ALL-AREA BASEBALL: Gators' Whitfield selected as coach-of-the-year

By Justin Hayes
Published in Sports on June 26, 2016 1:47 AM

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By JUSTIN HAYES

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SEVEN SPRINGS -- The concept dates back a century, when ballparks perched tall on the street corners of an expanding America, spilling shadows on passers by and hosting the most colossal figures of our national pastime just through their gates.  

Small ball.  

The mere threat of a team consistently running, sacrificing, squeezing and double stealing drove opposing managers mad. The strategy also exploited a construction era dedicated to the development of cavernous, parliamentary facilities.

Take the famed Polo Grounds, for instance.

Its carry mark down the right field line was just a splinter over 277 feet, but in other areas of the park -- the nook in straightaway center, for example -- was a mammoth 475 feet, the longest distance from home plate in the baseball history.

Reach'em, move'em, cross'em.

In a growing world, it paid to play small.

And Heath Whitfield -- a quiet, unassuming storm of a baseball man, learned the scrabbled tenets of the swift-moving approach from his father -- a former minor league pitcher-turned coach at Southern Wayne High.

Without question, he's proven an apt pupil.

His teams have compiled an overall record of 107-62 since 2009.

That includes an astounding 65-19 mark in Carolina 1-A contests throughout the same span, highlighted by a 37-5 league ledger since 2013.

The son a baseball lifer and a man whose brand of baseball runs first and seeks permission after the tag, Heath Whitfield is the 2016 News-Argus All-Area Baseball Coach-of-the-Year.

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April, 2010.

The ball coach, just two years removed from the dugout at Spring Creek Middle, had the reigns of his third varsity team -- a raw, traditional collection of youngsters with chiseled names like Janning and Brayboy -- true power brokers who could end a night's work with a suggestion to any and all points over the fence.

As a matter of convenience, it was nice. As a matter of practicality, it was  all-too fleeting.

"We had some boys that could hit a little and had some power," Whitfield said. "But the bats had the biggest impact."

BBCOR -- Batted Ball Coefficient of Restitution, or return engagement, centers on the reflex technology available in the barrel of aluminum bats.

Simply put, it's registered trampoline effect. The higher an axe tests for said levels of return fire potential, the further a ball will travel when properly deployed by its surface.

And with the safety of players -- pitchers, specifically -- being called into question that spring, dialed back modifications had to be made. Makers of the bat created new parameters -- a barrel diameter no greater than 2 5/8 inches and total length no longer than 36 inches.

For Whitfield and the boys of Seven Springs, the decision was a landscape-altering move.

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Spring Creek baseball -- once a middle-of-the-road, traditional program, morphed into a station-by-station flight risk.

And with the proper fleet, Whitfield's notion shaped quickly.

That year's senior class -- led by the quartet of Chris Nichols, Duane Gurganus, Zach Harrell and Corey Howell -- was the first paid subscription base to purchase Whitfield's panic attack approach to base running.

Practice by practice, they went to work.

There was bunting. Bunting in special situations.  

Pressure bunting, a higher-octane drill down scenario, complete with a 320-foot sprint to the foul pole leering over your potential mistake.

Running and reading plays off the bat.

In other words, organized chaos built on a conceptual understanding of speed law, signs and situations.

"That crowd was really the one that got us (the program) going, "Whitfield said. "They just brought a different mindset... they were winners and didn't accept losing."

Old habits die hard.

A typical Gator run-through these days, set against the backdrop of consecutive Carolina 1-A conference titles, speaks in different timbres in accordance with its stage of the season.

Valentine's Day brings drills and group work.

The Ides of March bring repetition times maximum dosage.

April Fool's Day brings the players face-to-face with a spring lovely called mass infield -- think a three-headed fungo bat that never gets tired.

May brings, without question, the playoffs.

No longer a necessary evil, small ball is the norm in Seven Springs.

And Whitfield, now in his 24th season in Gator blue and green, is grateful for the fellowship that has fleshed out his daddy's scaled-down approach.

"Luckily, we just clicked as a coaching staff," he remarked. "Carl Whittington has been very, very good to me -- he could have gone somewhere else and been a head coach."

"And then we got David McSwain and Taylor Jones on board."

Together, they manage an acute, ongoing case of swamp chaos.

Since 2013, the Gators have averaged 83 walks per season, 93 stolen bases and over 164 runs scored -- all while hitting .305 and delivering 122 RBI per season.

Not bad for a bunch of grinders with no power.

Suffice to say, Whitfield's stock philosophy isn't going anywhere soon.

"If the game goes back to the way it used to be, we'll adjust to the times and adapt," he said. "But I don't see it changing a whole lot."

If so, he'll run the idea around first.