In sports, figuring out exactly what a team deserves – good or bad – is often an impossible dream.
For the Cherokee Trail baseball team, it seemed fairly safe to anoint the Cougars the preseason No. 1 in Class 4A. You might call it a no-brainer considering last year the Cougars, in just their second varsity season, advanced to the state final without any seniors.
They’re back. They’re loaded. They’re deep. They’re experienced. And they’ve got something to prove, which practically makes them the gold standard for “the team to beat.”
Yet somehow, that logic isn’t working east of E-470, where the Cougars toil amid some of the best facilities in the state while new homes sprout from the ground around Aurora Reservoir.
“It’s a cool feeling when you get the paper in the morning and you look at it and see Cherokee Trail No. 1 at the start of the season,” first baseman Dusty Noraker said. “But we got beat 16-4 (by Broomfield) in the championship game. That’s not a No. 1-ranked team. So we just threw it out of our heads.”
You can’t teach an old underdog new tricks.
“We always have been underestimated, and this year we realize people know about us and we can’t sneak up on them,” pitcher Bradshaw Perry said. “Teams are going to throw their best pitcher at us. So we know we can’t be the team that underestimates someone else.”
That shouldn’t be hard considering the loaded 4A field. While the Cougars got the most ink last May behind Broomfield (preseason No. 4), Liberty (No. 2), state semifinalists Cañon City (No. 3) and Northridge (No. 6), Ralston Valley (No. 5) and Thomas Jefferson (No. 7) are stocked with standout players who all got a taste of the state tournament.
However, please try to understand why the Cougars think their core group is just a little bit more special than the rest.
When Cherokee Trail opened its doors three seasons ago, all the baseball team had was a big field with a pretty view of the water and a “hotshot” coach from Georgia. Thirty-two freshmen came out for the sport, eight of whom remain and make up the Cougars’ tightly knit senior core.
“It’s not very often you get to coach players for four years,” said coach Allan Dyer, who isn’t really a “hotshot,” but did lead a Roswell (Ga.) squad packed with seven Division I recruits to a No. 3 national ranking in 2003.
The Cougars have aces in their seniors with hard-throwing right-hander Perry (bound for Dallas Baptist) and left-hander Tim Moore (Hawaii). They have depth on the mound with David Miller (6-1 last season) and the vastly improved Chris Rains. Justin Crandell is the vacuum behind the plate who, along with right fielder Mike Carrasco, is always good for a bit of humor at the right time. Third baseman Bryan Williams has molded himself into a power hitter much like Noraker (bound for Garden City Community College in Kansas).
They have been raised on Dyer’s version of work ethic, dedication to the sport and respect for the facilities. They were just little kids as freshmen, unable to drag their coaches underwater while goofing off at the hot springs in Glenwood Springs, but have become what Noraker calls “a brotherhood.”
“Now we could take them,” Noraker jokes about wrestling Dyer and his assistant coaches.
All the Cougars have been trying to bulk up and add more pop at the plate. Known in the past primarily as a team with good pitching and defense, nine Cougars have hit home runs this season.
Cherokee Trail is 4-1 this season (3-0 against in-state teams) and playing with a chip on its shoulder, Dyer said. The Cougars got what they deserved last season, no doubt, but they want to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“Essentially in our minds we’re still the underdog,” Moore said. “We didn’t win. We got 10-runned in the championship game. This year we are working harder than ever.”
