Spring Sports Preview 2016 - Grayson County News Gazette

The 2016 Cougar Baseball Team
2016 GCHS SPRING SPORTS PREVIEW
March 23, 2016
The 2016 Cougar Softball Team
The 2016 CougarTennis Team
The 2016
Cougar Track
& Field Team
Spring Sports
2 March 23, 2016
The Grayson County News-Gazette
First-year coach has untested team
By Don Brown
PA ABBOUNCERS - Mallory
Thomas (left), Grace White.
GAGE AKRIDGE
Senior
PARKER CAIN
Senior
CHANDLER ENGLAND
Senior
ZAC JOHNSON
Senior
MANAGER: Stephen Brooks.
JOSH MERIDITH
Senior
LANDON NICHOLS
Senior
JACOB VINCENT
Senior
RILEY MUDD
Junior
HUNTER SHIARELLA
Junior
HUNTER YOUNG
Junior
JACK DAVIS
Sophomore
TRENTON GODBY
Sophomore
BRAXTON HODGES
Sophomore
HUNTER MILLER
Sophomore
RYLEE SHOEMAKER
Sophomore
NOAH BULLOCK
Freshman
(270) 259-5333
Twin Lakes Counseling Services
Luke H. Hatfield
SENIORS - L-R: Landon Nichols, Gage Akridge, Chandler England,
Zac Johnson, Josh Meridith, Parker Cain, Jacob Vincent.
DIMITRI CAYRO
Freshman
ANDREW HAYCRAFT
Freshman
last year, one of the few
players with much playing experience. England
is also one of the Cougar
pitchers.
“Chandler has the best
command of his pitches
of anyone on the team,”
Logsdon said. “His delivery is straight over the
top with a really good
curve… a true 12-to-6
curve.”
Shiarella, a junior, has
been one of Logsdon’s
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NE
“His makeup fits that
role perfectly,” Logsdon
said. “He just lets it fly
and he gets guys out.
His ball really moves a
lot… it may start in the
zone, then move out and
he gets a lot of outs that
way.”
Mudd, a junior righthander, has pitched
mainly at the JV level.
“He has good stuff. He
has a power arm with a
good curveball, and is
working on a changeup. Riley, like most of
our guys, just needs to
become more consistent
in the strike zone.”
Sophomore Braxton
Hodges did see some
time on the varsity
mound last season. Logsdon said his big righty
has good command of his
fastball and keeps the ball
down well. Logsdon did
say Hodges’ two-seamer
tends to run out of the
zone and they are working on that.
“We need big years out
of Riley and Braxton,”
Logsdon said. “If we get
them, we could be in a lot
of games.”
England, a senior, is
the team’s starting center-fielder and saw lots
of action in the outfield
RED
First-year baseball head
coach, Gavin Logsdon,
has a team loaded with
junior and senior players.
At the same time, only a
few o0f those players saw
much action with the varsity last season.
At the same time,
Logsdon, and every other
baseball coach in the
state will be wrestling
with some new, restrictive KHSAA guidelines
on the use of pitchers.
In the past, how
coaches could use their
pitchers was based on
the number of innings
a given pitcher pitched
in one week. Now the
emphasis is on the number of pitches thrown in a
game. If a pitcher throws
more than 25 pitches
in any single game, he
must then have a full day
of rest before his next
appearance. If he throws
more than 50 pitches, he
must rest two days.
“I’m all for taking care
of young arms and I take
pitch-count seriously, but
I think this rule is a tad
too restrictive,” Logsdon
said. “That changes the
game quite a bit as far
as the strategy of using
pitchers. We may have
to use guys in strategic
places because of that.”
Logsdon has been the
Cougar pitching coach
for the past several years,
and he is quite familiar
with most of his staff and
he feels he has a good
one this season.
“We have five guys,
Gage Akridge, Hunter
Shiarella, Chandler England, Riley Mudd and
Braxton Hodges who
figure to be our main
pitchers,” Logsdon said.
He also said he has two
sophomore pitchers,
Rylee Shoemaker and
Jack Davis who could figure in the mix.
Akridge, a senior and
the only lefty in the pitching lineup, has been used
as a closer in the past
couple of years. While
Logsdon said he could
start for the Cougars,
he likes Akridge in that
closer role.
