St. Al process nears big goal

Published 12:00 am Monday, May 11, 2009

For five years, the St. Aloysius Flashes have worked toward this week.

All of the grueling workouts at 5 a.m. All of the running in December cold and June heat. All of the practices on Sunday afternoons. The yelling from their coach, Clint Wilkerson. The growing pains young players endure and four years of playoff frustration.

St. Aloysius vs. TBA

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Thursday, 1 p.m., at Trustmark Park in Pearl

Click here for championship information

The work and the lessons finally culminate on Thursday, when the Flashes head to Trustmark Park for Game 1 of the Class 1A championship series against either West Union or Ingomar.

“We got to this point and I understand why (Wilkerson) put us through it all,” St. Al outfielder Regan Nosser said.

St. Al’s journey to Trustmark has been nearly 10 years in the making. Five of their regular starters this season were members of the Vicksburg Hurricanes, a highly successful youth team. Three of those — Pierson Waring, Ryno Martin-Nez and Stephen Evans — stepped into St. Al’s starting lineup as seventh graders. The other two, Justin Rushing and Blake Haygood, were starters by their sophomore year.

Another key player, catcher Sean Weaver, jumped into the starting lineup as an eighth-grader.

By the end of the 2005 season, Wilkerson’s first at St. Al, he had the three seventh-graders and several freshmen and sophomores in the lineup.

“What I saw in them was I looked into their eyes and they bought into what I was selling,” Wilkerson said.

It wasn’t an easy decision to go with the youth movement, Wilkerson added. He took some heat from parents of older players who were bumped out of the lineup, and for some of his methods.

Beyond the grueling workouts, he became infamous for hours-long practice sessions — interrupted by an occasional tongue-lashing — after ugly losses. He was ejected for throwing a bucket of balls onto the field while arguing a call in a 2007 playoff loss to Stringer. He once forfeited a junior varsity game in the second inning because he felt his players weren’t performing up to their capability, and pulled his entire starting infield in the middle of an inning in a varsity game for the same reason.

He’s always had an eye toward the future, though. His methods always served a purpose, whether it was to instill fear and respect in his players or simply to push them to be better. The same reasoning went into his decision to build around the young corps of players in 2005.

“The first year I started with eight seniors and ended with two. I knew we couldn’t compete for much then, but I was looking to the future,” Wilkerson said. “I knew it wasn’t going to be an overnight deal. But eventually it was going to pay off for us.”

Weaver said it wasn’t an easy adjustment for the young players, either. Instead of a fun game he played during the summer, baseball had turned into a serious year-round job.

“I was too young to know any better. Baseball changed a little bit when Coach Wilkerson showed up,” Weaver said with a laugh. “It’s been awesome every step of the way.”

There were some immediate results. The Flashes went 16-9 in 2005 and reached the playoffs. Another playoff regional loss followed in 2006. The next season the Flashes finally won a playoff series, beating Edinburg, but lost to Stringer in the second round.

St. Al took another baby step in 2008, making it to the third round before losing to eventual Class 1A champion East Webster. That loss gave the Flashes a laser-like focus this season. They went 18-3 in the regular season, then ripped off six straight playoff victories to advance to the South State championship series against Stringer.

After dropping Game 1, 1-0 in nine innings, they crushed the Red Devils 13-3 in Game 2 and won Game 3 on Saturday, 7-5, to reach the state finals.

After five long years, all of the baby steps had allowed the Flashes to take one giant leap. With two more wins, they’ll learn how to fly.

“It seems like we’ve been getting better and better every year, and we’re taking it over the top this year,” Weaver said. “Our group of guys, we’ve just got great ballplayers. I’ve always known everything we’ve gone through is for a reason, and that reason is right now.”

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Contact Ernest Bowker at ebowker@vicksburgpost.com