Area Prep Teams Can Win it Again by Taylor Mitchell

By Taylor Mitchell
Sports Editor
The Leader

Last year, we saw two state trophies brought back to Cleveland in the spring.

Cleveland High won the 4A State title in softball and Bayou Academy won a second-straight title in the MPSA.

It was exciting.

So what could these two teams do for an encore?

Do it again?

Nah, we’ve seen that already. The softball team at Bayou couldn’t lose if they wanted to, so repeats are the norm here.

How about neither win state titles?

Isn’t that kind of the opposite of what we want? Yes, I think so.

So, what could the Lady Wildcats and Colts do for an encore?

Go undefeated in the district (or region, or conference, or whatever you want to call it, you know what I mean).

The Bayou baseball team is undefeated in conference play and so are the Lady Wildcats.

Let’s see if they can go undefeated.

Cleveland is two wins away from doing just that and they should win both games against Hernando on Monday and Oxford Tuesday.

Friday night they beat Hernando 4-0. The previous night, Cleveland dominated Oxford 11-1.

As long as, and I’ve said this a million times, Lauren Kendall doesn’t hurt herself (knock on wood for Coach David Price) Cleveland will be 8-0 after district play.

Bayou still has a ways to go with seven district games to go.

As long as sophomore Stewart Salley keeps me thinking Caleb who? they’ll be okay.

(Don’t get mad, by the time this kid is a senior, he’ll be as good as Caleb Reed.)

When the bats are going for Bayou, they seem unstoppable. When they aren’t, well just see Sharkey-Issaquena (before the 11 runs in one inning) for an example.

But state titles for both teams are the obvious goal.

But are the teams ready?

“Man I don’t know,” Price said after beating Hernando 4-0. “We still got a ways to go. I like the way that we’re coming together at the end and we seem to be peaking at the right time. There are just too many variables involved.”

There are too many variables involved in winning a state championship, too many to list.

One positive thing for Price is that his best player, Kendall is saying the same thing: “I think we’re ready, but I think we should get more prepared.”

Considering other quotes I’ve gotten from high school players, that’s a pretty good one.

How about the Colts? What does coach Rodney Martin say?
“You can’t guarantee that we’ll win it,” Martin said. “I know our kids are ready, we did lose a lot of players from last year, but these kids have prepared themselves and they want it.”

Saying they lost a lot of players from last year’s team is a big understatement.

I’m not going to go out and say Bayou will win it all this year, but I will say this, if they do win, they’ll win four in a row.

How about the Lady Wildcats?

I expect them to win another state title, if no other reason than the chemistry on this team is better than I’ve ever seen.

Now for a quick note on the Lady Statesmen.

As a student of Delta State, I’m sad to see them lose.

But as a sportswriter, I feel obligated to say that Kirsten came up a little short on that guarantee she made last week. I’m not saying she shouldn’t have done it. I’m merely pointing out the obvious.

They just met a team that could shoot the ball.

Wait, that’s it.

Someone at Delta State win a national championship.

That’ll be the perfect spring encore.