2004 Season?

Since all of this rain has us BB fans poundering on other subjects i would like some feedback on how you guys see next years High School teams stacking up? How will graduation effect the big power house teams of this year? Is there ample talent to fill the shoes of the seniors for next year? Very interested in NW Cabarrus, and Mooresville. Im not sure about the ages of a lot of these guys. Keep Rockin!

 

2004 season...

As far as the NPC is concerned, Northwest Cabarrus will be hit heavily with graduation. They have started as many as 7 seniors often this spring. Losing Dalton and Goodman will be huge. The bright side for them is a good crop of freshmen, so they will be young but talented next spring. West Rowan loses some good seniors also (mainly Link), but they have possibly the best junior class in North Carolina, so look for them to be superstrong next year. Mooresville (not sure about Haire and Lackey), but they have a good group of sophs, so they will be good, it will just depend on their pitching which brings me back to Haire and Lackey's status. Kannapolis has mainly played only 3 seniors all season, so look for the Kann sophs to be more experienced and to be even stronger next season. Kannapolis also returns 3 main pitchers (Mead, Bartles, Sherrill). East Rowan finally loses Steedley, but returns most everything else.

The NPC will be strong again next year with basically these same top 5 teams,,,, but I look for West Rowan, Kannapolis and possibly East Rowan to be some of the strongest teams in the area, especially in the 3A ranks in 2004...

 

Good question:

Omitting the NPC, which I thought was covered pretty well by Wuffie, the teams that stand out to me as being primarily "underclassmen" driven are:

Hickory, SWF3A ... They are going to continue to get better. They are young and have some great Sophomore talent playing varsity. Watch in particular: Wil Boyd and Isaac Harrow.

Alexander Central, NW4A .... They are loosing 1 great pitcher but have so much in the pipe-line. They have 4 junior pitchers who will be seniors and very experienced next year. Watch in particular: Payne and Kinniard (though I am a big Scott Hall fan)

South Meck, SW4A .... They have a solid core of seniors but have SO MANY quality Juniors and Sophs. Their primary pitcher, TJ Worrell is currently 7-1 and only a sophomore. Kyle Shelton and Eliott Arrington will drive the team but watch soph Zac Kennedy to step up and be the team leader.

Ashbrook, Big South 3A ... Virtually all Sophs and Juniors this season. In Drew Martin, soph and Wes McCall, junior they have possibly the best hitting duo in the area.

North Meck, Meca 8 ... All of their speed and pitching is returning. They have a trio of sophs throwing in the 80's and Michael Cavasinni is devastating on the base paths.

TC Roberson, MAC ... Their great hitting and most of their pitching is still young. Any team with soph Cameron Maybin will be dangerous. He missed the first two weeks of the season while still playing basketball and is still in double digits for homers.

Olympic, SW4A .... This is a program right on the verge of turning the corner from a .500 club to a contender ... their top pitcher, Thomas Hovis, is a sophomore.

East Rutherford, Shelby, 2A .... Flack and company return for a final campaign and these boys are always tough as nails.

Those are the teams in the area that I can just "grab" off the top of my head.

The teams that are going to be hit pretty hard:
Hopewell, Meca 8 Starts mainly seniors, with just 3 juniors getting significant playing time. They will have some decent pitching, but will be replacing most of the team.

Central Cabarrus, Meca 8 Most of their hitting is graduating, but they will be able to pitch decently.

Myers Park, SW4A Though they have stuff in the pipe-line, it's going to be very, very difficult to replace Woodard/Wilson on the hill.

Tuscola, MAC The leaders of that team are all seniors. They have stuff in the pipe-line, but may move behind TC Roberson next season. Reinhold, Murphy and McConnell will be missed greatly.

St. Stephens, SWF3A Has been playing behind one of the best 3A pitchers in the state in Shane Matthews. He's going to be missed greatly.

 

Here's another team ....

East Gaston
Has one of the best players in the entire region in Junior Jay McConnell. The are loosing 3 players this season to graduation that I can think of. Trey Summerlin, Jason Cline and Chris Morton. Most of the team is Juniors so they should be stacked next season. I don't know how much pitching they have returning. So far, they are in the #2 spot in the Big South 3A so they are a solid ball team.

 

In the Raleigh Durham area (4A Schools) there will be 2-3 very good teams in 04.

ORANGE HS- PAC 6- Will be very strong with SS Josh Horton returning.

WAKE FOREST- Rolesville- Cap 6- They lose 4-5 Seniors but with the pitching they have they will be tough. The 2 05 grads Dowdy(RHP) and Taylor(LHP) will get the ball every week. Both are already 85-86mph this yr. There won't be alot of runs scored on those guys.

MILLBROOK-RALEIGH- CAP 6- They only start 1 Senior and the young pitchers Sam Brown and BJ DALE are for real!! Are tied for 2nd in Cap 6 now. UNBELIEVABLE pitching match ups for the next 2 yrs with Millbrook and Wake Forest.

 

Greenville Rose starts a majority of juniors. Most of their pitching will return. They lose 3 D1 signees (UNC, ECU, and Campbell) but have exceptional depth.

It's very early yet, but they have to be one of the favorites to win the 4A state championship in 2004. By the way, next year's seniors will be the same class of kids who represented the South at Williamsport at the LL World Series (finished 2nd in USA).

 

Greenville Rose is always a threat to win the 4A championship. Just blessed with alot of talent down that way!! There will some really good teams in the Eastern bracket next yr. good luck