A freshman and an interim head coach.
That combination was an unlikely scenario before the season to capture the Dothan Eagle high school player and coach of the year awards for 2023.
“You don’t expect that kind of a season from a ninth grader, but he had great year for us all year,” Houston Academy head coach Tony Kirkland said. “He seemed to be at the top all year, leading our team in hitting and when it got toward the end of the year when it really counted, he got hotter. Shelley said his approach was more focused on just getting hits and helping the Raiders in a bid for a state title.
“To start off the season, I started off pretty hot, but I got into a little slump, but I kept on hitting and hitting and taking extra BP on the side and worked my way back into it,” Shelley said. “I was standing in that coach’s box always glad when he was coming to the plate,” Kirkland said, noting he had a good feeling Shelley would deliver a big hit.
Bob Pickett, though, made sure the Ariton Purple Cats kept purring after the departure of Logan Dunlap. “The day we went to Opelika and played Marbury and Opelika, we played clean, we hit the baseball and pitched well,” Pickett said. “I knew then this team had a chance.” “I told them that if we work hard for the next four weeks then we had an opportunity ,” Pickett said. “All the credit to the players and coaches as they 100 percent bought in and worked their tails off to make it happen.”
“They wanted it,” Pickett said of the players. “They didn’t let things bother them. We got beat in the Pike series and that series – we didn’t just get beat, we got 10-run ruled – but they were 100 percent bought in knowing that we were playing for a series and not just a game.
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