RRS NOTES: Thomas, Carr to hold baseball camps; Catholic players ink scholarships
By TIM GAYLE
Former Robert E. Lee High basketball coach David Thomas, who spearheaded a group’s efforts to include baseball and softball in MPS middle schools, is now working on a summer camp to help those athletes improve their fundamentals for the upcoming season.
“It’s another way to bridge the gap and further enhance baseball and softball in the middle schools here,” Thomas said, “to give the kids another outlet to do something real positive this summer.”
The David Thomas Sr. Middle School Baseball Skills Camp will be held on June 5 on the Jeff Davis High athletic fields behind the school, while the David Thomas Sr. Middle School Softball Skills Camp will be held at Jeff Davis the following week on June 12.
The camp is open to any athlete that will be entering grades six through eight. There is no cost to participate in the camp.
“It’s open to all,” Thomas said. “If people in surrounding counties want to bring somebody, we’ll welcome them. It’s open to all, even to people in private schools, church schools, home schools. Everybody is invited.”
Registration will be held from 8-9 a.m., with the camp running from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. The camp will break for lunch, which is provided. The camp will be instructed by area high school coaches along with high school and college athletes.
“I’m asking for outstanding high school baseball and softball players to assist in teaching,” Thomas said. “Some have already committed. And we’re doing the same thing with (getting instructors from) the college level.”
Thomas said his group will hold a similar camp at G.W. Carver on June 18 for baseball and June 19 for softball.
For more information on the camps, email Thomas at dlthomas1531@charter.net.
Carr holds camps
After four years away from the sport, Autauga Academy coach Bobby Carr decided to return to the diamond as a baseball coach, leading the Generals to the AISA Class AA state championship.
He’ll reprise another role in two weeks, holding a baseball camp for area youth to teach them the fundamentals of his favorite sport.
“It’s something that I did every year at Edgewood when I was there for 15 years,” Carr said. “I always enjoyed it. It was an opportunity for me to get to know some of the younger kids in the area and obviously an opportunity for the kids -- which is the most important thing -- to learn some good baseball and have some fun with some pretty good instructors.”
The River Region Baseball Academy will be held on June 7-9 for ages 6-13 at Autauga Academy, starting each morning at 8:30 and running until noon. Carr and members of his coaching staff will be the instructors, along with former Edgewood player Cole Lipscomb.
“Nobody around here does a camp,” Carr said, “and when I was coming up I would go to every camp I could find because the great thing about baseball is you never stop learning. There’s always different ways and different ideas on how to do things.”
In addition to Carr, other instructors include Randy Farmer, the Generals’ softball coach who was an infielder in the New York Mets’ farm system in the early 1990s; Austin Carpenter, an assistant coach at Autauga who played at North Alabama (2014-16) before getting into coaching as an assistant under Jim Case at Jacksonville State; and Lipcomb, a former AISA player of the year who pitched at Auburn (2013-17).
Carr said he hoped to add other instructors but chose the early part of the summer to conduct the camp before summer seven-on-seven football camps started in earnest. The group will be divided into three age divisions and will conclude each day with games and snacks.
“We cover all phases of the game from base running to hitting, pitching, catching and infield and outfield play,” Carr said. “And we have some entertaining games for them. We try to make it fun.”
Cost of the camp is $100 per camper, which includes a camp T-shirt, group photo, snacks and drinks. Registration will take place on June 7 at 8 a.m. For more information, contact Carr at 334-657-1038 or email him at bobbyc1234@hotmail.com.
Four Catholic athletes sign scholarships
Catholic recently held a signing ceremony for four student-athletes planning to extend their athletic careers in college.
Pitcher and shortstop Dean Johnson accepted a scholarship to play baseball at Auburn University Montgomery, while center fielder McKenzie Norton also accepted an offer from a Division II school to play softball at Georgia Southwestern State. Catholic guard Jalen Thomas accepted an offer to play men’s basketball for Division III Mitchell College, while cheer captain Allie Berg accepted a cheer scholarship to Spring Hill College.
Johnson’s offer from AUM coach Marty Lovrich reunites Johnson with former Catholic pitcher Landon Pritchett, who went to Lurleen Wallace Community College before signing with AUM.
“I’m really ecstatic to be able to play at the collegiate level, really thankful for the opportunity that Coach Lovrich has given me over at AUM and I can’t wait to get there,” Johnson said. “I told Coach (Tony) Hudson I wanted to stay around here and he said he knew Coach Lovrich real well so I talked to the coach and he gave me the opportunity to play.”
Norton’s recruiting extends back to her freshman days on travel ball teams when she attracted the attention of Georgia Southwestern State softball coach Nicki Levering.
“She was a coach at tryouts and had interest in me and contacted my travel ball coach,” Norton recalled. “Ever since then, she had been following me. We just grew to like each other. She’s a great person and I love who she is. I visited the school and career wise it fit me, too. I can do nursing and softball together.”
Thomas’ recruiting may be one of the most intriguing stories from Wednesday. He sent a recruiting tape out to college coaches throughout the country and had an offer from the small Division III private school in Connecticut.
“I had my Hudl highlights and I had sent them out to (head coach Todd Peretz),” Thomas said. “He got in touch with me … and we set up a Zoom call one day. I got more info about the college and about the basketball program and it sounded really well to me. He liked me as a defensive player, he liked my highlights because they’re mostly defensive plays.”
Thomas liked the idea of playing for the Mariners, an up-tempo style team that is coming off of back-to-back New England Collegiate Conference title game appearances as Peretz prepares for his 23rdseason in 2021-22.
“Their play style is fast paced, just like ours, so I’ll fit in perfectly well,” Thomas said. “Just me working on my offense now in the offseason, I’ll be just fine.”
The biggest adjustment may be getting accustomed to living in the Northeast.
“I felt like it would be a new journey and a different experience for me,” Thomas said. “That’s a good reason I wanted to take that chance, to experience different things I’ve never experienced before. It’s going to be way colder than Alabama, so I’m going to have to change my whole attire. It’s going to be a challenge for me.”
Berg, who has tried a variety of different sports over the years, may have been the most surprised person at the podium on Wednesday.
“If you would have told me four years ago, or even one year ago, that I would be signing a scholarship to do collegiate cheerleading, I would have thought you were crazy,” she said.
Her mother, who served as the head cheer coach this past season, agreed.
“She attended 10 different schools from grades one through 12 and every time she went to a new school, she wanted to try a new sport,” said Catholic cheer coach Sarah Berg. “She decided when she came back to Catholic in the 11th grade she was going to cheer, having never cheered before. She made the varsity team and had a fabulous junior year cheering for Montgomery Catholic.
“Then the cheer team became in danger because the majority of the girls were graduating and few who were not had decided to pursue other avenues. So it left one cheerleader. Allie had that ability to adapt and succeed in any situation and she was not willing to accept not having a cheer team in her senior year. So she started recruiting girls.”