With the winter season finished to an end and it’s only normal to be excited for spring season sports. Baseball a favorite spring time sport amongst many has been trying to become a team for three years, but sadly it looks as though they will have to wait another year before becoming apart of the Public School Athletics League (PSAL).
Due to recent budget cuts in PSAL, schools can’t start new teams and are also ridding the city of unsuccessful teams.
Yet this isn’t bringing our mighty Dragons down. With tryouts held in early March, Athletic Director and Coach Mr. Dennis Barrett was ready to spring into action for a new and fun year of baseball. Though they aren’t PSAL, they are still a team.
“I don’t like the fact we aren’t PSAL because we cant go to playoffs or championships but at least we still get to play,” said sophomore Azmi Canorski.
Though the team is sadden because they are considered a cluedb the coach still has high hopes for them.
“I hope to build an interest in baseball in the school and have a solid foundation for future teams and that nobody gets hurt,” said Mr. Barrett.
With seventeen players on the team, they will be learning all the fundamentals of baseball including hitting, running, catching, throwing, and defense.
“We are going to learn the fundamentals, but safety and teamwork first,” said Mr. Barrett.
Along with the high expectations of the coach the boys have equal expectations.
The boys will be playing games just as if they were PSAL against schools such as Wagner High School, St. Peters High School, St. Joseph by the Sea, Petrides High School, Curtis High School, and New Dorp High school.
The boys competed in a spring break tournament at MSIT, where they they went to semi-finals and showed the baseball community that they are an up and coming squad.
In their first game against New Utrecht they lost in the bottom of the second extra inning, and proved to the Island that they can compete with a well known Brooklyn team.
Perhaps their premier game so far was played against MSITs Seagulls. The Dragons out pitched and out hit the Segulls, in a 3-1 victory after 7 full innings.
These games may not be counted in PSAL, but you can be sure that the boys will be practicing hard to do their best on the field.
The Dragons are certain to compete and are expected to fulfill the hopes of their teachers and peers, later in the season they will play better teams and will even have a game in Staten Island Yankee Stadium.
