COVID-19 deferred the start of Zach Coulter's high school coaching career at South Central, and the chance to coach many of his players in summer play has only whet his appetite even more.
"This off-season, we started a summer program that came together rather quickly amid the coronavirus pandemic," Coulter said. "We were the only team in our conference to adopt a program-wide summer program. It should pay dividends come next season. We lost an entire season, yet were able to develop an off-season program that developed into well-seasoned players by the time of their latest and final summer tournament."
The South County Baseball Club, a group of 15- to 17-year olds from the Union Mills and Wanatah who feed into South Central, swept the 17U On the Turf tournament last weekend in Columbia City. The field included teams from Plainfield, Avon, the Penn-Harris school district and the greater Cincinnati area, among others. The SC squad outscored its opponents 41-13.
"I was thrilled to have the performance from the boys," Coulter said. "Our program has been fortunate enough to have players from incoming freshman to incoming seniors that bought into our ultimate goal of creating a culture of success. We have a very talented 15-plus (player) freshman class that also has valuable upperclassmen experience, which will create the perfect storm of high intensity position battles this fall and next spring for a very dynamic varsity roster."
The tournament roster included Todd Snyder, Carter Burkholder, Jacob Oehmen, Alex Newburn, Brady Glisic, Dylan Hale, Andrew Huizar, Matt Knight, Brandin Young, Andrew Baske, Jaxson Senne, Tommy Sullivan and Brice Glisic. The club had over 30 potential future Satellites participate in the summer program.
"(That) speaks volumes for the already very bought-in baseball community out in our part of southern La Porte County," Coulter said. "The future is bright."
The South County Baseball Club won the On Turf Sports 17U tournament last weekend in Columbia City. The team, comprised of South Central students from Union Mills and Wanatah, went undefeated, outscoring its opponents 41-13. (Photo Provided)