In his first season at the helm of the Verden baseball program last spring, Waylon Heavin’s team finished with a 14-14 record. As they enter this spring season, he knows his team will have some issues to face but he believes they will meet them head-on and it will make them better.
“One of the challenges we will face is much tougher opponents and travel schedule this season,” he said. “We are not only still traveling to the extreme north and southwestern parts of Oklahoma, including the loaded Sterling Tournament and the Cashion Tournament and opponents such as Ft. Cobb-Broxton and Amber-Pocasset, but now also mid-week trips to fall state-qualifier Kiowa to play two and a trip to Red Oak to play another quality opponent. We always sought out the best games we could when I played for and assistant coached for legendary Coach Roy Edwards here at Verden High School, and I feel like, ready or not that our program and our team, and our players can only get better by playing higher quality opponents, along with earning the respect that comes from playing these types of opponents; it can only better-prepare us for the playoffs.”
Even with a stronger schedule, coach Heavin is looking to see a lot of improvement this season.
“My expectations for this spring is to take another step forward as far as reasserting our program at Verden back to pre-90s powerhouse status,” he said. “Earning more consistent play through routine winning performances and finding ourselves playing for higher-value hardware on weekends. Earn a respectable recognition from fellow coaches that ends with top ten rankings in Class B, and putting ourselves in hosting positions for the Class B playoffs. But more than anything, to continue striving to be respectful enough to be respectable as a unit and family.”
The Tigers are going to be looking to the upperclassmen for leadership and being examples to the younger players. Seniors Cooper Hughes, Tristan Moore, Ashton Tuthill, and Jarrod Whitmore are vital in their leadership roles on and off the field. Juniors Jaxon Jimenez and Doltn Weeden and Sophomores Rylon Tallent and Kaisen Whitehead are expected to continue to step up and shore up both the offense and defense.
One player that the team was looking to for leadership was Slade Reece. He will not be available this season after suffering a career-ending ACL injury during basketball season.
Heavin says that while his upperclassmen will play a big leadership role, the other players will have to step up and be more productive in order to be successful.
“We will definitely be leaning on our juniors and sophomores more than before for leadership and production.”
