Leaves fall, hot weather withers away, and Jesuit opens its doors for the fall semester. It’s an important time for potential and returning baseball players who think of Fall Ball as an opportunity to brush up or work on fundamentals necessary for the upcoming Spring Baseball season. Coming off a fourth consecutive district title, Jesuit Varsity Baseball Team hopes to continue the streak going into the Spring season. Similarly, the JV and Freshman teams hope to start a streak of their own this season.
Fall Baseball is essentially a “pre-season” in preparation for the spring. Players work on some skills while coming together as a group. Members of the coaching staff such as Head Coach Brian Jones describe what Fall Baseball means to them personally. Brian says,”It’s an opportunity for us to kind of see new people as far as coming together after last year’s graduating class has moved on. And seeing maybe the new leaders [who] we’re going to have going into the year so, you know, that’s the big opportunity, I think, for guys going into Fall Ball. It’s kind of seeing ‘Who’s the new leader’ or who’s going to step up and fill some shoes or fill some roles for some people [who] have graduated. As far as excitement, there’s not a whole lot of excitement that goes into it. It’s just kind of people getting in their work and again just trying to come together as a team and bond early on.”
He also elaborated on the selection process, procedures, and what the game schedule is like for Fall Baseball. “[Fall Baseball] gives us an idea of what people can do. It’s a longer evaluation.” He also went on to say that there are cuts in Fall Baseball, and it’s not a “one hundred percent” guarantee that player plays in spring. Fall Ball will end in October. The first scrimmage date is Tuesday, February the 4th.
Jones is entering his Fifth year as coach and is riding a streak of four consecutive District Titles, all four being 20+ win seasons. Looking forward, Jones expects the same success out of all of his players this season saying, “Our biggest expectations for all our teams is to go out and play fundamental baseball; play defense, have good pitching, and we feel if we do those things right there, the offense will take care of itself.”
Coach Jones elaborated on the Varsity squad saying “we’ve got a lot of guys… [who] can do a lot of different things… [The team has] a handful of guys that can play all throughout the infield, we got a handful of guys [who] can play all the positions in the outfield, we’ve got a couple guys that can kind of do both, a position guy and a pitcher. So that helps us be a little bit more flexible on the things we can do if need be.”
As always, back to school time ushers in a new class of freshmen playing baseball. And with new routines, there are always problems and concerns about adapting. Jones said, “The number one concern for the freshman I guess is to manage schoolwork, their extracurricular activities, which is good for us [in fall] because the guys can start to get an idea on the standards of how much time they’re going to have to put in… [in academics]. Now for Fall Ball, as opposed to in the spring, if you fail a class in fall, you can still participate in Fall Baseball. Now obviously, that changes when spring rolls around; if you’re failing, you can’t participate.”
Optimistic Senior and member of the Varsity Blue Baseball team Chris Muller says he’s looking forward to “winning District five times in a row.” Chris is a member of one of the two Jesuit Varsity baseball teams. He also believes that Fall Baseball is a good chance to work on fundamentals. Chris went on to say that it’s a great honor to be on a team this fall and the two people who encourage him to become a better player are Coach Corey Pointer and his teammates.
Whatever drives the team and coaching staff to success, it’s clear that their motivation will be rooted in the same place: the shared goal of winning a Fifth district title for the Fifth year in a row.
Good luck to the team this season and Go Rangers!
