The Vocal Leader Dallas Tessar

Of the many highlights from the North Carolina baseball team’s 2019 campaign, the Tar Heels’ three-game sweep of the Chapel Hill Regional is among the most memorable.

What Mike Fox will remember most, though, from the night of UNC’s regional-clinching victory over Tennessee didn’t happen during the game. Instead, it came roughly 30 minutes after the final out was recorded, down in the bowels of Boshamer Stadium.

Heading into the ACC Tournament a week earlier, Dallas Tessar had logged just four hits in 27 at-bats all season. But in helping Carolina capture its seventh ACC title, the outfielder, known more for his glove than his bat, started all four games and went 5 for 15 with three RBIs. That earned him the start in all three of the Tar Heels’ regional games. And once again, he capitalized on his opportunity, going 4 for 11 with four RBIs and his only home run of the season.

Given his stellar play in the regional, Tessar was one of two players asked to join Fox for the postgame press conference after the Tennessee game, at which point Tessar was asked about his sudden surge. His answer is one Fox won’t ever forget.

“At the end of the day, if you’re not playing it’s on you to control your mentality and just be ready when your name’s in the lineup,” Tessar said. “There are two options if you’re not in the lineup. You can pout and blame someone else but yourself, or you can look in the mirror and say ‘hey, I gotta set an example for these younger guys and be ready when my name’s called.’”

Ever since he enrolled at Carolina in the fall of 2017 as a junior college transfer, Tessar, a redshirt senior, has done the latter. That’s what’s made him one of, if not the, most respected players in the Tar Heel clubhouse. It’s also why his words carry so much weight.

“When I got here, he wasn’t playing that much, but the fact that everybody would listen to what he says and follow him the way they do and just the way he goes about himself, you really see Dallas Tessar is UNC baseball,” said sophomore slugger Aaron Sabato. “When you come in and realize that as a freshman, then

you’re like, ‘OK, let me follow him. Let me do what he does.’ “For somebody who is not playing as much, never gets down and always wants the best for UNC baseball, that’s someone who you follow religiously.” But admittedly, that’s not the type of person Tessar has always been. Coming out of Chaminade College Preparatory School in West Hills, Calif., Tessar hoped to follow in the footsteps of his brother Brando, who pitched at Oregon from 2011-14, and play immediately as a freshman at Washington. When that didn’t happen, though, he found himself bitter and discontent. So after a back injury ended his season prematurely, he elected “ “AT THE END OF THE DAY, IF YOU’RE NOT PLAYING IT’S ON YOU TO CONTROL YOUR to transfer. Because NCAA rules would have forced him to sit out a year if he transferred to another Division I program and he could have been MENTALITY AND JUST BE READY WHEN YOUR NAME’S IN THE LINEUP. THERE ARE TWO drafted after one season at a junior college, Tessar decided to attend Yavapai College in Prescott, Ariz. His

OPTIONS IF YOU’RE NOT IN THE LINEUP. one year there and at Washington YOU CAN POUT AND BLAME SOMEONE ELSE ultimately helped him gain maturity and perspective.

BUT YOURSELF, OR YOU CAN LOOK IN THE “Going to Washington and having MIRROR AND SAY ‘HEY, I GOTTA SET AN EXAMPLE FOR THESE YOUNGER GUYS AND BE that adversity, I think that’s played a huge part in my journey,” Tessar said. “I think that’s made me who I

READY WHEN MY NAME’S CALLED.’” am today, being able to experience that, make some good relationships there and kind of get my foot in the door in terms of what Division I baseball is like. And then to be able to play for Coach (Ryan) Cougill and Yavapai, that was probably the most fun I’ve ever had playing baseball. “That’s when I had that kind of epiphany that, ‘I know baseball is all hard and I’ve got to put pressure on myself. But it’s fun. We’re playing it because it’s fun.’” Tessar always does his best to remind his Carolina teammates of that. Upon arriving in Chapel Hill, Tessar made creating relationships with his new teammates a top priority. Being the same age as the upperclassmen helped. And along with Kyle Datres, he managed the Dose Board, a scoreboard that tracked the team’s hit-by-pitches and proved to be something the team rallied around on its way to

the College World Series.

