It’s not as easy as some folks think to build a successful high school athletic program.
Oh, there are some who think all it takes is a magician to get the job done. You know, all the coach needs to do is dress in a cape and a top hat and wave a magic wand and presto, an undefeated season appears in a puff of smoke.
Back here in the land of reality, however, things don’t work that way. It takes plenty of good-old fashioned hard work and that’s what you are getting from the players on coach Mike Cavey’s Apalachee High School squad. Already, the 2009 Diamond Wildcats are making inroads this season and don’t be surprised to see even more accomplishments marked off before all is said and done this spring.
AHS earned its initial region win of the season last Friday after pitcher Justin Shultz threw a gem against Cedar Shoals. It was the first time in five years the Wildcats held an opponent scoreless. When you are building a program from the ground up like Cavey is doing, this is no small accomplishment to be sure.
Still, you won’t hear Cavey get on a soapbox just yet and begin yelling about how far his team has advanced. He is realistic and knows there is still plenty of work to be done before he reaches that point.
“I am still concerned about facing some of the teams in our region,” the coach said. “We are about to hit a rough week and a half, playing Winder, Heritage, Salem and Loganville, so we are about to see just how far we have come.”
It can definitely be said timing has been an element of the AHS baseball program. The team was still trying to get its footing in Class AAA when the move up a classification was made during the offseason. Not only did the Wildcats move up, but they moved into the toughest region in that classification, most coaches will tell you.
“We are not a deep pitching staff, so we are going to have to have our starters give pitch us deep into ball games,” Cavey said in breaking down his team. “We are 2-3 at the moment and could easily be 3-2 had we not let the game get away with us against Clarke Central. I feel like we can compete, but we still have to work to be flawless in the field.”
Still, when you are building a program every little accomplishment is reason for optimistic. And it seems there are more and more reasons to be optimism on the baseball field at AHS these days.
“I am very proud of the guys for how they have played thus far, and I hope these wins will build confidence in them,” said Cavey. “That is something they have had very little of over the years.”
Cavey may not pull any rabbits out of his hat this spring and he may not make any playing cards disappear up his sleeve, but he just very well may put his baseball team on the track to finding success.
It’s what sound high school coaching is all about and it is what is taking place for the AHS baseball team in 2009, no magic required.
Chris Bridges is sports editor of the Barrow Journal. E-mail comments about this column to cbridges@barrowjournal.com.
