First year head coach Jordan Smith had the East Webster Wolverines starting to get on a roll last year before the pandemic hit.
EWHS had started the year 1-3 before getting five-straight wins going around spring break and then the season was gone in an instant asthe novel coronavirus took the country by storm. It was not the ending to the season that Smith felt his players deserved as his talented seniors didn’t geta chance to prove themselves on the field and a lot of potential memories went by the wayside.
What it did, however, was allow Smith some proper perspective that he’s taking with him the rest of the way in his coaching career.
“I wish we had that group this year,” Smith said. “I learned a lot from last year though about not taking each day for granted and focusing on improving. I enjoyed the relationships with those guys that we built on a day to day basis and learned not to take that for granted. I want to be in the moment and maximize every day the best we can. I was reminded of that again this whole week not seeing the guys.”
Smith lost some talented players from last season as Jase Grantham, Cameron Pilgrim, Gray McCarter and Wes Silver all moved on and graduated. Several of those players got an opportunity to play ball on the college level and their presence will be missed.
It’s now next men up, though, for the Wolverines which is always the mentality in Cumberland. The team added Eupora transfer outfielder Landon Davis to go along with other seniors like Ethan Roberts and Gavin Edwards. While those seniors will carry the leadership role, Smith is also very excited about his junior class.
“I’m excited about our bunch. I think we’re going to have a talented group. I like what we have. We have a lot of depth at pitcher, our defense is going to be solid and we’ve got a lot of guys that can swing it,” Smith said. “My core group is juniors and that’s the bunch I’ve had since they started in junior high. We’ve got a long ways to go but with quality opponents we’ll find out real quick what we need to work on and what we do well.”
There’s five players that haven’t yet made it to the baseball field as they’re finishing up basketball season in the playoffs starting this week. Until then, Smith will go into the first set of games with what he’s got.
It was expected to start on Tuesday with a stiff test against New Hope on the road. The team is also planning to play at Amory on Thursday and at Choctaw County against the Chargers and Nanih Waiya on Saturday. Those games later in the week are, of course, contingent on good weather as fields around the area have taken on a lot of water due to the ice and snow from last week and more rain on the way.
