Peyton Sipila returning to improve on last year’s season.

Hawk Baseball officially started their season with a scrimmage with Llano last Tuesday night at the Canyon Lake Diamond.

This will be a year where Head Coach Trent Dunavant will need to use a calculator in counting the number of players in his dugout.

“I don’t know….35?,” Coach Dunavant stated when asked how many players he had practicing and wanting to play this year. “We will carry around 14-15 for Varsity and over 20 for Junior Varsity.”

Coach Dunavant had a long pause when asked that question of players wanting to play, as in the past few years, those questions could easily been answered by looking at both hands and counting fingers.

Last year, Canyon Lake started a wave of players that started to influx this sport and the Hawks still had several players that had Sophomore besides their name giving you a hint of age.

Now those Sophomores will be classified as Juniors and that might hopefully translate into victories for a program that had not made the playoffs in three years.

“We will have competition on this team and that will be something that should make them better,” Coach Dunavant fielded. “We have more optimism than in the past and we will have multiple guys playing multiple positions.”

The Hawks seemed to be strong in the infield and will have more qualified players for those spots this season.

“We have infielders that will be able to compete for outfield positions if they can’t win their spot in the infield,” Dunavant said without error. “This was our first scrimmage and we had some things good and bad. We found things that need working on, and things that the kids retained from last year.”

“We did ok playing defense but bats are slower than pitching at this time of year and pitchers are mainly throwing fast balls.”

Catcher will be a position to keep an eye on as the Hawks lost a big bat and fielder when Michael Brady got his diploma last May.

“We had Kyle Krohn play a nice game yesterday and he will be fighting this position out with Bryce Dehlin and Colton Avey,” Coach Dunavant commented. “Peyton Sipala will be able to play anywhere, left field, first base, short stop…”

The pitching will have several players ready for their chance to make things happen….if you take one thing from Coach Dunavant on pitching, it is throw strikes.

“We walked way to many players last night,” Dunavant said. “If you throw strikes in high school, then nine times out of ten the batter will find a way to get out.”

“Throwing harder does not mean you can pitch, sometimes throwing an 85 mile per hour pitch down the middle will not do as well as a pitcher that throws a 75 mph pitch on the corner,” Dunavant reiterated.

When asked about what they would be looking for in finding a closer for this club, Coach Dunavant did not hesitate, “A closer is not afraid of failure and it is how they approach their game mentally and having pin point control. If they (pitchers) can’t throw strikes then they won’t be out there.”

“I want to be around four to five pitchers when district rolls around,” Coach Dunavant closed. “We have more athletic kids than positions this year.”

Canyon Lake will be wearing their coats this Friday as the weather could be frigid if Seguin does not help in changing the game to Saturday.

If that happens, then CL will be playing in Seguin rather than at Canyon Lake.

The ReSporter knows that Seguin is warmer than CL since it is so much further South.

Should be a good season…hopefully the season will end later in the year when temperatures get much warmer…thanks Coach and good luck.

Canyon Lake will be playing their last game for the season this Tuesday night

Canyon Lake Girls Basketball will be in their last game of this season on Tuesday at the Hawk gym.

This has been a rebuilding year for CL as this team has featured Freshman and Sophomores and with that came a lot of growing pains.

On Tuesday night the Hawk Nation will be saying good-bye to Amber Ramsey, Emily Muniz, Cati Harrington, Brianna Young, and Jenna Lann.

Come out this Tuesday night to let these girls know your appreciation for representing Canyon Lake.

The Hawk Boy’s Basketball team will be on the road as they play out their season with only 3 games remaining. Their next home game will be a week from this Tuesday which will also be their season finale.

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Canyon Lake’s Baseball team will be ramping practice up as the Hawks look for a chance of

Senior T. J. Jones shoring up the infield

improving their district standings with several returning starters.

Two years ago, Canyon Lake finished last in district when the team had to borrow players anywhere they could in fielding a team to finish a season.

That will not happen this year as the Hawks have several returning players and will be bringing a decent JV club up as well.

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Canyon Lake graduated half of their at bats and less than half of their innings pitched this

Tyler Vinson one of several returning Hawks vying for a Playoff spot

past year and there will be several faces returning for a chance of advancing in the playoffs this season.

The graduating players had a .271 batting average and 4.11 era with the largest loss coming from the loss of power. A total of 31 extra base hits have left the diamond with only 16 returning hits other than singles.

Returning players had a .259 average and a 4.42 era. The item to note is an extra year or being one year older can translate into better hitting and pitching.

For instance, Michael Brady had huge improvement from his Junior to Senior campaign.

Michael Brady   ab  r  h  bi  2b  3b  bb  so   ave.
 2012 Season    60  3 21   8  3   0   15  16  .350
 2013 Season    75  9 31  18  7   1   19   7  .413

Canyon Lake has the potential to be a very good defensive team as players that were lost to injury will be returning.

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The ReSporter has tabulated this past season in District 27-3A team sports by school and as

Daniel Camarillo handing off to Doug Hubnik during the heyday for Boy’s Track and Field

you can see last season was not a banner year for Canyon Lake.

If a school finished first then they garnered 1 point and if a school finished last, then they would accumulate 6 points.

So the school with the least amount of points would be the goal.

Canyon Lake is still looking for their first District 27-3A Title in any sport as their best finish is still a second place finish in their history. (Baseball ’10, Softball ’11, Boys Track ’11 and ’12)

This year the top four teams will be able to punch their ticket for a post season berth and if you used that same criteria for last year, then you will see that your Hawks would of only qualified in one team sport.