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Spring Sports
The Grayson County News-Gazette
March 23, 2016 3
New coach plays the best to be the best
By Don Brown
First-year softball
coach, Jenna Cantway,
has intentionally loaded
her early schedule with
some of the toughest
teams in the area, including Owensboro Catholic,
Central Hardin, Greenwood and Meade County,
all of them ranked teams.
“I’m not afraid of
competition,” Cantway
affirmed. “If you play better teams, your team gets
better. I’m trying to set
my team up to get great
experience.”
If that sounds vaguely
familiar, it should.
Cantway played under
former coach John
Skaggs, who was a firm
believer in that philosophy, and it paid off big
time with some of the
best Cougar teams ever.
Cantway has been an
assistant for the past two
seasons and becomes a
head coach for the first
time this year. She will
be blessed with a pair of
experienced pitchers in
the circle this season in
cousins Lauren and Kara
Decker. Lauren has been
the top pitcher the past
three seasons.
Kara had a fine season her freshman year,
but sat out last season.
Cougar fans are excited
with her return, not just
because of her pitching,
but also because of her
hitting prowess.
Both girls will be relied
upon at the plate for
timely hitting and run
production at the heart of
the order. Both girls have
already put balls out of
the park in the first four
games.
“Lauren is as strong
as she’s ever been and is
someone our team relies
upon,” Cantway said.
The two players will
spell each other at first
base when the other is
pitching. Cantway said
Kara is her best utility
player, one who can play
a number of positions.
That was put to the
test early when senior
shortstop Haley Tucker
was stepped on on a play
at third in the McLean
County game and suffered a broken thumb.
Kara stepped in and
played a solid shortstop
afterwards.
Freshman Embry
Thorpe stepped in as a
starter at third base last
season and acquitted
herself well. She figures
to be there this season as
well. Senior Abbie Harpe
got the start at third in
the game against Breckinridge County and had a
pair of hits.
Cantway had planned
to rotate Tucker at shortstop and catcher, where
eighth-grader Bailey
Snyder has established
herself as a key part of
the team. Snyder had
three hits, including a
three-run home run, and
six RBIs in the home
opener against McLean
County. She added two
more hits and two RBIs
against Breck.
Another eighth-grader,
Madeline Carter, took
over at second base last
year and she figures to be
a fixture there for several
more years.
“She is a quiet leader
on the team,” Cantway
pointed out.
Cantway is also blessed
with five strong outfielders who will vie for those
three positions. Senior
Katie Imbrescia has been
a starter for the past two
seasons and will be in
left. Junior Bailey Sedam
is a swift outfielder who
will patrol center field.
Senior Jodi Decker
returns after sitting out
a year and will start in
right.
Junior Allie Horton
played two years ago, but
sat out last season. She
is a strong possibility to
play an outfield spot, but
is a bit behind the others having just returned
following the basketball
season. Harpe is the fifth
KATIE IMBRESCIA
Senior
JODI DECKER
Senior
NIKKI GOLDEN
Senior
ABBIE HARPE
Senior
HALEY TUCKER
Senior
LAUREN DECKER
Junior
ALLIE HORTON
Junior
BAILEY SEDAM
Junior
SARAH THOMPSON
Junior
EMILY AKINS
Sophomore
MALLORY AKINS
Sophomore
HANNAH BAXTER
Sophomore
TAYLOR MUDD
Sophomore
SAVANNAH BAXTER
Freshman
GABBY McCARTY
Freshman
EMBRY THORPE
Freshman
MADELINE CARTER
8th Grade
MADDIE DUVALL
8th Grade
KENZIE RENFROW
8th Grade
BAILEY SNYDER
8th Grade
GRACIE FRANKLIN
7th Grade
RACHEL SNYDER
7th Grade
See SOFTBALL | 6
GOOD LUCK TO THE
COUGARS
AND LADY COUGARS!
Good Luck
Cougars
Have a great season!
www.wrecc.com
COACHES - Jenna Cantway
(left) and Terra Burns.
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259-3161
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60645477
Spring Sports
4 March 23, 2016
The Grayson County News-Gazette
Girls try to follow ‘unprecedented season’
Heading into the new
season, head tennis coach
Sherry Vincent knows
how hard it is to repeat
success.
