Busy summer on tap for EHS

El Dorado’s 2022 season officially ended two weeks ago.

But the work for the 2023 season has already begun.

With El Dorado graduating a big class of seniors that paved the way for 21 wins and the school’s first trip to the state tournament since 2018, there will be many holes to fill.

“It was a good year,” El Dorado coach Jeff Burson said. “It was a good start. It’s been kind of a whirlwind, and we’ve already started practice for next year. We’ve got a good foundation laid of what we want to do. The seniors did a good job of buying in. We’re just working for next year now.”

The summer will be a busy one for the Wildcats.

“A lot of them are playing (American) Legion and weekend ball,” Burson said. “Some of them are playing with the (Arkansas) Sticks. Some are doing both. Almost all of them are playing somewhere. Then we’ll be coming out here and lifting. We did our measurements last week, and we’re going to try to improve on those over the summer. We’ll test again when we come back to see if we improved. Just development. This is the time of the year to start getting velocity, working on developing velocity and getting bigger, stronger and faster.”

Burson said the summer months are critical for the players to grow.

“It is crucial, especially since we’ve got some younger guys,” Burson said. “They need to get as many at-bats as they can this summer, and they know that. We’ve talked to the ones that need to and they know what they need to improve on. It’s just a matter of them putting in the time of coming out and getting it done.”

The pitching staff in particular will be losing a ton of innings with Austin Jobe, Landen Rainwater, Rhett Richardson and John Robert Burson all departing, and Burson said he is looking forward to seeing how the battle for spots on the staff works out.

“Competition breeds success,” Burson said. “Holden Lowry can throw. He’s a good pitcher. He didn’t get a lot of innings this year, not as many as I would’ve liked, especially at the end. He got hurt toward the end, but it’s going to be big for him to have a good summer to get some stuff cleaned up pitching. He’ll be big.

“Sam York had some big innings for us, Jonah Davis had some big innings for us, Hunter Lawrence came along in some JV games. He showed a lot of improvement on the mound. I think we’re going to be OK, especially if those guys get after it this summer. We’ll have some options.”

When asked if he was concerned about any particular position, Burson said nothing was set in stone.

“It will all be open,” Burson said. “We’ve got some guys that understand the opportunity in front of them. There’s not really one particular spot. I think our guys will step up and go to work. There’s some holes to fill and some opportunities that are going to be out there because of these seniors that are leaving. You never know. Hopefully, some of these guys can blossom.”

For Burson himself, he said he’ll be working with some players, but he will be mostly an observer during the summer.

“I’ll just watch and keep a distance and let them have some freedom to grow,” Burson said. “We’ll be out here in the daytime working with them and in the evenings. We’ve got a few playing football, and I’ll be out a lot in the afternoon working with those guys.

“I’ll keep my hands on them through that stuff, but when the games come, I’ll sit back and let them get away from coach Burson a little bit. A lot of times, they learn from the lessons that I’ve taught them. When I’m away, they see them come to life in the games. It just builds that trust factor that I need to have with them.”

With a much younger team coming in, Burson said there is much to be

done, but he added he wants to see the work the players put in pay off. Hence, the aforementioned measurements give the players a goal to aim for.

“It will be work, but we're trying to make it fun for them at the same time,” Burson said. “That's one of the reasons to take those measurements so they start to see the fruits of their labor. If they don't, it's hard to convince them to come to work. Nobody wants to go to work every day and not get paid. When they see themselves beating those measurements, it's like getting a paycheck for them. That's one of the important reasons why we do it. They see the fruits of their labor.”