AS the fall ball season comes to an end, Kearns baseball players and head baseball coach Bryan Good are training hard for the upcoming spring season.
COUGARS Baseball has a long legacy of working together to grow with each other that Coach Good hopes to continue. In the 23/24 season, the team won 5/14 games and last year was much the same. In regards to the upcoming season, Good reports that he is “pretty confident. I think we will be improved, with all the conditioning the players are doing,” coach Good stated
IN a recent interview, coach Good expanded on why he feels optimistic about the coming season, “Pre-season preparations are well underway, and based on the student athletes performances so far,” he says that he is fairly confident that “they can make it to state if they continue to keep performing like that during conditioning and practice games,” he said. The athletes as a part of their conditioning must complete at least four workouts a week and continue to build their strength and speed in order to become a good player.
LAST season went about how coach Good would have expected even though they only won three games. The wins and losses aren’t coach Good’s main focus though, he is looking for improvement in the players and hoping they have fun playing the sport they love.
TRAINING for the athletes isn’t a whole lot, “all we do is weight training and conditioning,” he said. Players also need to complete four workouts. Fall ball has just ended and the Cougars are getting ready for Spring ball, “We’ve played over 30 games this fall, that’s also the most we’ve played in a while. Just trying to be in competition situations and get that kinda true in game situations,”
“NOW that it’s off season and the fall-ball has ended the athletes do more physical development along with speed work as well as baseball specific stuff,” he said. This all falls into their workouts and running laps to get those physical gains when they are off field but still ready to be put on the field.
LOOKING into last season’s statistics, Kearns baseball team had some struggles and only won 3 out of their 20 games earning themselves 6th in the region, but like every great coach, coach Good doesn’t look at the win percentage or the statistics he looks for how much his players are improving and getting better at the sport they all love to play.
IN order for the players to be able to participate in their favorite sport they must meet a certain criteria. Good has little to no tolerance to poor performance in academic failures. “There is no working around academic eligibility and if they academically perform then they can be a part of the team,” he said. Players must hold a 2.0 GPA average and cannot have more than one F.
BASEBALL isn’t one of those sports that the school can provide equipment for. The players are required to get their own equipment. A big part of that is because baseball gear is mostly personal fitting and comfort. It is harder to get every student their own specific pair of equipment. Coach Good is more than happy to help students get gear so they are able to play.
THIS Spring ball is bringing lots of excitement from the coach and the athletes, this team is working hard to get their share of the wins. With all the talent from the athletes and the guidance from the coaches these athletes are going to go far this season, there is no limit for the Cougar baseball team. Looking forward, Good says, “we have the best field in the state so let’s make a team that matches it.”
