Physically, she’s okay now,” said Matt, a Criminal Justice major at Mount Olive. “But mentally, it’s really hard. If Mallory had been sitting two inches to the right, she would have been crushed by the car. She has struggled terribly with survivor’s guilt since that day and still will not leave my mom’s side.” 

In fact, Mallory has joined her mother, a preschool teacher, at First United Methodist Pre-School in Charlotte on weekdays, helping her in class or serving as a substitute teacher.

“It’s kept her busy,” he says. “She hopes to return to South Carolina Union for classes this summer.”

While Matt spent most of the past spring and summer at home due to COVID restrictions, he left his family for the fall semester at Mount Olive in August. It was gut-wrenching to say goodbye and face the loss of Mia by himself. He called it “the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”

“Baseball was definitely my escape,” he said. "Coach Watt, along with my assistant coaches, stepped up in a huge way. They filled in the gaps by being there physically where my parents couldn’t because I was away at college. Coach Watt still checks in with me every few days. So do my teammates. Coming from them, it means so much.”

Jackson and Harrison Aiken, his housemates, were particularly helpful in offering support this semester.

“Personally, I just tried to be around him as much as we could,” said Jackson, a left-handed pitcher from North Carolina. “Whenever I could tell he was down or having a bad day, I would either let my coaches or teammates know so they could text or talk to him. In the house, we would watch sports or a movie, or play PlayStation so he wasn’t by himself. Of course, sometimes it was helpful to talk about his feelings, too.”

Jackson said he can see a change in Matt since February’s tragic incident.

“I think he’s more aware of caring and how fast life can hit you. He’s more emotional about other people’s situation. Small things. He’ll go out of his way to help people. He also cherishes the moments more on the field with his teammates. Being his friend, he pushes me to realize how important your friends and families are.”

The Stokes family has made plans not to be home for Christmas this year. They have rented a home in North Myrtle Beach on the South Carolina coast.  

“We’re heading to the beach early so we can celebrate my birthday (Dec. 20),” Matt said. “I’ll be 22, Mia’s number."

Bob Rose is a longtime sports public relations executive who has worked for the San Francisco Giants, Oakland Athletics, the NFL Cardinals, Cal, Stanford and other organizations.