Lucas: The Strongest Force

By Adam Lucas

OMAHA—The first team meeting of the 2025-26 Carolina Baseball season was on August 17.

At that meeting, Scott Forbes stood in front of his new roster and showed them a PowerPoint presentation. One of the first slides was headlined, "It is an honor to be your coach."

As Forbes talked to his players, he highlighted the importance of love. He did not promise it would be easy. He said some of the love would be of the tough variety. He would not coddle them. He and his staff would fully commit to doing everything possible to make the players better, and sometimes that means challenging them.

"I show them the word love," the head coach said after Sunday's 6-2 win over Oklahoma, "and I talk about what it means and how it is the strongest force on the planet."

Let's be real. Love didn't strike out any Sooners on Sunday (Caden Glauber and Ryan Lynch handled that part). Love didn't get any hits (Owen Hull and Cooper Nicholson and Jake Schaffner and Gavin Gallaher and Rom Kellis V and one other player we're going to talk a lot about took care of that).

Erik Paulsen called Forbes early on the morning of July 4. He had committed to the Tar Heels barely a month earlier as a transfer from Stony Brook. His father, Erik Paulsen Sr., was a NYPD detective who had accompanied his son on his visit to Chapel Hill. The elder Paulsen was a first responder on September 11, 2001, and spent three days at Ground Zero.

When he began to feel persistent ear pain over 20 years later, doctors knew immediately that it was throat cancer caused by toxic dust exposure at 9/11. He died on July 4, 2025, and one of the first people Erik Paulsen Jr. called was Scott Forbes.

Fifteen years ago, Forbes was by his wife's side when she unexpectedly and suddenly lost her father—a passionate Carolina Baseball fan named Earl Passwaters who would have absolutely loved every single thing about the 2026 Diamond Heels. Forbes learned an important lesson from that experience that informed the way he handled the trauma being endured by his new first baseman.

"I learned going through it with my wife that the best thing you can do is be there," Forbes said.

So the head coach was there, and so was everyone else in the program. And that means everyone.

Paulsen is the type of endearing personality who knows no strangers. He will make you laugh and he doesn't mind needling you a little but ultimately he's the type of person who is the first one to say hello when you're walking through the team hotel lobby on Day Nine in Omaha. You know, like his dad.

Guess who loves that type of person? His teammates, for one. But also moms. When Donna McDuffie and Jen Howe (you know them better as the moms of Walker and Tyler) realized Paulsen would be in Omaha playing baseball on his first Father's Day without his dad, they knew exactly what to do—they needed to remind him he was loved.

Their first idea was shirts for all the dads of the players to wear. But getting sizes and customization on a short timeline was difficult. Buttons became a suitable replacement, and Walker's sister, Hannah, found a vendor in the Baseball Village outside Charles Schwab Field who was willing to assist. That vendor, Kristine Cather, made it happen, and every Tar Heel player's dad showed up on Sunday with a button featuring Erik's name and 44 jersey number.

"We just wanted Erik to know that he wasn't alone and that his Tar Heel family was there for him," said Donna McDuffie.

Then all Erik Paulsen did on his first Father's Day without his father was get three hits and help his Tar Heels beat Oklahoma to get within one win of a national championship.

Maybe now it's a little more clear what love can do. In the toughest time of his life, Erik Paulsen ended up in a program like this with people like this, and then he went out and played in Omaha on Father's Day and went 3-for-5. Scott Forbes coached the team and Jesse Wierzbicki and Scott Jackson helped him with his swing, but if you've ever been a parent, or even if you've ever been a human, you know that Sunday doesn't happen without participation from every single person involved.

"This program is about more than baseball," said Donna McDuffie. "The coaches teach character, leadership, and how to support one another, and that carries over to the parents and players as well. When Paulie was going through such a difficult time, everyone came together to support him. That sense of family and community is what makes this program so special, and I'm grateful my son gets to be part of it."

Paulsen thinks about his father every day but it doesn't overwhelm him every day. Sunday, it did. He admitted to breaking down in the dugout after the game, thinking about all the games his dad had been there for in person and this one that he wasn't.

"I just sat in the dugout and got a little emotional," Paulsen said. "That's the first time I've broke down in a while."

Absolutely nothing can replace getting a hug from your dad after a game like that. But imagine walking back into the team hotel and seeing every single dad wearing a button with your name and number on it.

And imagine having a head coach with this type of outlook.

"Life's hard," Forbes said. "Baseball isn't. I love Erik like a son, and I hope he feels that."

When Paulsen was finished with the NCAA-mandated press conference, he stepped down from the podium and walked in front of Forbes. On this day, on this stage, with these stakes, Forbes was still focused on exactly what he's been talking about since August 17.

He reached out a hand for a fist bump, looked at Paulsen and said one very simple thing:

"Love you, dude."

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University of North Carolina Athletics

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Rom Kellis V

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Erik Paulsen

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