By Kary Booher/For OzarksSportsZone.com
Over the past decade at Lebanon High School, the Yellowjackets have produced current offensive lineman Justin Britt of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks, while the baseball program just three years ago secured college scholarships for seven players.
In other words, there is incentive for students to join a sport. After all, who knows where the road may lead? And, at the least, you have to figure their teams likely will be competitive, building up motivation.
“You can see a little bit of that,” Lebanon baseball coach Dennis Young said. “A lot of the guys who played at the next level had that motivation in them. It does put a lot of dreams in kids’ minds. But at the end of the day, to make it happen, it has to come from inside.”
Consider that a challenge to Lebanon’s baseball team in 2017, as the Yellowjackets turn over the roster a year after graduating 11 seniors from an 18-9 finish, including 5-4 in the Ozark Conference.
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This year’s group features seniors Christian Watson, Dylan Rodden, Levi Pettyjohn and Dakota Shockley. Key juniors are Cole McBride, Keaton Winfrey and Wyatt Milliken.
Watson was 3-0 with 1.38 earned run average last season, while McBride hit .355 with 22 hits, including three doubles, and is the team’s only returning full-time starter.
“Christian, he’s going to be expected to be our ace,” Young said. “He doesn’t get fazed. He threw a lot of stressful innings last year and handled it well.”
McBride took a big step last season, too, when he turned a pinch-hitting role into a full-time job.
“He took it and ran. He ended up being our starting center fielder,” Young said. “He also played with the Midwest Nationals, and he’s getting stronger, and I think that’s going to show in his numbers this year.”
Others could make an impact, too.
Winfrey is an interesting athlete who can play middle infield and pitch, plus bat leadoff. Milliken is a 6-foot-2, 240-pounder described as “country strong.” His exit speed on swings last summer was 93 mph – with a wood bat.
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“That’s the highest I’ve ever had here,” said Young, who is 90-71 overall as a coach, including 62-39 in four years at Lebanon.
Shockley gives the team a reliable backstop.
“He’s got a great body and a good strong arm,” Young said. “And he’s going to hit anywhere from our 3-hole to our 7-hole.”
Other notables include senior Dillon Leek and juniors Jarod Braddy, Bart Sandoval and Austin Hurney.
For Young, the summer season last year and offseason workouts have meant emphasizing all the fundamentals – from taking quality at-bats to throwing better strikes.
It’s a way to ease in a group with little varsity experience.
“Very minor things,” was the way Young described the strategy. “We believe if we take care of fundamentals, then everything is going to take care of itself. When you give them something to focus on individually and as a team, it makes it easier.”
Lebanon is back in Class 5, District 10, which has seen four different champions in each of the past four seasons. The Yellowjackets won it 2013. Last year, they were eliminated in a district semifinal.
“We’re going to focus on getting outs and improving on doing things better than the day before,” Young said. “Our goals are the same as everybody else.”
