The 2011 Powerade State Games are set to begin today and this year the area has landed four baseball players on the Region 1 squad as Riverside’s Will Gurganus and Matt Wisniewski will be joined by Plymouth’s Chris Rogerson and Northside’s Brandon Marsh.
The eight-team tournament, which consists of some of the best rising junior and seniors in the state, is slated to begin today and the games will be played at Wake Forest University, BB&T Ballpark and Forsyth Country Day School.
For Gurganus, a rising senior, it will be his second time playing in the games as he made the team last year as a shortstop before being selected this year as an outfielder. Wisniewski, a rising junior catcher, Rogerson, a rising senior second baseman and Marsh, a rising senior pitcher, will all be making their first appearance in the state games.
Joining them will be Riverside baseball coach Hank Tice who will serve as an assistant coach on the Region 1 staff, a position he has held for the last seven years, and said he was happy that the Knights could land two players on the team.
“I’m excited for the kids, it’s a compliment to them and their ability,” Tice said. “I’m happy for them, it will be a good chance for them to play in front of a lot of (college) coaches.”
Plymouth coach Terry Perry was proud his slick-fielding second baseman could join some of the state’s elite players.
“Anytime you get a kid on the team it says something about your program. It’s good for him, it’s good for the team and the community,” Perry said. “Defensively, he’s just as good as anyone around. He can get back and catch flies in the hole … He’s a good kid and a good teammate. I told him just to go there and hustle and do the best he can and not to leave with any regrets.”
Northside coach Keith Boyd said that playing in the games is a good reward for his hardworking pitcher.
“I’m tremendously excited for him, it’s a great opportunity,” Boyd said. “He puts his heart and soul into it and is always working on his game and doing the extra things to make himself better. We can’t be more excited and more proud of him; it’s good to see him represent Northside baseball.”
The State Games, which begins today with team workouts before the actually competition starts on Thursday, provides the players with the opportunity to get looked at by several scouts.
“It’s an eye-opener for all our kids. It kind of hits you when we run the 60 (-yard dash) and there are coaches from the starting point to the end point, shoulder-to-shoulder on both sides and there’s 120-something stopwatches going off at the same time. … It can be overwhelming but it is what it is, if you want to play at the next level this kind of shows if you’re ready or not … but all our kids from the area have done well in the past and I don’t expect this year to be any different.”
Knowing that some players can be spellbound by the atmosphere, Tice always reminds them to go out and give 100 percent on the field and to behave like a professional.
“I just tell them, ‘It’s still 60-feet-6-inches from the mound to home plate and it’s still 90-feet between the bases. Don’t get caught up looking around the stadium because it can get you. Everybody we play is still in high school and they still put their pants on one leg at a time like you do. Don’t get caught by the size of the stadiums and the number of college coaches there, and the most important thing is that you have to hustle. Even if you hit a ground ball or a fly ball (for an out) but get good times to the bases it still shows well,’” Tice said. “There’s more to just going out there and hitting, throwing and catching. Those college coaches evaluate mannerisms; they evaluate how you handle a strikeout and how you handle an error because all that’s part of the game. That’s why I stress to every kid to go out there and play hard and get dirty, you have to hustle and you have to do the little things because those little things become big things at the end.”