The Seminole District should be a real dog fight, again. The usual Heritage/JF rivalry, and even though they lost alot and are young, Brookville and Amherst have some talented Soph that should keep them in the fight.

Anyone else have some input??

I Timothy 4:8

JT, What else can you tell me about Amherst. I graduated from Amherst in '71 and havn't really kept up with their program since. Any names of players etc.?

Can't tell you much--although they have two outstanding soph pitchers: one from each side (Crouch is a RHP and Baker is a LHP). Of course, they won state last year and then their coach abrutply resigned.

I Timothy 4:8

Shoeless Joe:
Your boys from Amherst had some great teams in 1973 and 1974. I played at Kempsville then and played a 13 inning state championship game with them at your field. Wow! what a game that was. I believe they played in the state championship and won it in 1974. They were a AAA school those years.

The "bunt" is a powerful weapon!

Eagle One, you are correct. Amherst went to AAA for the first time in '70. The county did have a solid baseball program from youth up. The coach of those teams was Jim Procopio. I'm not sure where he went after Amherst.

Jim Procopio was a great coach, and he followed another great coach in Gerry Thomas, father of Randy, who was a great player at Amherst along with many, many other great players. Procopio and Thomas also were outstanding pro players (both Thomases) although never in the major leagues. And, of course, Gerry Thomas later was a long-time and near legendary coach at Lynchburg College for many years, along with Bill Shellenberger in s****r.

Some of the Amherst players in the '73-'74 time frame in addition to Randy Thomas included DeWayne Kitts, Buddy Bailey (now a long-time manager and coach in the Red Sox organization), Ding Berry, Younger Hill, Larry Cannon and others.

Thanks for the posts. They bring back great memories of some truly memorable people.

Jemaz, Buddy Bailey now manages in the
Red Sox organization, AAA Powtucket where he has been selected manager of the year at least twice. Are you from Lynchburg or Amherst as I have noticed several of your posts relating to this area.

Shoeless Joe:

I grew up in Lynchburg, specifically in Madison Heights (although I attended Holy Cross rather than Amherst County High School), before going off the school to Virginia Tech. I played Little League with a lot of these guys -- Randy Thomas, Gary Bryan, Alan Meade, David Meade, David Owen, Ricky and Lenny Irvin etc... and I'm still good friends with Buddy, who is very close to my Dad. My mom and dad still live in Lynchburg, by the way, so I get back on a semi-regular basis.

Jemaz, Seems we know a lot ot the same people. D Meade was in my graduating class as well as Buddy's sister. Small world. Do you have a son playing now?

Joe:

I actually have three sons playing. My oldest is a junior first baseman at Virginia Tech. My middle son is a junior outfielder at Chaparral High School in Scottsdale and my 12 year old is a shortstop on a travel team called the Scottsdale Storm (along with his Little League, of course).

By the way, Alan Meade has been my best friend for 40 years now and I still see him regularly.

If you graduated with David Meade, you undoubtedly know Donnie Scrivener, Billy Irvin and Norman Moses and Nowlen Wingfield along with Harlod Massie, who was a good friend later when we both worked at the News&Advance.