Wearing the Crown: A reflection on Houston County baseball’s championship season

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Matt Hopkins has seen his fair share of ups and downs in his time with the Houston County Bears baseball program. Though he capped off his 15th year with the highest high of all: A championship.

It’s certainly not his first — as a matter of fact, it’s his fourth. But not all championship groups are built the same.

This group had all the makings of a championship team: Great hitters, phenomenal pitchers, and a staunch defense. Though these traits are found in almost all teams who wear the crown, it’s not what made this one truly special.

The difference in this group was their ability to care for each other, according to Hopkins.

“The group just got along really well. They actually care about each other and they hung out together,” Hopkins said. “I mean a large part of our seniors are on a trip together, just them. They’re going out together because they enjoy being around each other. Anytime you get a group that supports each other and cares about the success of the team and their friends you’re just going to have a better season overall.”

While cohesion certainly makes playing together easier, that doesn’t mean this season was without challenges.

One of the biggest challenges for Hopkins and the Bears this season was staying locked in while “cruising” through the regular season with a program record 26 wins.

“Honestly it was [hard to stay engaged]. There were multiple times where we tried to wake the guys up,” Hopkins said. “I think the Marist series was a little bit of a wake-up call. When we got back from Cary I felt like we got into a kind of a ‘cruise control’ mode. When you play a lot of big games we’ve learned that you get what we call a ‘big game hangover.’ You’re just waiting for that next really big-time matchup. Through region leading up to Cary we got really good. Then we came back and we won, but we didn’t really play our best baseball, we weren’t as motivated as we should have been. You could kind of feel that energy pick up as we went through the playoffs.”

This theme is particularly rampant in professional sports, especially the ones with longer seasons.

On player podcasts or interviews you hear time and time again how hard it is for some people to give 100% effort against a team you feel is worse than you — and these are athletes who are paid to do this and only this.

But times like that are exactly when the team needs to lean on their senior leadership to get them through the rough patch.

“You always have to go to your seniors first. If you don’t have good senior leadership you’re typically going to have trouble,” Hopkins said. “On the mound we always looked to Ryker [Chavis]. He had an amazing season on the mound for us and every time he went out he was consistent. He did his job, he made sure that we had a chance to win.”

“At the plate between Dunford and Burress, both of those guys were so consistent,” Hopkins added. “Dunford was super strong through the first half of the year and still really strong on the second half. What happened through our lineup is when we had a couple guys that not hitting that had been somebody else would step up. I think that’s what’s special about a good team. You always have guys that are willing to step up when it’s needed.”

One player in particular that stepped up seemingly out of nowhere was Vick Gann.

After playing his first season on the freshmen team last year he came on to the scene in a big way.

Through 42 games he posted a .394 batting average, a .545 On-base Percentage, and 17 RBIs.

“He was on the freshman team last year…[we] did watch him and see his ability and that he’s got some talent,” Hopkins said. “We’re trying to replace Gage Harrelson who ended up hitting second for Texas Tech for pretty much the entire season and who was on a regional team. To replace that kind of guy is not really possible, but you want to get somebody to step up and do really well. Vick comes into the year and hits almost .400 with I think a .550 On-base Percentage at the nine-hole.”

The program will have to repeat the drill next year to help fill the holes the five graduating seniors are leaving. But they aren’t just leaving nothing behind.

“It really was a special group. We talked all year about leaving a legacy, and this group definitely left a legacy,” Hopkins said. “They’re continuing to climb up the national polls. We were ranked number six in one poll today and we’re going to finish top-10 or top-11 in every national poll. To finish in the top-10 amongst every school in the nation, including private academies and everything else, is pretty special to be recognized.”

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