Her Lady Cougar team
had what she called “…an
unprecedented season”
last year. Her girls went
through the regular season undefeated, then won
a head-to-head playoff
against Owensboro Catholic to take the regional
crown.
“It may not be realistic
to have those kinds of
expectations this season,” Vincent said.
The girls team lost
a pair of top players to
graduation, Courtney
Vincent, who was undefeated in singles play last
year in the number-two
slot, and Mackenzie
Yeiser, who had perhaps
the key singles victory
in the playoff against
Owensboro Catholic.
But Vincent will have
a good, young squad
returning to try to pick
up the Lady Cougar
standard. When talking
about the Lady Cougar
team, you must start with
two-time regional singles
champion, Grace Gorby.
“Grace is just a tremendous player,” Vincent
said.
Gorby, who is just a
sophomore, leads a team
that is very young, with
just one senior and one
junior.
Bad weather has precluded the team from
completing challenge
matches to set up seedings for the regular season, but Vincent has a
pretty good idea of what
her lineup may look like.
Gorby will hold down
the number-one slot,
with junior Bailey Decker
right behind. The three
through six positions
in the lineup will come
from a group of players.
Sophomore Kourtnee
Hayes, eighth-grader
Kandler Lindsey, senior
Emma Escue, sophomore
Mackenzie Edwards,
sophomore Sydney Rogers, freshman Keragan
Collard, sophomore Jasmine Smart and seventhgrader Madison Edwards
figure to battle it out for
those positions, with who
goes where being subject
to change daily, depending on the outcomes of
their matches.
“Some of the younger
players are probably a
year or two away from
being fundamentally
sound, but they could still
could still have an impact
this year,” Vincent said.
Lindsey has shown
great promise at an early
age, but she will be coming off a knee injury she
sustained during the basketball season. Though
she has been cleared to
participate in tennis, it is
yet to be seen how effective she can be.
Escue also suffered
knee problems and
missed much of last
season, but she seems
to be fully recovered
and ready to go. Mackenzie Edwards missed
the entire tennis season
last year because of a
basketball injury, but she
returned to play well for
the Lady Cougar basketball team this season and
should be good to go in
tennis.
Vincent has a very
strong group of sophomores, giving her hope
for continued success in
the future.
“I feel good about the
team as long as they stay
injury-free,” she said.
“By May, we could be
a very good team. As
long as Grace is around
GCHS tennis we should
be a contender, because
she can get us a lot of
points.”
Vincent said she
believed Catholic and
Hancock County, led
by junior Ally Delaney,
should be her team’s
biggest challengers this
season.
On the boys’ side of
the equation, things are
looking up as well. The
team lost just one player
to graduation, Cameron
Hicks. Vincent believes
senior Sam Embry and
freshman Isaac Jarboe
will head the list at the
top of the lineup, saying
both of them should be in
the top five singles players in the region.
“Isaac is a totally different player from last year,”
Vincent said. “He played
all summer and in the fall
and he looks like a different kid.”
After those two, Vincent has what she called
“a host of young players.”
Freshman Spencer
Sharp had the upset of
the regional tournament
last year as an eighthgrader when he took out
the number-four seeded
player in a match that
seemed to go on forever.
“He snuck up on people
last year, but everyone
knows who he is now,”
Vincent said.
Freshman Lincoln
Nichols, seventh-grader
Miles Hornbeck and
eighth-grader Spencer
Cannon seem to be
ready to fill out the top
six spots. Others who
could get into the mix are
seventh-graders Maxton
Cummings and Grant
Manion, senior Tristan
Deering, and freshman
Cameron Harris.
Vincent has scheduled
seven JV matches and
is looking for her large
group of young players
on both the boys and
girls’ squads to get a lot
of experience in match
play.
Last year the team
journeyed to a tennis
camp in Birmingham,
Ala. where, according
to Vincent, they gained
invaluable tennis knowledge. Because of budget
restraints, she regrets
she cannot return this
season.
“That trip really solidified us as a team last
year,” she said.
Instead, during Spring
Break Vincent will take
her team out of the
region for a tournament
at South Warren and a
pair of matches against
Greenwood and Warren
Central. She is planning
to do a lot of experimenting with her lineup there
and also look for her best
doubles combinations.
