seymour baseball ready for the first pitch

Several years ago there was a movie entitled “It Happens Every Spring”.  It was a movie about baseball.  Well spring is almost here and so is Seymour Baseball.
Scott Norman is excited to start his 11th season as Seymour’s head high school baseball coach.
In the past 10 years under his leadership, the Eagles have won the Regular Season Championship all 10 years; 8 District Championships; 4 Regional Championships and 4 State appearances while making the final 4 twice.
Seymour will be moving up like all the other sports at Seymour into the IMAC Conference at the AAA level.  Seymour was a AA level school.
Coach Norman had this to, “We’re excited about joining the IMAC Conference at the AAA level and compete against teams with more students than we do.  It will be a big challenge.  In the past we tried to compete against AAA teams when we were out of conference to make us stronger.  Now they will all be conference games.  It will be a huge challenge but we’re looking forward to it.”
Seymour is fortunate to have experience this season starting with five seniors who all happen to be pitchers; Brandon Timmerman pitches and plays 3rd base; Keegan Newport pitches and plays 3rd base; Corbin Weaver pitches and plays 1st base; Oakley Fox pitches and play 1st base and Zack Cook pitches and plays in the outfield.  Two seniors have signed scholarship papers with college baseball teams.  Brandon Timmerman signed with Tusculum College and Corbin Weaver signed with Roane State.  Keegan Newport is being recruited by several schools.
Juniors are led by Cody Fox who is hitting .470 and plays short stop.  Other juniors are Corey Clark (catcher – outfield), Chase Turner (pitcher – outfield), Logan Sauyer (pitcher – outfield) and Chris McCarty.  Leading sophomores are center fielder Logan Jenkins who is hitting .400 and leads the team in stolen bases; Tyler Crawford (outfield – catcher); Ben Whistler (2nd base) and Garrett Sexton.
When asked about his goals for the season, Coach Norman responded, “Our goal always will be to win the State Championship.  First and foremost, we want to be competitive in the new conference (IMAC) against schools that have 2,000 plus students.”
The team started practice several days ago.  The weight workout is year round.  During the summer and fall players are on traveling teams.
Coach Norman said, “Our pitching and hitting should be strong, catching strong and we should be very solid up the middle.”
This team should not lack confidence with its past winning record.
Coach Norman’s ability to coach is only half of his success.  He has done an unbelievable job on improvements to the Seymour High School baseball field over the past few years.
The field is named after Don Doyle, an avid supporter of Seymour baseball several years ago.  It has never been a bad field but now it is a state of the art facility and soon may be the best in the state.
Since Coach Norman took over, major league type walk-in dugouts including locker rooms have been added; a new outfield fence called the ‘Black Monster’ which is 14 feet high, with a breath taking view of the mountains in the background; and  a new scoreboard with the old style arched shape with ‘Eagles’ at the top.
The field is in absolutely immaculate condition.  The grass is a high quality Bermuda which is over seeded with rye.  Asked how it looks so good Norman responded, “We work it like little farmers.”
According to Coach Norman the future plans are to replace the bleachers and concession stands making that area much larger making it a mini stadium with indoor batting cages underneath the stands on both sides.  Currently Seymour is the only baseball team in the County that doesn’t have indoor practice facilities. In the past, the Seymour Booster Club has been very instrumental in raising needed money. They will be counted on heavily for these future improvements. There will be a booster club dinner on March 13 th at Seymour Heights Christian Church at 7pm.
Norman describes how fun the games are for fans, “It’s a carnival atmosphere; a happening (when the weather is good).  Charlie Householder (in the fifth inning) sings ‘Take me out to the Ballgame’ and play ‘baseball trivia’.  Fans come not only for baseball but for the social part.” 
The first scrimmage is March 3rd against Maryville High School at Maryville College at 4 p.m.  The first home game (pre-season) will be the TBCAA on Saturday, March 6th; time TBA.