Junior legion coach Nate Ramsey said he has a strong team that will continue to get better as the season progresses.

Post 115 coming off 5-4 win over Spartanburg

Billy Cannada's picture
Junior team gearing up for success
By: 
Billy Cannada

The Greer junior American Legion Post 115 team is coming off a recent 5-4 victory over Spartanburg heading into a week with three games.

Head coach Nate Ramsey said he likes the way his roster has taken shape in recent weeks.

“We’ve got a nice group of kids,” Ramsey said. “They look pretty good. We’re playing .500 ball right now. I think we’re 4-3 in the conference, which puts us second in the early going. I think we started slow. We had four practices with them before we started playing games, and the way our field is situated, we’ve just kind of had to learn by the game.”

The junior legion team has picked up early wins over Spartanburg, Gaffney and Union.

Players from Riverside include, Austin Corn, Tyler Kruglevich, Joseph Mershon and Clark Derrick. Those from Blue Ridge include, Ty Reini and Ryan Teems. Christian Kontowsky is the sole player from Byrnes on the roster.

Most of the junior legion team hails from Greer, including Chandler Geibner, Colt Leopard, Will Pitts, Colin Fowler, Sam Thornton, Brayden Edwards and Brandon Wortkoetter.

“We’ve got a unit that is getting stronger every night,” Ramsey said. “That’s their final goal—to make a deep run in the playoffs.”

The team has picked up losses to Inman and Gaffney this season.

“We’ve had some bumps in the road early on,” Ramsey said. “This is a young team, so you’re going to have some mistakes early with young teams. I like where their heads are at and I like their work ethic, so we’ll get better as we go.”

Ramsey said he and his coaching staff are starting to become more familiar with conference competition.

“You play every team in your conference four times,” Ramsey said. “I’ve got guys helping me out and we have a plan. Week one, we didn’t know anything about anybody. Now, there’s not one thing on any guy in this conference we don’t know about. We try and stay prepared. If you don’t get to iron things out in practice, you better have as much detail as you can have during the game.”

“We feel better now than we did two weeks ago,” he said.

Overall, the legion experience is good for the players, Ramsey said.

“It’s nice for these guys to get to meet new people,” he said. “For the ones that are going to play college ball, that’s kind of the same setting. It’s good for them to get that work in.”

Ramsey said some high school players who have not had the chance to grab the spotlight at their own school have begun to blossom in the league.

“I have a couple of kids out here that are juniors and they didn’t even hit during their high school season, but they’re two of my best hitters,” Ramsey said. “You kind of learn some things about these guys and they’re also gaining confidence.”

Ramsey said legion still provides a team experience that travel ball falls short of.

“Travel ball has kind of taken away from legion over the years, but travel ball is very individual and about what kind of exposure you can get,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with that, but legion ball still allows you to be on a team and allows you to be a part of something. Some guys like that draw.”

As for the popularity of the sport, Ramsey expects it to continue to grow.

“It’s starting to become a little bit bigger,” he said. “That’s what we’re trying to do this year. We’re trying to get it established. It has been fun. Hopefully it grows back to where it was.”

billy@greercitizen.com | 877-2076
 

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