BASEBALL TAB: Goldsboro outlook

By Justin Hayes
Published in Sports on March 11, 2016 1:48 PM

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jhayes@newsargus.com

Some say it's the diamond.

Tucked between a run of disco era chain-link fence and the dueling exhaust bays of Wayne Academy, it's across the street from the schoolhouse proper -- in a place no one wants it.

Others lament a lack of accessible parking.

Further still, the press box is a mother gust away from becoming a package of grill skewers.

Lastly, there's no way you can take infield on a stretch of pan-fried, general grade fill dirt. It's just impossible.

Yes, Goldsboro varsity coach Danny Merritt has heard your broad-based editorials about baseball on the corner of Lionel and Holly Street.

But apologies if he doesn't get right back to you. He's too busy building the habits of a winning program.

And as he discusses this year's roster -- gathered today for its team photo in a vacuum of harsh wind and growing shadows -- one notion rings clear.

Optimism.

Six freshmen, scattered at positions all over the field, will join 12 returning lettermen to compose the 2015-2016 varsity roster. It makes for a crowded van, but is also proof positive that baseball is speaking to every corner of Cougar Nation.

"The future is bright," Merritt said. "We're working hard to try and turn the corner... it's excellence without excuse."

And peeking around that corner is a committee-based approach that has legitimate flexibility at nearly every position in the Cougar dugout. In order to be effective, however, that flexibility will have to master the art of simplicity - and humility.

By Merritt's estimation, winning programs are built on the shoulders of cooperative spirit, and the accumulation of individual effort - not the splashy statistics of me-first soliloquists.

"Don't ring your own bell," he says to his group, "It doesn't pull the train."

Good advice, no matter the endeavor.

Merritt is also a staunch advocate of core concepts - a stone tablet checklist of hitting, pitching and fielding fundamentals he insists the Cougars adhere to this spring.

Throw ground balls.

Manage your count.

Grind down.

All of those punch-list items will be in play for a ball club that will feature a revolving door of new faces behind staff lynchpins Thomas Vick and Chandler Patrick - a prospect that both excites and worries Merritt.

"Yesterday, I talked to them about our biggest challenges," he said. "(That's) being youthful and inexperienced. And to overcome that, we've got to have work ethic."

That component, as any baseball man worth his good salt will explain, involves heavily reconciliation of detail. There is preparation, both mental and physical. There is coaching -- from the development of practice agendas to the handling of in-game adjustments - that takes nuance and acceptance from the roster.

Then there is camaraderie, perhaps the most vital -- and very much present -- cog in the wheel of Merritt's new machine. Winning teams seemingly have it in abundance. And for what it's worth, Merritt's gang meets the eye test.

Whether from the hill or the plate, via the bats of their upperclassmen or the web gems produced by a crop of freshmen, they've committed to making their opponents uncomfortable this season. The Cougars, regardless of what you've heard, aren't simply waiting across the street for their next dose of varsity blues.

They're here to play ball. Game on.