Tessar played a pivotal role in getting the Tar Heels back to Omaha for the first time in five years. An infielder his entire career, he embraced a move to the outfield and became a spark plug both defensively and offensively. Of UNC’s 64 games, he started 31, including 19 of the last 23.

Even when he wasn’t in the lineup, he still made an impact with his energy and enthusiasm. That became somewhat harder to do last season.

Multiple shoulder procedures sidelined Tessar during the fall of 2018 and slowed his progress heading into the spring. Once healthy, he primarily saw the field as a late-inning defensive sub. At times, he said that was frustrating. Still, he continued to stay positive and work hard. And once the postseason came around, he was rewarded for his patience.

Throughout the season, Tessar constantly told the younger

players who weren’t playing much “ “WHEN I GOT HERE, HE WASN’T PLAYING THAT MUCH, BUT THE FACT THAT EVERYBODY WOULD LISTEN TO WHAT HE SAYS AND that eventually their time would come and they needed to be prepared for it. He certainly was when his did, and his success backed up his message. “You can say whatever you want,”

FOLLOW HIM THE WAY THEY DO AND Tessar said, “but if it’s not put into

JUST THE WAY HE GOES ABOUT HIMSELF, action, then everyone is just going, ‘This guy is just talking. It’s not

YOU REALLY SEE DALLAS TESSAR IS UNC really going to happen.’ But I think BASEBALL. WHEN YOU COME IN AND REALIZE that was a great opportunity for not

THAT AS A FRESHMAN, THEN YOU’RE LIKE, only this year but for years to come for guys who are struggling to get ‘OK, LET ME FOLLOW HIM. on the field and are struggling with LET ME DO WHAT HE DOES.’” themselves and they’re trying to figure out, ‘Man, why am I not in the field?’ You’ve got to stick with it. You’ve got to because your opportunity is going to come when you least expect it, and you better be ready because you only might get one.” Caleb Roberts heard Tessar say that a lot last season. A starter in 32 of Carolina’s first 33 games, Roberts moved into

a bench role after hitting .228. It would’ve easy been then for just about anyone, especially a freshman, to get down on themselves. But instead, Roberts heeded Tessar’s advice. And it paid off for him, too, as he delivered four of his best performances in the ACC Tournament final against Georgia Tech and in the Chapel Hill Regional, a stretch in which he went 5 for 11 with two doubles.

“When you come in, your goal is to play every day, but that’s not the case all the time,” Roberts said. “Last year, me and Dallas sort of had similar roles. At the beginning of the season, I was playing pretty much every day. Toward the middle and end, it was spotty. He was in the same boat as me, and his attitude was something for me to look up to and model my game after.”

Roberts wasn’t the first to do that. And he surely won’t be the last.

As part of some recent renovations to Boshamer, the hallway between the Tar Heel clubhouse and the batting cage is now lined with plaques recognizing all the players in program history who have received national and conference honors. Two quotes have also been painted onto the walls outside the clubhouse. One belongs to Andrew Miller. The other, right by the door, is Tessar’s from after the Tennessee game.

For a program that always talks about the idea of “team over me,” it speaks volumes that Fox allowed a quote from a current player to be placed in such a prominent position, somewhere it can’t be ignored. It also says a lot that Tessar’s teammates pay as much attention to it as they do, taking a moment to read it whenever they come in from the dugout.

“When I first heard the quote last year, that’s not easy, first off, to say,” Sabato said. “And the fact that that can come out of your mouth, that wasn’t a motivational quote to boost others. That wasn’t like, ‘I’m on the podium. It’s my chance to speak.’ That was genuine Dallas Tessar speaking about his experience at the University of North Carolina. And when I heard that quote, I was like, ‘That’s really powerful.’”

Tessar might not have realized just how powerful his words were when he said them. Nor could he have imagined that they’d end up where they are now.

But they describe exactly what Tessar is about.

“This program has been around for a long time, and that quote is going to be up (on the wall) for a little bit,” Tessar said. “It’s very humbling. I couldn’t be more thankful to be a Tar Heel. It’s been the best three years of my life, and to be able to have an impact like that, it’s special to me.

“I think the baseball thing is important and to have an impact on the field is important. But the impact you have on people, I think that goes a long way.”