Vincent said handsdown that defending
regional champ Owensboro Catholic will be the
team to beat again this
year. Apollo has a couple
of strong players and
should be a challenge as
well.
The City of Owensboro
has a new indoor facility
and all the schools there
have access, so their players could have a jump
on the rest of the region,
who are at the mercy of
the weather.
Vincent and a group
of tennis boosters have
been working behind the
scenes to get an indoor
facility built here. While
in the early stages she
was disheartened about
the progress of the talks,
she said she has been
encouraged by recent
movement. It is possible
there could be an indoor
facility somewhere here
in Grayson County within a few years.
TRISTAN DEERING
Senior
SAM EMBRY
Senior
EMMA ESCUE
Senior
BAILEY DECKER
Junior
SEONG LEE
Junior
KENNEDY CHILDRESS
Sophomore
MACKENZIE EDWARDS
Sophomore
GRACE GORBY
Sophomore
KOURTNEE HAYES
Sophomore
NATHAN MATTINGLY
Sophomore
SYDNEY ROGERS
Sophomore
JASMINE SMART
Sophomore
BLAKE CHILDRESS
Freshman
KERAGAN COLLARD
Freshman
ANTHONY DARST
Frademan
CAMERON HARRIS
Freshman
ISAAC JARBOE
Freshman
LINCOLN NICHOLS
Freshman
SPENCER SHARP
Freshman
KANDLER LINDSEY
8th Grade
NATHAN CLEMONS
7th Grade
MAXTON CUMMINGS
7th Grade
MADISON EDWARDS
7th Grade
CLAIRE ELMORE
7th Grade
MASON GALLOWAY
7th Grade
MILES HORNBECK
7th Grade
GRANT MANION
7th Grade
MASON VAN METER
7th Grade
Seniors, L-R: Tristan Deering, Emma Escue, Sam Embry.
By Don Brown
Spring Sports
The Grayson County News-Gazette
March 23, 2016 5
Can girls repeat best-ever finish?
The Lady Cougar track
& field team made history last season when they
finished as the runnersup in the third region, the
first time any Grayson
County High School
team finished that high.
Head coach Matt
Hayes has a right to be
excited this year as most
of the athletes from that
team return to compete
again this season. His
only problem at the start
of the season is trying
to decide where he can
make the best use of
those athletes. And that
goes for both the boys
and girls teams.
Last year’s 4x800meter team qualified for
state competition and all
those girls return. Laney
Newton, Emery Crume
and Hailey Stallings
were all eighth-graders
last year, so they will
be around for the next
four seasons as well. The
fourth runners was Morgan Kannapel, who is a
senior this season. Senior
Kristen Tilford was right
ther last year and could
figure in the mix this
season.
Stallings was a state
qualifier in the open
800-meters and the
1600-meters last year and
figures to contend again
this season.
The 4x200-meter team
went to the state for the
first time in Hayes’ memory and he feels they have
a good chance of doing
it again. Along with the
4x200, Hayes feels the
4x400 and 4x800 relays
will be the heart of the
team this season, with
lots of strong runners in
all of those events
Senior Bailey Martin,
who recently signed with
Campbellsville University, has been to state the
last two seasons in the
pole vault and should be
a lock to return again.
She also qualified in the
open 400-meters
Martin has been flirting with the school pole
vault record of 9-feet,
3-inches, having cleared
9-feet even. This could
be the year she takes the
record as her own.
Laura Vincent also
qualified for the pole
vault as a seventh-grader
last season and can
only get stronger as she
matures.
Hayes calls senior
Jessica Curd his “utility man,” for her ability to take part in several events, including the
400-meters, 4x400, the
300-meter hurdles, the
long jump and the triple
jump.
Stallings and fellow
freshman Rachel McMahan figure to be strong in
the 1600-meters.
Hayes has some young,
up-and-coming athletes
in the throwing events,
including eighth-grader
Kaylee Embry and freshman Katie Poindexter,
to go along with veteran
junior, Leslie Swafford.
Freshman Madysen
Spalding has been showing promise in the long
jump.
The Lady Cougars have
been represented at state
in the high jump many
times over the years, but
Hayes said he is looking
for someone in that event
this season. Vincent is a
possibility there.