Football would of been that sport to qualify for a playoff if this new rule would of been in place.

In all the other team sports your Canyon Lake Hawks best finish was fifth place.

Last season in a word was not a banner year and as this new school season approaches, CLHS will have many opportunities to improve on that record.

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The ReSporter will now attempt to put a Spotlight on who might be that player that could help get this Hawk team to the playoffs this coming season.

Once again, there might be a change of strategy, as stated in a previous article, on how many different skill sets is required with baseball.

The ReSporter would like to name three Spotlights based on three different aspects or ingredients needed to attempt in having a solid ball club.

As mentioned previously, a team could have the best pitcher in district but that would not matter if that team could not produce at the plate offensively or in a fielders case, can’t get those three outs needed.

So our three players to put a spotlight on will revolve around 1) Defense, 2) Offense and 3) Pitching.

DEFENSE:

Many baseball experts will always mention being strong up the middle is a key for having a good defensive unit.

The ReSporter would like to throw this spotlight on T. J. Jones.

Jones has been leading the troops these past two years and will now go into his senior season with a boat load of confidence.

Jones has been holding down 2nd base and stats are not as forthcoming, but other coaches from district have mentioned of how they admire this young man in the field.

In fact, Jones made First Team All-District 2nd Baseman and that was not based on his bat but his glove.

This is not to throw water on his batting but The ReSporter also feels Jones might start getting more at bats this coming season.

When asked during this year’s end of year banquet for Jones to stand by Coach Dunavant it was evident that this soon to be Senior has started his growth spurt and that gives more chances to see Jones being able to contribute in more areas besides just fielding.

Other players that The ReSporter gave consideration to was J. J. Nance.

Nance made All-District First Team in the outfield. This award just says outfield but Nance was the right fielder and he might be making a case for having an opportunity to play centerfield next year.

That would certainly put a spotlight on Nance as that position can save a lot of runs in a contest by having to chase down balls in a lot of real-estate.

How bout Peyton Sipila, who showed up and contributed in a big way in the infield. Sipila was recognized by the Hawks as best defensive player.

J. J. Nance at the Plate

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Baseball lives off of stats.

You can find stats for every time a player hits the ball to the right side of the infield on a full count facing a southpaw after fouling off three pitches.

In football many teams have specialist for offense or defense and don’t play on both sides of the ball…don’t even ask about those special team players. (kickers we are talking about you)

Finding the best player for baseball has to take in three aspects if not more based on leadership or how many times they stepped on the lines going onto the field. (that is bad luck)

A pitcher can have an unblemished record for your team still stands a chance of not even making the playoffs.

Having a great average involves getting a hit three out of ten times you go to the plate.

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Michael Brady signs with Angelina Junior College

Travis Walker signs with Crown College

Two more Canyon Lake athletes have taken pen in hand and signed on for  higher education and a chance to continue their dream of playing baseball.

Travis Walker and Michael Brady sat at the table with their parents looking on in a cold Hawk Gym last Thursday morning.

It was said the gym was cold to get Walker acclimated to where he will be playing next year.

Crown College will be his new home and that College is in St. Bonifacius, Minnesota.

Located about 45 minutes west of Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

How about going east to San Marcos, get on I-35 and head north for about 1,045 miles. A long way from home to play for Crown College Storm baseball team.

Brady will be going the Junior College road for about 265 miles to Angelina Junior College in Lufkin, Texas.

Both players have had very successful careers for the Hawks as has been chronicled on this site these past few months and years.

Coach Trent Dunavant commented before the signing on both players.

“I have had the honor to coach Travis for four years,” Coach Dunavant started.

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The ReSporter is now in its fourth year of covering Canyon Lake and Bracken Christian schools. The ReSporter has just finished it’s 1,043rd article and has also had 62,039 visits and 162,238 pages read as of February 5, 2014 stats.

As you know, this site is free for those who would like to frequent these pages after a sporting event. The ReSporter would like to introduce you to a new ‘Ad’ that was added about 10 days ago.

First off, do know that many of the advertisers on this site services The ReSporter’s household and there is a great deal of comfort in knowing that these Companies and people would treat you as well as I am treated by their services.

The ReSporter needs the audience that relies on this coverage to help out by telling these companies/people that you saw their ‘Ad’ on this site.

That way The ReSporter can keep up this coverage as the fall season looms right around the corner.

The money that is raised through our Advertisers goes to gas money, cost for maintenance for this site, and hopefully enough to put away for just cost of living increases.

If this is not realized, then there is a chance that The ReSporter might close shop before the start of next school year.

Just making it known that letting the Advertisers know that they are seen on this site will certainly help with getting, by word of mouth, other companies to also think about advertising with The ReSporter.

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Jerry Besselman has been a face that many fans have seen at any Hawk Sporting event that would involve refreshing your tastes.

The ReSporter went on a search to find someone that might have been to more games and events that wasn’t a player or Coach. Besselman fit that bill as the man behind the counter where you will find liquids or food to keep that Hawk fan strong enough to end the game and yelling on their Hawk team flavor of that event.

The ReSporter had an opportunity to get with Besselman at the end of a Hawk Softball game for a formal introduction to you the fan.

The ReSporter: Hey Jerry are you having fun?

Jerry Besselman: “Yes, I get to be around students and they all know my name.”

The ReSporter: Do they know you as Jerry or Besselman?

Jerry Besselman: “There was a time when Coach Nicole Creek needed to get a hold of me to change a time of a game or something like that and she was wanting to look up my phone number. She could not find me because she knew me by my first name. So yes, I’m thinking most of the students and teachers just know me by my first name.”

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