10
North Douglas Baseball
A pair of North Douglas players take cuts during practice.
Carson Burris winds up to deliver a pitch.
Team Rundown:
Team Perspective with Carson Burris and Kyle Bowen:
The Warriors baseball team is a
program built on tradition.
“I’ve got some kids that I’ve
coached their dads,” said head coach
Jeff Davis who has coached for over
30 years.
“We’ve got enough tradition here
that we can bank on some of our
tradition to make us competitive.”
For North Douglas, that tradition
comes in the shape of having con-
sistent numbers out and having an
active youth baseball program. As
recently as 2015 they finished the
season ranked sixth in state and are
looking to get back to that level of
success.
Their biggest obstacle's to the
top of the league are the 2A teams
(Monroe and Oakland) that finished
above them in the standings and in
the top six in the state. The Warriors
finished 1-6 against those teams last
year.
“The big schools are the ones for
us to chase. Twice the kids as we
have here. That’s not an excuse but
the reality is if three out of every 10
kids are athletes, that’s 15-20 more
athletes,” said Davis.
Despite losing their number one
pitcher from last year, North Doug-
las is still in a position where they
believe pitching can be their biggest
asset. Included in that group are
Carson Burris, Brian Erickson and
Koldan Frieze who all will see time
on the mound this year.
“We’ve got about six that we can
run out there and they can throw
somewhere near the plate,” said Da-
vis who notes that “generally, we
come in the spring and we say all of
you are pitchers.”
CALL FOR A QUOTE
On their roles as seniors
Kyle Bowen: Our role is to take
up leadership and make sure they’re
comfortable enough, make them
comfortable enough to step up.
Make them part of the rotation so
they’re not feeling like they’re left out
or behind.
Carson Burris: Kind of make
everyone feel welcome and that they
can be part of the program, too.
They don’t have to just sit back be-
cause they’re underclassmen. Have
them be a part of it and kind of
groom them for a couple years from
now when they’ll be the guys up here.
On what that looks like
KB: Definitely leading by exam-
ple. Again, everyone participates and
makes sure there’s no stragglers and
no one being pushed to the side.
CB: Showing focus in practice and
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when there’s a time to lighten up,
show them that not everything is
routine. You can have a break in the
routine and have a little fun.
A lot of focus. They’re both great
teams and I mean, they’re not un-
beatable. So it’s just elevated focus
and do what we can inside and hope-
fully we can get outside soon. Always
have a positive attitude. Do what we
can with the time that we have. Even
if we can’t get outside and just focus
on everything and give it your best.
On this year’s team
CB: We’ve got quite a few return-
ing pitchers that got quite a bit of
time last year. And I feel like our of-
fense is definitely going to be better
than last year.
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