Hunter Middle School baseball team achieves goal of undefeated season

OOLTEWAH, Tenn. — This group of 8th graders had an unusual middle school career. In 6th grade, their season was cut short because of Covid. In 7th grade, the threat of being quarantined every day and wearing masks all the time (even outside) was real. We could not even get a Team picture. In 8th grade, the first half of the year was still a bit rocky but by the time baseball season started, everything was as close to the norm as they have seen it in Middle School.

The team’s goals for the year were to win the HCAC tournament at the end of the year and finish undefeated within the county which we did!

The team captains are Tanner Bayne, Luke Parr, and Tyler Cook. They each serve a different purpose from making sure the team is pumped up, keeping the attitudes positive, and just making sure all things are getting done and staying on track.

Before every game, they have a quick huddle to discuss “Hunter” expectations and executions, they huddle up and have a little pregame talk without the coaches, and then they hit the field.

This group of boys has been playing ball with each other for a few years but when we added a couple of new boys this year and they immediately became part of an amazing team who had clear goals for the season.

The boys celebrate all the time from the smallest accomplishments to the biggest regardless of who is delivering the reason for celebration. They love to jump into the air and collide shoulder to shoulder.

Some major plays this year include 6 legit Home Runs from the team so far with 4 games left to play and 4 of those were from Luke Parr, a team captain, and one of them was a Grand Slam.

The motivation for this group of young men is that they love to win and they settle for nothing less. Even if it’s an ugly win, they are not satisfied. They are “characters” but they settle for nothing less than executing at high levels.

Coach Josh Ray says, “We are blessed to be part of such a great group of young men, whom we are proud of regardless of the outcome of the tournament.”

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