After winning a Class 2A state title last season, Wapahani baseball coach Brian Dudley wasn’t exactly surprised to see his team atop the preseason poll, which was released earlier this week. In a lot of cases – not just in baseball – the previous year’s champion is given one of the top spots out of respect.
Apparently his players weren’t surprised either, because it hasn’t been a topic of conversation at preseason practice.
“Not one kid on the team has talked about it. We’re ranked that way every year,” Dudley said via telephone Thursday night. “They probably take it for granted more. We haven’t even talked about it.
“It’s more for the media and the fans than it is for what we do.”
Wapahani, which went 30-4 last season, defeated Evansville Mater Dei 2-0 in the state championship game. Among the Raiders’ notable returning players are Kentucky commit Zack Thompson and fellow juniors Hayden Castor and Grant Thompson.
“It’s a good thing for community and for us to hang our hat on,” Dudley said of the ranking. “But it’s preseason, it doesn’t mean it’s who we are.”
Two other local teams also cracked the top 10. Yorktown, after going 17-13 and reaching a regional final last season, is fourth in Class 3A. Daleville came in 10th in Class A.
It didn’t come as a surprise to Yorktown coach Mike Larrabee as the Tigers return a strong nucleus headed by Purdue signee Jacob Preston and Indiana State signee Clay Dungan. He just doesn’t want the ranking to serve as a distraction.
“I like to think it’s a mature enough of a team to see it’s a nice honor,” Larrabee said. “But we realize the game is played on the field and at the end of the season is where we’ll be judged – more so than the beginning of the season.
“We have a really tough schedule early on, tough teams right out of the gate,. We’ll have to play well to keep that ranking.”
Contact high school sports features reporter Ryan O’Gara at (765) 213-5829. Follow him on Twitter @RyanOGaraTSP.