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2009 SEASON OUTLOOK |
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"Finding
the Edge" A season ago, Ephrata concluded its baseball season with a loss to South Western in the preliminary round of the District 3 AAAA playoffs. While the early playoff exit was a disappointment, the season was considered, by most, a success. Their second place finish in Section 2 had earned the Mounts their fifth Lancaster-Lebanon League postseason appearance in six years, and their 12-10 record earned them their fourth District III bid of the decade. However, as the final out was recorded, the reality that most of the starting line-up, including the entire pitching staff, had just played their final game in the purple and gold, sobered any sense of satisfaction for a season well-played. In fact, as the team made their 60-mile bus ride back home, the thought of riding off into the sunset along with his seniors passed through Head Coach Adrian Shelley’s mind several times. “It was a long ride home and the mood was pretty subdued, so there was plenty of time to reflect on the season. I started thinking about the short-term and long-term future of our program, and wondered if I still had the mental edge to essentially start from scratch again. The combination of the sting from the loss, the physical and emotional exhaustion that follows the end of a season, and the thought of spending more time with my family, led me to step back and re-assess everything.” However, after weeks of allowing his thoughts and emotions to simmer, Shelley decided to saddle back up again. “After a bit of soul searching and support from my wife, I realized that there was still plenty of edge left, and the more I thought about it, the more I began looking forward to the challenges that the ’09 season would offer. Sometimes . . . you just need a chance to mentally refuel.” As an elementary school teacher and parent of two young children, Shelley knows a thing or two about working with young people. Whether it is in the classroom or at home, the Mounts skipper recognizes the value of patience and understanding. He also realizes that, despite the best teaching efforts, sometimes experience provides the best education. That being said, as he enters his twelfth season at Ephrata’s helm, experience is something the ’09 Mounts desperately lack. “Experience provides us all with those important a-ha moments. However, in its absence, knowledge becomes its substitute,” comments Shelley. “You can’t teach experience, however, you can build background. We spent the entire off-season preparing our players for fundamental execution of the basics; pitching, defense, and putting the ball in play. So, at least there’s a sense of a poured foundation. Part of the intrigue of this season is seeing if and how much of the hard work transfers into competition.” Lost in all of this youthfulness, is the fact that there are a few key players returning from last season. Both middle infielders return from a successful freshman campaign, and the corners are anchored by two returning seniors. “Our infield has to provide the leadership needed for us to succeed,” replies Coach Shelley. “They’re aware of what it takes to compete at this level and they will need to mentor the rest of the team. Our biggest concern, outside of the obvious experience issue, is finding the competitive edge a young team needs for survival against opponents that are much more seasoned for handling the high-intensity roller coaster ride of a high school baseball season.” After weeks of voluntary workouts this winter, the Mounts enter the ’09 season eager to continue the successful tradition laid forth by their predecessors. “I can’t remember a group this enthused and this hungry to start the season,” states Shelley. “While there’s no hiding the fact that we are very young, and that we have shoes to fill, we won’t have any trouble motivating this team. They haven’t shied away from inheriting the expectations our program has built, and that’s an important first step in accepting the challenge in front of them.” “Anytime
you have more newcomers than you do returning starters entering the
season, you are confronted with a challenge. We graduated significant
talent off of last season’s league semifinalist team, including the entire
pitching rotation, and due to the fact that we only have seven combined
juniors and seniors on our roster, we must find a way to replace it with a
number of players who have never played a varsity game. In fact, several
of them have never played on a 90-foot diamond before. Obviously,
flattening the learning curve is critical to our team’s development this
season,” Shelley continues.
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