“Most of my players have a new car or truck and a prettygirlfriend. How can I compete with that?”

A veteran high school coach, lamenting the decline of talent andskill on a Lincoln County baseball team, shared his feelings.Nowadays, coaches in general face more challenges as they competefor the attention of their players. Distractions are too numerousto mention.

Baseball is a skill game. Summer baseball competition forvarsity players is important. Pitching, hitting, throwing andrunning skills can be improved.

High school players have more and more distractions and thatmeans a growing number of excuses as to why they can’t play summerleague baseball. That’s when Coach Nice Guy must become Coach BadGuy.

Baseball coaches must be tough and demanding, complete with acrusty shell. There’s a heart of gold in there somewhere but youmight need a hammer and chisel to penetrate the armor.

Talking recently with a high school baseball coach at a LincolnCounty school, I inquired about the number of players he had onsummer league teams. The answer, one or two, was staggering.

No wonder it’s so difficult to be competitive when the highschool season rolls around in late February. Some players haven’ttouched a bat or glove since the season ended in April. That’snearly nine months between the end and start of preseasonpractice.

Some baseball players will play recreation softball during thesummer and consider it a substitute for baseball. However, themelon toss, a.k.a. slowpitch softball, doesn’t improve baseballskills a lick.

Brookhaven head baseball coach Randy Springdirected his Panthers to the Division 6-4A championship this pastseason. He is a firm believer in the summer baseball program.

Brookhaven plays 20-25 summer games. The Panthers will playthrough the end of June. Spring has 19 returning baseball playersand 13 of them also play football.

“It gives them a lot of game experience and helps them stay inshape,” said Spring. “I compare it to spring football practice.That’s my philosophy.

“I believe it’s very important because it allows us to look atour returning players and give us an idea how they can play atdifferent positions. We lose five outstanding seniors so we arelooking for replacements.

“We look at it as a player development program,” Spring added.”The winning aspect isn’t as important as getting experience forour younger guys.”

Spring’s Panthers pick up Wingfield and Jim Hill for the 2004Division 6-4A diamond season. The two Jackson schools replace PortGibson and Raymond.

Under a new format instituted by the Mississippi High SchoolActivities Association, Four teams are going to the state baseballplayoffs in 2004 instead of the the top two teams out of eachdivision.

For example, Brookhaven catches Division 7 next season. TheDivision 6 winner (hopefully Brookhaven) will host a divisiontournament, including the No. 2 and 3 teams from Division 7, plusthe No. 4 team out of Division 6. Naturally, No. 1 will play No. 3and No. 4 will play No. 2

Meanwhile, the Division 7-4A champion also will host atournament which includes No. 1 and No. 4 out of Division 7 and No.2 and No. 3 out of Division 6.

Certainly, winning the division tournament helps the host teamboost concession sales. It will be a 4-team, double-eliminationtournament, on a Friday, Saturday and Monday playing schedule. Thewinner advances to the second round of the state playoffs,reverting to a best-of-three series.

Brookhaven Academy pitcher Lindsey Holmes andoutfielder Angie Davis made strong showings in theMPSA All-Star Girls Slowpitch Softball Games last Saturday atMississippi College as the South won 17-3 and 21-7. BrookhavenAcademy coach Neal King helped coach the South.Billy Jones of Amite School Center was head coach.and Rick Speights of Adams County Christian Schoolalso assisted.

“Both of our girls did extremely well,” said King. “Coach Joneswas extremely impressed with the pitching of Lindsey Holmes. Shepitched the whole first game and the last two innings of the secondgame.”

Davis played left field in the first game and all but twoinnings of the second game. She had a homer out of the park, onMC’s fastpitch diamond.

The South MVP was Mindy Seay of Amite SchoolCenter. Seay hit 4 homers over the fence, one of them a grand slam.Seay plans to attend Gulf Coast Community College and enter thenursing program.

The all-star banquet was Friday night at MC. All of the playersreceived all-star watches, a certificate and a T-shirt.

“It was pretty organized,” said King. “The situation was a realgood experience for the coaches and the players.”

In the MPSA’s Class A-AA All-Star baseball game at MC, Co-Linsignee and southpaw pitcher Boycee Varnes ofSimpson County was named South MVP.

Co-Lin offensive line coach Lauren Collinsescaped serious injury last weekend when he lost control of his carnear Carson. Collins was on his way to Hattiesburg to visitrelatives. Hospital blood tests revealed that Collins is in theearly stages of diabetes. This column wishes him a speedyrecovery.