Greene County baseball coach Brad Evans saw the program make great strides in his first year at the helm.
Evans, who took over as the Tigers’ manager last summer, had a clear vision for the program: to strive for improvement. And while he may not have reached his ultimate goal, the progress made in his first season as head coach is promising. Most importantly, Evans saw his players take the initiative and put in more work.
“‘Growth’ is a great way to describe our season,” Evans said. “I think we grew in areas both on and off the field.”
Evans saw that growth in several areas, even including basics such as being on time for practices and games. He also witnessed his players take their schoolwork more seriously while trying to maintain good grades so they could be eligible to play.
“We did the things we needed to do in the classroom this year,” he said. “We implemented things that we didn’t necessarily do in the past, such as regular study halls and other activities to help improve our academics. Overall, I believe doing those things positively impacted our players, and they learned a lot this year.”
Evans saw his players improve on the field as well. While Greene County went 4-14 overall in Evans’ first season, he doesn’t feel like the record tells the entire story. He said he witnessed a lot of change from February to April.
“Our record wasn’t excellent, but it’s the best record we’ve had in a while. And that’s something else we can improve on,” Evans said.“We should only get better with us getting a new field next season, and we’ll finally get to play home games. There’s a lot to build on going into what should be an exciting season next year.”
This year’s squad also played the entire season with a full roster, which was huge for Evans and the program. Also, though he’s lost a few seniors to graduation, Evans remains excited for the future.
“We started with much more than we ended with for various reasons. We had around 15 players, and in the past, we were barely scraping by with 10 or 11,” Evans said. “I think it will only get bigger with our new facility. That should bring in new eyes and excitement to the program. That’ll be something the kids can look forward to and that we can be proud of. I hope it will be the spark we need to get kids to come out and play.”
Greene County’s first-year head coach credits his seniors for helping to lead the way this year, too.
“I’m really proud of them for sticking it out, especially the ones that have been here since freshman year,” Evans said. “Out of the six we had this season, only one of them didn’t play with us as a freshman. So, we are starting to get some kids who are with us from start to finish because of last year’s team, which got our first win in almost 10 years.
“And this class was part of the team with the best record in nearly a decade. It shows that if we get out there and start it, we can really build on our achievements. All we want is growth right now.”