Phoenix athletes showcase skills
While it may not be high school football or baseball season, (although we’re close to baseball), a trio of Sonoraville High School athletes have recently been busy with both sports.
Junior tight end Ridge Redd played in the GACA All-Star football game just before the New Year ended in his final contest as a high school player.
Then last Saturday, junior Zach Lyles and sophomore Jaxon Pate, both of whom are currently playing basketball for the Phoenix, participated in the Prep Baseball Report (PBR) Pre-Season All-State Showcase in Emerson, Georgia.
The Preseason All-State event was an invitationalonly event featuring over 100 of the top high school baseball prospects from all classes across the state, including those who have committed, like Lyles, and those who are still uncommitted.
The Prep Baseball Report website profiled some of the student-athletes they thought were the top players that participated in the activities and Lyles, who has verbally committed to play baseball at Western Kentucky University, was one of those players.
According to the profile, Lyles has produced some of the hardest contact ever seen at LakePoint, which is where the All-State event was held.
Lyles participated in the 2021 Futures Games for PBR and caught coaches’ and scouts’ attention with his smooth left-handed swing and his patience at the plate. According to the PBR profile, in that Futures Game, Lyles showed over and over the ability to get the pitch he wanted and then do damage with it.
Players were evaluated at their position both offensively and defensively.
Offensively, each player was timed in the 60-yard dash. There was also a live batting practice in which exit velocity was tracked and there was a swing analysis along with a ball flight analysis on each hit.
Defensively, players had their arm strength, defensive mobility, and positional projectability evaluated.
As far as pitchers go, and Lyles and Pate have both pitched a lot in the past, the prospects were given a mechanical evaluation in a 15-pitch session in which players went from the windup and out of the stretch.
A pitcher’s velocity was charted along with any movement or action on the pitches. There was also an evaluation taken from the catcher who was working with a particular pitcher.
On the football side, Redd ended the year by playing in the Georgia Athletic Coaches’ Association (GACA) All-Star game in the last week of December and he was on the North Squad in the annual North-South matchup.
Redd, who wore number 24 on his blue jersey, was a second-team All-Region tight end for the Phoenix last season and was a three-year starter in high school.