Loading ...Arab American Legion team helps high school players stay together during coaching transition
A STAFF REPORT
The Arab Tribune
Arab’s American Legion Post 114 Senior Division 2 baseball team was established a few months ago to help Arab’s high school players continue their development once the prep season ended.
Turns out, the team provided a necessary bridge for the players during a significant coaching transition.
Arab High School summer team workouts were halted, apparently after the June 15 practice, when it became apparent head coach Karl Amonite wasn’t coming back. The Arab City Board of Education made that official when it accepted Amonite’s resignation at its most recent meeting (another meeting was scheduled for Friday).
Earlier, assistant coach Will Cammack left for another coaching job.
That left the varsity program essentially without a leader.
When the team workouts stopped, that left only the American Legion team Will Fowler had put together in May as a vehicle to keep the players together and practicing.
Fowler essentially was the program manager, though he helped coaches Brian Berry and Brady Rodenberry when he could.
About 14 Arab High School players made up the roster and there were usually at least 12 at the doubleheaders scheduled from June 1 through early July. The last three doubleheaders were canceled because of several players having scheduling conflicts related to team camps in other sports.
“We played 13 of the 17 doubleheaders we scheduled,” Fowler said, noting the team’s record was 15-11. “The main thing we accomplished from a baseball program point of view, is we identified weaknesses in individual players.
“These are things they can focus on the rest of the summer and on into next year as they continue to prepare themselves physically and mentally for next season.”
Arab’s American Legion team this year is called Senior Division 2. What that actually means is that it is open to anyone who played high school baseball for Arab this past season and still has high school eligibility remaining.
A second team will be established next year, Fowler said. It’ll be designed for players who haven’t yet reached high school eligibility. Fowler said the older team will be essentially a 17-and-under team, while the younger team will be for players 15 and under.
While the American Legion team served a useful purpose this summer, it wasn’t designed to be the only game in town for the high school players, Fowler said. The Legion team was supposed to provide game opportunties – which it did – but those games were meant to supplement the team summer workouts, not supplant them.
“As far as the kids go and how they did, I was well-pleased with the overall performances of the players,” Fowler said. “But they stopped practicing. We had so many games scheduled, we didn’t have a lot of time to practice them.
“Without practice, you can’t improve as much as you need. It’s hard to diagnose what individual players need to work on while watching them in a game.
“And in a game, they can’t practice all they need to work on. Players need direction. They need someone diagnosing what they need to work on and then putting together a program to help guide the player to work on those things.
“It’s important they have a coach or an assistant or someone well-versed in baseball to give them direction over the summer than will enable them to work on their game and improve it.”
Anyone who wants to assist the American Legion program, especially financially, can call Fowler: 256-673-3152.
Source: www.thearabtribune.com