With spring not too far away, the Muskogee Rougher baseballers are gearing up for a new season which coach John Singler describes with one word: Excited.
“We only lost two starters from last year and I’m really excited to see how much we’ve improved since last season. We’ve got just two seniors but nine juniors, so we have a lot of upperclassmen to provide leadership which we’ve haven’t had here in a while,” said the Rougher coach.
Muskogee returns several players from last year including Doc Estes, Luke Jamison, Owen and Rock Gilliam, Jace Paul and Avery Browning who transferred from Oktaha last year and played the last half of the season.
In addition, Singler is excited to see Hilldale transfers Ryan Miller and Kal’el Tripp and freshman Truth Dedmon in action.
The Roughers will play a 37-game schedule featuring non-district games with Fort Gibson, Pryor and Coweta as well as the Hilldale/Fort Gibson Tournament and the McAlester Festival and a spring break trip to Alabama. The district schedule, composed of Bartlesville, Bixby, Broken Arrow, Norman, NW Classen, Stillwater, and Union, will be tough but Singler is optimistic the Roughers will be competitive.
“The district is always tough in 6A where we’re playing against much bigger schools but I’m hopeful that we’ve come along ways in our development, and we’ll be able to match up with them better.”
