 Starting in 2000, Logan Stout launched a sole Dallas Patriots team – today, the organization fields more than 60 teams in ages 7-18 and runs lessons and training in three separate facilities in the Metroplex. Brandon Sherard started coaching with the Patriots in 2005 and is focused more these days with 14u-18u baseball.
One of the impressive aspects in the Patriots’ universe of teams is how top-notch talents and those kids still fighting with their fundamentals can find a place to settle in; the Patriots placed eighth in last year’s inaugural US Club Nationals. Quotes from Dallas Patriots Media Day Session: Justin Unger, 14 coach: Any coach in this age group would say, you want to challenge them every day. The best you can do is put them against the best and see what they do when it’s time to compete. We try to play the game the right way, and we have fun and grind out there. We play one of the toughest sports, and we challenge the little ones as well. We pride ourselves in that this (14u team) carries itself the right way, showing true character when things aren’t going right … to show the 9u and 10u kids how the process looks. The challenge I like is, you go out there and play your game against the best of the best and see what you can do. I don’t like to follow the hype and say we have to do something special; you play yourself every day, and take advantage of every rep you get. Carson Shepherd, 14u: I like playing the best people, and when you do that you get better. It gets you pumped. (By playing with the younger DP teams), it’s fun to see where we were back then and how much we improved, and how we can help them. If we are out working by ourselves, we can go over and help them. I expect to win games, and to go further in the tournament than maybe people think we can. Parker Sheets, 10u and 12u coach: The one thing we’ve stressed all year is energy – as long as we have energy, we’re all right. It’s all about recovering from mistakes. To have an invite to come out here is huge for us, and to know our team can compete at this level is a huge honor. We’ve prepped ourselves the right way, but we know we will have play have our ‘A’ game. Luke Tanner, 10u: Moving up to 9u is more competitive, and that makes it more fun. We play a lot of teams around Texas, and we’re excited to play some new competition. We’ve come together really good; we’ve played and won a lot of games, and if we lose, we know we can come back to practice and get better. We’ve been working on fielding and making the plays we haven’t done well. Darby Carmichael, 13u coach: We were here last year and excited we have the opportunity to come back. We like the format, and we talked about filling each age bracket with a solid team. This will be our first 60-90 tournament all year; it won’t dampen our excitement for being here. We had a rough first day last year; you have to play well early to get where you want to be late. We may see a very tough pitcher early … we’ll make sure we are ready to go (Wednesday). Tags: Baseball News, Triple Crown Baseball, US Club Nationals |
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