Thursday, March 19, 2009

Inside Indians athletics


I was sitting here thinking the other day after talking on the phone and through emails with several parents of our athletes, I should start updating you throughout the season on happenings within Salkehatchie athletics.

It is spring, well it felt like it during the Wednesday baseball game last week (In which I was sunburned) and then during the weekend games, it was freezing, so who knows.

I will start with baseball, the season is well on it's way and the Indians are looking as good as any team in Region X. We have had our moments of let-downs but overall, it has been a very exciting baseball season. I know that if you have been out to the games, you have noticed a sign that is requesting you the parent, fan or anyone to get involved in the Buy A Brick Program. This program is underway to build a very nice press-box behind home-plate. The press-box will be equipped with internet service, this will allow the sports information department to broadcast many games by audio over the internet. It would be wonderful to have the new press-box because it would give visiting teams the option to broadcast the games back to their respective schools.

I would love to also see the press-box become a reality because in the future, it could give us the chance to broadcast the games through video and we would be able to do "Live Stats" this would be a big boast to the program, it would allow you to the fan to follow games through the internet, even if we didn't broadcast by audio or video on a certain game-day.

So, if you get the chance, donate to this project and let's make the USC Salkehatchie baseball field one of the best facility's in Region X. I must say we already have the best looking playing surface, because of USC Salkehatchie head coach Bubba Dorman and all of his hard work.

Now, let's look at USC Salkehatchie Lady Indians softball program. The Lady Indians have been doing great so far this year. It has been through their hard work that they have been able to remain near the top of Region X.
The Lady Indians have made many additions to their facility this season, the addition of their locker rooms was a huge advantage for the program. USC Salkehatchie Lady Indians head coach Mitch Smith also added an Indian logo behind his dug-out and it is impressive for all to see. They also built a batting cage and several other hitting sites at the field, it has been amazing to watch the transformation over the past year.

Coach Smith is looking to eventually add a press-box at his field and it is in the works. He also hopes by next season to re-do his back stop, add a wind-screen with the Lady Indians logo to the outfield fence and drop down the Lady Indians score-board with the Lady Indians logo.

We look for many more exciting things from the USC Salkehatchie Lady Indians softball program.

The USC Salkehatchie Men's and Women's soccer programs are underway with their spring practices. USC Salkehatchie head coach Bill Glass has been working his players hard in preparation for next season but while working hard, he has also been working hard on the recruiting trail. Thus far this season, he has signed several players and has several others ready to sign as soon as the period re-opens. You can view one of his recruits on the blog and the website, she just committed to play for the Lady Indians.

The USC Salkehatchie soccer programs have been hard at work on their field, just this past week they installed an irrigation system to help with the growth of the new sod that will be laid later this year on the field. I just heard that they will be installing a fence to keep individuals from driving on the newly sodden field.

On to the USC Salkehatchie basketball program, as you know by now they won a share of the Region X regular season title this year. It was a very exciting season and the sophomores that will be moving on to compete at four-year institutions will be dearly missed. The Indians basketball teams head coach Travis Garrett was excited about winning the regular season title but said that unless next season he can win the Region X tournament, the job won't be finished. Coach Garrett has been out on the recruiting trail going to state title games and watching players in preparation for next season.

He hopes to make some upgrades to his gym next season, he wants to change the pads at each end of the gym that protects the players from running into the walls, with the Indians logo. He is looking at what it would take to add chairs with the Indians logo on them. The bleachers are also being discussed as a possible new addition but he is unsure if this will be completed by next season.

I wrote all this to let every recruit, parent, fan and anyone else know that USC Salkehatchie is here to stay, we will be here next year and years beyond. The athletic program is growing by leaps and bounds! We couldn't be more excited and everything that I mentioned above is because of you, it is your generous donations that keep our athletic programs growing and all the additions become a reality.

We have a great group of coaches, they understand what it takes to win Region X titles and they are working extra hard to achieve these goals. They understand we are in hard economic times and they are working hard to save money at every turn.

We will survive, we will thrive, we are USC Salkehatchie athletics.

Until next time, GO INDIANS!!!!