Yoe baseball looking to finish with state title in 2022
Last year the Yoemen baseball team had a season to remember as they had a record of 29-9 and made it all the way to the regional finals, where they were defeated by the eventual state champion Malakoff Tigers.
This was also the farthest they have gone in the playoffs since the state championship team in 2011. Coach Hector Delgadillo believes this year’s team is more than capable of winning the schools second state championship. They recently had a meeting to discuss using the experiences of last season and how to complete the mission this year by advancing to the state championship.
“We just wanted to set goals, and I think one of the main things is our team slogan,” Coach Delgadillo said. “The kids came up with it, the seniors did and it’s basically: Job not finished. And so, I kind of tied that into our meeting on Monday night, talking about if our jobs not finished then what do we need to do to finish the job. So that’s kind of what our meeting was about. Everything from practice to taking it one game at a time and understanding that we’re in this for the long run. Preseason predictions are what they are, and that’s another thing we talked about in our meeting. It’s how can we accomplish that and I think the kids have a better sense and we kind of got that year under our belt since we couldn’t the year before due to COVID. I think our kids are excited and understand what it’s going to take to finish that job.”
One thing that will help is the amount of returning players they have. They will be much more experienced and will have 10 returners, five of them being seniors - Jaidyn Sanchez, Bobby Borgas, Adam Cardona, Brannon McCall, and Tracer Lopez.
“When you got this many kids returning, it basically just turns into what’s your role on this team,” Delgadillo said. “At the end of the day, we are a team, and it is a team goal to win district, win in the postseason, and then obviously become state ranked or nationally. Obviously, our ultimate goal is to win a state championship, so I think it’s going to take everyone to understand their role, whether they were a starter last year, and now that they have a chance. Being a role player plays a huge part. I think you got to have those kids in your team and your program and I think there’s a lot of kids that I think are willing to accept that role and understand that it’s for the good and the great of the team.”
Every player will certainly be needed to exceed the expectations following last season. The Texas High School Baseball Coaches and Diamond Pro has ranked the Yoemen at #9 for 3A coming into the season. After a regional final appearance, Coach Delgadillo had an idea they were going to have a chance to be ranked pretty high.
“We figured at least top 10, and we were talking about maybe top five with everybody returning, but everybody in that top 10 just about has the same number of kids returning as we do,” Delgadillo said. “For us to sort of not let that get in the way, I think we kind of had a little bit of that last year. We understood how good we were doing and also, we officially cracked the top 10 last year. And obviously our kids were excited, but with that extra year under our belt, there’s a little bit more maturity. To us it’s a preseason ranking. Like I tell the kids, it’s great, it’s good to have that but you also got to understand that teams are going to want to come after you. Now we just got to go out there and prove it. If you don’t think we’re number 9, let’s prove we’re number 8, or number 5 or number 3. They understand, I don’t think it’s going to get to them a whole lot. They’ve kind of matured over the last few years and that helps a lot.”
Delgadillo believes that his team will be ready for that challenge, as last year was mostly run by youth, whereas this year’s team is older, they have that regional finals experience under their belt. They also understand that with that success comes the understanding that they have gone from being the hunter to the hunted. Delgadillo feels his team understands that and will be ready for that.
“I think last year we were just sort of those rookies of the year,” Delgadillo said. “We didn’t know anything else but to go out and play baseball and let everything else take care of itself. Now that we’re sort of in the spotlight, I think our kids understand it and I think they welcome it. Having an older group with mostly juniors and seniors, I think it helps tremendously just because I think our kids want that challenge and that’s good to have. They expect it and like I told them in that meeting on Monday, every game we go to we’re going to have to come ready to play. I think that’s going to prepare us for any situation that’s thrown at us and that’s what we were talking about on Monday. Hopefully it does and hopefully our kids are stepping up to every game, because it is going to be almost a playoff game every time we play someone. Everybody wants a piece of us.”
Last year in the offseason and the season, the team and the country were plagued by the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, they are getting back to a regular offseason and hope to have a normal regular season. Delgadillo feels COVID is in the back of their minds and is ready to just go and play baseball again.
“I think that COVID’s in the back,” he said. “It’s still here but I think where we’re at, we’re not really too much having to worry about COVID as far as are we going to have to cancel the season or what restrictions are we going to have to do. So, in a sense it’s kind of back to some normalcy, so it’s been good for us. The kids are excited, it’s always an exciting time of year that first couple of days and then you get into the routine of everything, so it’s been good for us.”
Delgadillo and the rest of the staff are very excited for this new season and so is the rest of the city of Cameron and hopes to have another historic season.