Shawnee’s Todd Boyer, like most high school baseball coaches, is keenly aware of the value encompassed through summer league baseball.\
But perhaps no summer session was more acutely vital for Boyer, his assistant coaches and his baseball team, in terms of garnering much-needed experience.
This past spring’s SHS edition, a state tournament entrant, was ravaged by graduation.
Boyer, entering his 19th Shawnee year — both as an assistant and head coach — normally loses six to eight seniors a season.
His 2009 squad lost 13.
“Only in one other year did we come close to losing that number of senior kids and that was 12,” Boyer said.
Shawnee participated in the Red Dirt summer league. The high school division consisted of 46 combined squads in the wood and metal bat divisions.
Shawnee, as well as virtually every other Suburban Conference member, was joined in the wood bat wars by teams like McLoud, Dale, Bethany, Blanchard, Del City, Westmoore, Moore, Yukon, Clinton, Putnam City, Putnam West and Weatherford.
“I feel like the wood bat league teaches our kids to swing the bat the proper way,” Boyer said.
“When you have a bad swing with a wood bat, you’re going to be out.
“The games are quicker with wood bats because there are fewer runs scored. I feel like that’s the way the game was meant to be played — with wood bats.”
There were a number of Tri-County squads that chose the metal bat league — Meeker, Prague, Stroud and Tecumseh.
While the majority of the Central Oklahoma summer squads are involved in the Red Dirt league, there are still some American Legion squads — Ada, Midwest City, Elk City and Woodward to name a few.
“We haven’t played legion ball in about eight years,” Boyer said.
Because of the graduation losses, Shawnee had to rely heavily on JV-turned-varsity players this summer.
And it showed.
“We struggled during the summmer season, to be honest,” Boyer said.
“We have some young, talented individuals but the adjusment of moving from the JV squad to the varsity squad is pretty difficult.
“Particularly when we are playing in a very competitive Suburban Conference and a very tough classification (5A).”
