Varsity baseball players Macon Davis, a junior (left), and Alexander Elderts-Walker, a senior (right), pose with varsity baseball head coach Jerry Boatner (center) at the ODYSSEY Media Group’s 2024 Spring Media Day on March 14. The varsity baseball team finished their 2023-24 season with a record of 6-18 and varsity baseball head coach Jerry Boatner hopes to use mandatory summer practices to reshape the team. “A lot of them don’t play travel ball and if you don’t play travel ball, (you) got to practice somewhere else,” Boatner said. “If they don’t practice in the summer, they are going to have a hard time playing. A winner practices when they don’t feel like practicing.” Photo by Aza Khan/strong>
After the varsity baseball team finished their 2023-24 season with a record of 6-18, they are looking to utilize the summer months to improve their record for the 2024-25 season.
There are 19 days until the end of the 2023-24 school year, and while many Clarke Central High School students won’t return to CCHS until the start of the 2024-25 school year, the varsity baseball team will practice for four days each week of their summer break.
The varsity baseball team finished the 2023-24 season with a 6-18 overall record. Although an improvement upon the 2022-23 season record of 3-21, it is not where the team wants to be according to varsity baseball head coach Jerry Boatner. Before coming to CCHS two years ago, Boatner coached at West Lauderdale High School, where he won 14 state championships, and worked at Mississippi State University summer baseball camps, which many of his players attended.
“If you practice a lot with the right attitude you’re going to get better,” Boatner said. “Once we started (to) practice during the summer (with) Mississippi State (University), we started winning state championships. (That’s where) I found out summer makes all the difference in the world. We had an outstanding program in Mississippi and that’s our goal here.”
A photo gallery depicts members from the Clarke Central High School varsity baseball team. Before coming to CCHS two years ago, Boatner coached at West Lauderdale High School, where he won 14 state championships, and worked at Mississippi State University summer baseball camps, which many of his players attended. “Once we started (to) practice during the summer (with) Mississippi State (University), we started winning state championships. (That’s where) I found out summer makes all the difference in the world. We had an outstanding program in Mississippi and that’s our goal here.” Photos from ODYSSEY archives
The CCHS team’s summer practices will be held Monday through Thursday every week from either 10-12:30 a.m. or 4-6:30 p.m. Varsity baseball right fielder Jared Manago, a junior, plans to attend the summer practices as much as possible.
“We’re not the best at too much stuff, so it’ll get us better prepared for the teams that we’re going to play. In the summer you have the long break, and having practices over the break keeps you in the rhythm,” Manago said. “It can show kids that want to play baseball at Central that we’re serious about wanting the win.”
According to Boatner, during the summer of 2023, the team held practices but very few players showed up. Boatner says that, for the team to be successful during the 2024-25 season, summer practices will be mandatory.
“(If) you don’t play ball during the summer (you’re) gonna be behind. That’s part of the problem here; most of these kids don’t play ball in the summer (but) they are now. They’re not gonna have a choice to go. If (they’re) gonna play, (they’re) gonna play during summer,” Boatner said.
