The BFA Bobwhites are planning to avenge themselves after a rough season last year with a record of 3-14. Assistant coach Matthew Brault was interviewed on February 17th, and was asked about the team, and what changes are going to be made for the season to prevent a repeat of the last.
To prevent a repeat season, we first need to build an identity on the team that shows what being a Varsity Bobwhite truly means. We need to show passion and courage on and off the field, and play to the best of our abilities everyday. We want to see players that truly want to be playing because they enjoy competing in baseball. Coach Matthew Brault said, “If you don’t want to be part of the culture, we don’t want you”. We’re also going to be playing toward our strengths by using our speed and defensive advantages throughout the season, such as being more aggressive on the base paths, and bunting the ball to advance the runners into scoring position. In order for us to be successful and what separates great teams from average to below average is how they tackle problems. Every team has to deal with adversity throughout the season, but it’s how the teams react to the challenge that decides on how the game and season will end.
In addition to the changes being made to the team, we are welcoming 2 new coaches. The first coach is Jeffrey Markham, who will be assisting the catchers and helping them one on one to improve their pop time, framing, blocking, and communication. Coach Alex Archambault will be the new outfielding coach working with them on decision making, approaches off the bat, route running, and tracking. The team will also be looking for a few new players to join the varsity team to replace our 3 seniors that graduated last year, which position-wise was outfielder, catcher, and pitcher. We need an outfielder with good knowledge of what to do in certain situations, and who can track a ball quickly off the bat. We also are looking for a permanent catcher who can play behind the plate for the majority of the season with good blocking and a loud voice to help the team know where to go with the ball. Finally, a starting pitcher who can pitch 20+ innings and throw as many strikes as possible. We also have plans to add a new batting cage and a dual bullpen mound just outside our dugout. This will allow us to practice and train in ways we haven’t been able to access. During our practice, we’ll be able to practice with our positional coaches, and have more feedback and lessons taught to us so we can improve on our skills and mechanics.
This season, we are looking for a leader in the clubhouse that will keep people in check, show up on and off the field, and put in 100% effort every moment. Our leader group will return this season, which includes Carson Neveau, Jonas Wagner, Austin Stuart, and Josh Anderson. Last season, our team rallied around Carson Neveau with the passion he brought to the team ,and all of the effort, offense, and defense he exhibited. He’s the leader on the team, and we hope to see him grow more as well as the other leaders on the team as this season progresses.
One of the biggest problems we had as a team last year was counting ourselves out as soon as a play didn’t go our way. We let the errors snowball, and lost a significant amount of focus into the game. Something we’re going to work on this season is keeping our focus in the game when things don’t go our way. When an error occurs, we should rally together instead of hanging our heads. Our pitching staff also had a hard time with finding the strike zone to the point where we walked 101 players, and 50 of those runners scored. Giving the other team free bases and our players losing focus cost us the majority of the games. This year with the new upgrades including the bullpen, we will be able to work on command, and what pitches to be throwing in certain counts.
The Bobwhite baseball team is going to redeem themselves and show not only the community, but the state who we really are, and what we’re capable of. We beat the second best team in the state last year, which means we can beat anyone as long as we keep our head in the game and play together as a team. Bobwhite baseball is changing for the better, and we’re here to show everyone that we belong.