7th Inning Stretch: Journey of a Prodigy – Part I
Do you hear that? Those are the echoes of opening day beginning to crescendo as the anticipation grows for February 25th at Jumbo Evans Sports Complex. Sounds like the crack of the bat, cheers for little Johnny putting his glove on the right hand, kids begging for a Kona Ice, and the overpowering screams of parents berating the umpires for daring to call their precious little Percival out at first fill the air. Starting the day with hundreds, if not thousands, of kids lining up with their teammates eager to hear their team called out by the PA Announcer (“Oh Yeah! Oh Yeah!”) all while thinking of the latest TikTok dance they want to put on display as they walk in front of the raucous crowd waving their iPhones around to capture the moment. This will no doubt cause overwhelming feelings of pride, passion, and the idea that your child is probably a prodigy.
7th Inning Stretch is a reality sports column published by the Ranger Reporter. Each season the column follows a little league team from the first pitch to the last. The award-winning weekly series will deliver its signature all-access coverage to document a Little League team in-season and in real time, following the Braves of the Minors AA division as they navigate the challenges of a rigorous Little League season and battle to make a deep post-season run. The series shows the personal and “professional” lives of the players, coaches and staff, including their family life, position battles, and even inside jokes and pranks. It particularly focuses on adjustments to playing at the next level of the league. This particular series will focus on prodigy players who are on the precipice of greatness.
With the local attention surrounding the Bulverde Braves-Navy, machine pitch division, last year, we could not ignore the notion that we are dealing with something special. We decided to continue our journey with this team to witness what it takes to go from prodigy to megastar. Athletes like Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, and Alex Rodriguez are just a few of the megastars labeled prodigies at a young age and we believe this team has the potential to add to the list.
To get things started, we caught up with Braves Head Coach Garrett Owens for some Q&A about the upcoming season.
How have preseason preparations been going?
“The winter was interesting in the beginning, we had an influx of new and some returning talent across the board, outfield, infield, behind the dish and on the bump. I think the biggest part of the winter, just as much as the X's and O's, is the fact that these guys have to learn each other, how they play, strengths and weaknesses, that sort of thing. Guys are working hard, we've had a lot of guys improve whether it be velo-wise, body-wise, strength, conditioning, speed, game knowledge - whatever it may be. These guys did a really good job of staying home [for winter freeze], staying on their schedules, coming back and being game-ready.”
What are some team goals going into the season?
“Well, I think our main goal is to go get that trophy, you know what I mean? We put in the work. We will have had 5 full practices. Now we just need to go get it done. Our team mantra is ‘All effort. No quit. 100%’, and we intend to go full throttle until we are champions.”
How does the energy from last season in the Machine Pitch division transition into this year?
"I think guys are hungry and I think it helps that we got eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. It's about consistency, energy, and performance across the board, but you can't overlook anybody. This is baseball, there are going to be days where someone throws the game of their life and someone wraps it around the left field foul pole and beats you 2-1, so it's just about consistency and I think guys know that we're capable. Excited to get this going.”