Lofty Expectations Tougher to Overcome For Shorecrest Prep's Baseball Team Than Opponents - The Chargers finished second in the state last year. With the team virtually intact, Shorecrest Prep has a target on its back.
ST. PETERSBURG - The landfill of sports memories is littered with examples of loaded teams expected to go the distance, only to fall short.
This is the goal that Shorecrest Prep coach Don Reed hopes to avoid.
Last season the Chargers nearly won it all, losing in the Class 2A state championship game. This season the Chargers have all but one player back from that team. In his junior year is Shorecrest pitcher Marc Brakeman, a right-hander who has received national accolades and recently committed to Stanford University.
But that is the problem. The team is expected to win. The players hear it all the time from fans, from teachers, from friends, from family members.
Trying to navigate this mindfield is Reed's biggest challenge this year, and he knows it.
"It is definetely a concern," Reed said. "It's real easy to get complacent. 'Hey, all we have to do is show up and we win.' You can't play that way. We have a target on us and that is the way it should be."
But Reed has a simple solution: Put blinders on the players and play hard. Each day. Every day. Every practice. Every game. No matter the opponent.
Upsets "happen," Reed said. "Any given day, someone can beat you. You just have to be prepared to play, and play the best you can. That's what we are working on. We are trying to keep everyone on the same page and play in the same system and motivate them to play hard day in and day out, practice or games."
This is not lost on catcher Spencer Heath, who nearly hit for the cycle against Bradenton St. Stephens with a single, double, triple with seven RBIs.
"We surely don't play the Weak Sisters of the Poor," Heath said. "We have to give 110 percent no matter who it is. If we do anything this year, it won't be handed to us."
