By Kendall Sanders
Henderson County Now
I was so excited that I got the chance to sit this week and chat very briefly with my own “little superstars” called the Athens Hornets baseball team and Head Coach Dallas Robertson.
As you all may know already, they are on the road to the regional quarterfinals. Up next is an opponent that happens to be the defending state champions: Pleasant Grove. After coming off an exciting comeback Saturday afternoon in game 3, Athens sent home the Crandall Pirates in a 13-10 area round series win.
The team will be playing at Northeast Texas Community College in Mount Pleasant Friday at 7 p.m. Game 2 is at 1 p.m. on Saturday and Game 3 is 30 minutes after if needed.
I call them my “lil superstars” simply because they are so young, but they are also so talented as they have shown us all by being the District Champions and by showing the amazing determination to keep on fighting no matter the score. They dig deep into one another and trust each other to do whatever they have to do to come out on top.
I have heard rumors that the head coach of the Athens Hornet baseball team is really big on discipline. Whatever they do on the field, he wants them to go full speed. They have a certain amount of time to sprint off and onto the field. In my opinion, this has really helped our young baseball team. With this strong discipline, the coach pushes the team to keep their heads on straight, which has had a big part in their success so far.
This week, I made my very first walk into the baseball fieldhouse known as “The Hive.” Athens, I can tell you why they call it “The Hive.” It is because the fighting Athens Hornet baseball team pretty much made their very own fieldhouse all by themselves. They have done a lot of work in there, including walls and name tags and more. That was so amazing to me. I was extremely shocked to see most materials handmade and I strongly believe that’s why our baseball teams over the past years have always done great things, because they are all bonding together changing up their fieldhouse and just working together constantly. That helps brings chemistry and to have a great team you must have great chemistry.
One thing that just blew me away was the way they keep track of the bats they have broken while going out and battling on the baseball field to literally crush their opponent’s pitches with the vicious Athens swing. They have gathered bats broken by the team and hung them up on the wall with an American flag splitting them at the top. There are At least 4 baseball bats snapped on the field from a good ole vicious Athens swing.
So, Athens, come on out and support our baseball team this Friday in Mount Pleasant. We need as many people as we can to come out and cheer for them because they are on the road and its tough to play on the road without any fans.
If you can not attend I will be keeping you updated with posts on the Henderson County Now Facebook Page during the game.