On the Cougars’ side
of the equation, Hayes is
still juggling runners trying to find the best combinations in the relays,
and trying to figure
which athletes are best
for what event.
While one athlete may
be good at several events,
Hayes might have to sacrifice him in one of those
events for the simple reason they might conflict
with one another at the
state meet.
A case in point is sophomore Jarrett Crawford,
who is one of the best
800-meter runners on the
4x800-team. He also competed in the pole vault at
state last year and those
two events are run at the
same time. Having to run
a grueling 800- meter lap
could take his legs away
in the pole vault.
Hayes has any number
of 800-meter runners to
choose from in trying to
get back to state in the
4x800-meters. In addition to Crawford, he has
twins sophomores Nate
and Noah Saltsman,
senior Caleb Middleton,
sophomore Luke Weedman, junior Amos Goodman and Jacob Stinnett.
All those runners could
be in the open 800-meter
mix.
Crawford and Middleton will likely run the
open 400-meters, along
with Weedman. Crawford and Noah Saltsman
will also compete in the
1600-meters.
The Cougars have
rarely been strong in the
sprints, but Hayes is very
happy with the early performances of senior Zac
Johnson and freshman
Christian Dennis in the
100 and 200-meters.
In the throwing events,
a traditional strength
of past Cougar teams,
Hayes is still looking
for someone to step up.
Several athletes show
promis, including senior
Timothy Higgs, junior
Austin Milliner, first-year
sophomore Dalton Volk
and first-year Gordon
Batchelder.
As the season gets
started, the teams in
the 3rd Region are
still unsure where the
Regional Championships
will be held. It was originally thought they would
be held at Greenwood,
but their coach said they
would not be there, but
would be at North Hardin.
The Trojans have a regular season meet scheduled during the final
week of the season, so it
is unclear exactly where
it will be. Hayes is sure it
will be settled before the
teams need to show up
for the meet.
Hayes is faced with a
lot of questions he needs
answered before regionals rool around, but he
has the entire season to
sort them out.
JESSICA CURD
Senior
TIMOTHY HIGGS II
Senior
WYATT JAGGERS
Senior
ZAC JOHNSON
Senior
MORGAN KANNAPEL
Senior
BAILEY MARTIN
Senior
JAMES McGILL
Senior
CALEB MIDDLETON
Senior
MAKAYLA SPALDING
Senior
KRISTEN TILFORD
Senior
TRISTAN WILLIS
Senior
KEVIN BRACKETT
Junior
TAYLOR GLENN
Junior
AMOS GOODMAN
Junior
ASHLEY GRUBS
Junior
MYRIAM HANOVER
Junior
AUSTIN MILLINER
Junior
JESSE PAXTON
Junior
LESLIE SWAFFORD
Junior
ANDREW ZIEMKE
Junior
GORDON BATCHELDER
Sophomore
SHANA BRADLEY
Sophomore
ALEAH CLEMONS
Sophomore
JARRETT CRAWFORD
Sophomore
By Don Brown
See TRACK | 6
Spring Sports
6 March 23, 2016
Baseball
From page 6
best pitchers in the early
going.
“He has a good, hard fastball and curve, and must do
some work on his change. He
has a kind of short-arm delivery that can be deceptive.”
Both Davis and Shoemaker
have just recently joined the
team following the basketball
season and both figure to
pitch a lot of JV innings just
to get the work in.
Logsdon said he has worked
through some mechanical
problems with Davis, who
he describes as having, “…a
good live arm.” Logsdon said
he has not worked with Shoemaker enough to know what
he has, but that will change as
the season progresses.
Those pitchers will be
throwing to senior catcher
Parker Cain, who finally gets
his chance to play regularly
after playing behind a Cougar
stalwart for the past three seasons, Logan Ramsey. Logsdon
said Cain has become much
better at blocking the balls in
the dirt, but must still work
on his receiving and throwing.
Sophomore Hunter Miller
will be Cain’s backup and
Logsdon said his sole focus
will be receiving and learning
the pitchers.
Logsdon has any number of
options at first base, including
Shoemaker, Davis, Mudd and
Shiarella, and it could come
down to who is on the mound
as to who will be at first.
In Logsdon’s mind, the middle infielders are interchangeable, with senior Landon
Nichols and junior Hunter
Young. He did say he prefers
Young at second and Nichols at short mainly because
Young sometimes drops his
arm on throws, causing the
long throw from short to tail
away at first.
