With two seniors on the roster, the North Sunflower Academy Rebel baseball team is ready to hit the diamond. With their first game forfeited against McEvans, the Rebels will travel to Sharkey Issaquena to take on the Confederates today at 4:00 p.m.
“I’ve got a team of 18 including two seniors. A nice young group again this year. We lost our starting catcher (Brandon Daniels) to Bayou,” Coach Anthony Rivera said. “His family moved and he transferred right after Christmas.”
Even with the loss, Coach Rivera will lean on his two seniors for leadership – centerfielder Cooper Neal and first- year player C.J. Hall.
“I’ve got two juniors, three sophomores and the rest are ninth, eighth and seventh graders,” he said. “The future looks bright if we are thinking long term.”
Losing Daniels behind the plate hurts, but losing the pitching depth hurts more for the Rebels.
“Whatever is best for the kid. If he’s striving and he’s a great kid, a great ballplayer and I’m happy for him,” Coach Rivera said. “C.J. is the only player on the team who has never played baseball. All of my eighth-graders and ninth-graders are travel team players. It will be a new experience playing varsity for them. But C.J. brings positive energy that the young guys will feed off of.”
The Rebels will be on the road for the first four games and hopefully will host on their home field on March 9th when Lee Academy (Arkansas) comes to Drew. The team has been fighting Mother Nature and land leveling as their home field has been a constant flood zone. Head Coach Anthony Rivera enters his second year on the bench and is hoping the field renovations will be done soon.
“This year I feel like we’ll be a contender. How far we go will be up to us and the work we put in to continually get better. There’s only one top dog on our side and that’s Tunica. But every dog has it’s day.”
Coach Rivera is putting together a media crew to help get home games online throughout the season and conduct interviews.
“We are working on getting a positive social media presence and work on their presence in front of the camera as well,” he said.
