Therrell, Midtown and Maynard Jackson ready for 2024 campaigns
The 2023-2024 Georgia High School Association baseball season is here as teams all throughout the state will see their first action on the mound next week. On Thursday, the Atlanta Public Schools Athletics hosted their annual media day program at Therrell High School, as teams, including middle school programs, were on hand to celebrate the start of the season and give recognition to the growth of baseball within the APS system.
And with the excitement of the spring season set to begin on Monday for host, the Therrell Panthers, head coach Ryan Christian, said that the “commitment” his players displayed as they prepared for the season has been something that has him looking forward to seeing his players in action. “The hard work that these boys have put in, not only in the weight room, but in the classroom and just how they have jelled and meshed together so quickly, especially with a lot of young guys on the team this year,” Christian said of the Panthers.
And while the 2022-2023 season, in which the Panthers finished at 10-10 overall and 8-8in region play, did not come to the end Christian and his players hoped for, the Panthers’ head coach noted that there were some positives that his team could build off of for this season, including an emphasis on “coming up in the clutch,” he said, adding that while they wrapped up the season in fifth and just missing out on the state championship tournament, “we know what we have to do to make it in the playoffs this year, so that’s our points of emphasis, finishing the drill and letting that work show,” Christian said.
Similar to Therrell last season was the Midtown Knights, who also finished the 2022-2023 campaign in fifth in region play with a record of 10-12-1 overall and 9-7 in region play and the off-season workouts have head coach, Jordan Tarver “excited to get back to the game we all love,” he said on Thursday. Tarver noted that while the Knights will be bring in several younger players, “they’re ready to play,” Tarver said in addition to the efforts of his coaching staff to get the team ready for the season. “With the short time we had in the fall, as far as the limitations on the things that we can and cannot do,” Tarver says that his players and coaches still worked through all challenges to prepare themselves for the season and “we look really good,”.
And for the Maynard Jackson Jaguars, who had their first 20 plus game winning season in program history and advanced to the first round of the state championship tournament, Coach Des Stegall knows that there is a level of expectation for his program now. “There’s been a lot of buzz around our program and rightfully so. These guys deserve it,” Stegall said on Thursday of the Jaguars players, who are the winningest group of players in program history. “The expectation is set very high so I’m looking forward to seeing how we respond,” Stegall said.
The Jaguars will begin their season on Wednesday when they take on the Redan Raiders while Therrell will open up on February 13 and Midtown will hit the field on Monday against Druid Hills.