“Landon has proven he can
make all the plays at short,
and he has a strong arm,”
Logsdon said.
Shiarella will be the starter
at third, and on those occasions when he is pitching,
Young will take to the hot
corner, with freshman Noah
Bullock becoming the likely
candidate at second.
Akridge has been the starting left-fielder in the first
couple of games, but Logsdon
said first-year senior Josh
Meridith will be an enthusiastic possibility there. Senior
Jacob Vincent could also see
time in left.
When England moves from
his center-field position to the
mound, Mudd or Meridith
could take over in center.
Hodges has moved from the
infield and will patrol rightfield when not on the hill,
with Mudd also a possible
replacement there.
At the plate, Logsdon has
made a number of moves
in the first few games, moving people up and down the
lineup looking for the right
combination.
Nichols and Young have
both been in the leadoff position. Nichols walked three
times and scored all three
times in the Hart County
scrimmage, and Young had
a pair of hits in the win over
Hancock County, including
a single that drove in the goahead run in the bottom of
the sixth.
Shiarella has been making
good contact in the threehole, and Mudd has been
doing well in the cleanup position. Logsdon said Hodges
has been a pleasant surprise
at the plate in the early going,
hitting well in batting practice
and making good contact in
the games.
Logsdon said he figures
the team to beat in the 12th
District this season will be
The Grayson County News-Gazette
Whitesville Trinity, though
both Edmonson County and
Butler County have started
the season well.
He pointed to Daviess
County as probably being the
best in the region based on
their strong pitching contingent. Apollo is always good
and Meade County will be
tough as well.
Logsdon is pleased with his
coaching staff. Chad Johnston returns to the dugout
after several years away from
baseball. He and Logsdon are
good friends and get along
well in a coaching situation.
Johnston works with the
infielders and with hitting.
Jodi Nutt coaches the catchers and also takes the firstbase coaching duties during
games.
Former Cougar players
Alphonso Soto and Ian Renfrow have been around the
program for several years,
with Soto working with the
outfielders and Renfrow the
infielders. Both will coach the
JV team.
Wes Basham is the final
coach, and he will be available
on a part-time basis. A Cougar outfielder back in the mid90’s, Basham will break down
hitter’s swings to get them to
maximum output.
Softball
From page 3
player who could see time in the
outfield.
The coach is enthusiastic
about first-year senior Nikki
Golden who plays fast pitch
for the first time in high school
and could see time at first base.
Golden doubled and scored the
deciding run in the team’s win
over McLean County.
Another possibility at first is
sophomore Taylor Mudd, who
started and had a pair of hits
against Breck.
In district play, the Cougars
will battle it out again with
Edmonson and Butler counties,
who have always been tough, and
Whiteville Trinity, a team that
has made great strides over the
past couple of seasons.
As always, Owensboro Catholic will be a top regional team,
but they will be challenged by a
strong Daviess County team that
has one of the region’s top players in shortstop Lauren Johnson.
“They have a strong infield
and are very aggressive baserunners,” Cantway said. “That’s
the way I want our team to run
the bases.”
Meade County and Hancock
County will also be top teams in
the region.
Track From page 5
AMANDA DECKER
Sophomore
KAYLA MATTHEWS
Sophomore
NATE SALTSMAN
Sophomore
NOAH SALTSMAN
Sophomore
JORDAN STALLINGS
Sophomore
JESSE VINCENT
Sophomore
DALTON VOLK
Sophomore
LUKE WEEDMAN
Sophomore
ZACH WILLIS
Sophomore
REBECCA BAXTER
Freshman
TAYLOR BUTLER
Freshman
EMERY CRUME
Freshman
CHRISTIAN DENNIS
Freshman
KATIE EMBRY
Freshman
GRANT ESCUE
Freshman
MADISON LAYMAN
Freshman
RACHEL McMAHAN
Freshman
GABRIEL MUDD
Freshman
LANEY NEWTON
Freshman
KATIE POINDEXTER
Freshman
MADYSEN SPALDING
Freshman
HAILEY STALLINGS
Freshman
ETHAN PIERCE
8th Grade
LAURA VINCENT
8th Grade