As Greenwood Christian Academy continues to grow its enrollment, the school’s athletics programs have been reaping the benefits.
For the Cougars’ baseball program, the greatest benefit of late has been added depth — and junior Colton Crick may be the biggest beneficiary.
An all-county performer last year as a sophomore, Crick did a bit of everything for Greenwood Christian last spring. Not only did he hit .492 with 22 runs scored and 15 batted in, but he also played just about every position on the field.
Because of that added depth within the program, that constant shifting around should be coming to an end.
“He’s been a utility player,” Greenwood Christian coach Doug Hagist said. “He is gifted enough that he has played every position except, I think, second base on the field. So this year we’re going to be able to settle him in to be a center fielder, probably leadoff hitter, and just let him go, because we have everything else covered.”
Crick said that moving around from position to position every day was “kind of fun,” because it kept him on his toes, but he’s happy to be settling into a familiar spot. Hagist said that Crick will play center field almost exclusively, at least when he’s not pitching.
“I liked playing the other positions,” Crick said, “but I think it’ll be good to finally settle down and get used to something, get the routine going again.”
The hope for Greenwood Christian is that providing its top returning player with some stability will help him perform even better this season, both at the plate and in the field.
Crick is being counted on to anchor the outfield defensively from that middle spot, and he’s expected to jumpstart the Cougars’ offense from the top of the order; he led the team last year with a .524 on-base percentage.
“The kid just does what it takes to get on base,” Hagist said.
One of eight returning juniors on the Greenwood Christian roster, Crick has an additional hunger heading into 2018 because of how the Cougars’ season ended last spring. After three straight sectional championships, the team got thumped by rival Edinburgh, 11-1, in the final of the Morristown Sectional.
Crick said that he and his classmates may have taken postseason success for granted before falling to the Lancers and that losing last year “kind of gave us a fire.”
Hagist has seen that fire burning during preseason practices, and he’s optimistic about what it might produce.
“They didn’t really know what to do with it this year,” he said. “I think this year they will, and we’ll see what happens.”
