Guest patriot117 Posted February 6, 2009 Report Posted February 6, 2009 Patriot baseball program prepares for season By Dave Rogers Published February 6, 2009 The wait is finally over for Cody Butler and his teammates. Three dozen boys clad in red and grey uniforms gathered round coach Chris Rupp testified that baseball practice has begun at Goose Creek Memorial. “It’s very exciting,†said Butler, a tall, left-handed pitcher who is the most experienced of the senior-less group that will make up the new school’s first baseball team. “Coming from Sterling last year with the playoffs, hopefully we can bring that here,†the junior said. Butler pitched behind pro draft picks Brett Marshall and Hunter Cervenka on a Sterling team that reached the Region III-5A semifinals. He, like the rest of his teammates, chose to be among the first students at GCM. Rupp, a former head coach at Sam Houston State, also moved from Sterling, where he’d been assistant coach the past two years. “We had about 60 kids show up for tryouts and that was a little better than I’d anticipated,†Rupp said. “We’ve cut down some already and we’ll probably end up with 35 kids for our varsity and JV teams.†Butler, who won three games for the Rangers last year, is one of the top names for the Patriots. Shortstop Mason Ball was a late-season call-up to the Sterling JV. Sophomore pitcher Price Jacobs and catchers Branden Rhoden and Jacob Wilburn and Taylor O’Connor are others. “I know most of them,†Rupp said. “They’re kids that were with us at Sterling, or we know them from the summer.†Butler says they know one another from the neighborhood. “Most of us are from Highlands, so we’ve played together since we were very little,†he said. The junior says he likes his team’s chances in District 19-4A because “we have some good pitching.†Coming to help start a new school wasn’t that hard a decision, he said. “It’s pretty cool to start a tradition at a school,†he said. “Sterling had been around 50 years, and 50 years from now this school will have a tradition we started.†Of course the Patriots, who play their first scrimmage game Tuesday at Spring DeKaney, don’t have a senior class for leadership. So it’s up to Butler and the other juniors. “It’s different not having seniors,†Butler admitted, “but we all have the heart to play and I think heart overrides not having seniors.â€
ethanjeffcoat16 Posted February 16, 2009 Report Posted February 16, 2009 how have they turned out in scrimmages?
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