Riverside Baseball.....

[Ernest T.Cox]

RHS was one of the top programs in the state the prior decade producing a lot of big-time players but they seem to have fallen off the radar the last few years....any explanations? Thanks!

 

[LeftyTosser]

Coaching change. End of story.

 

[Jhawk4]

coaching change twice!

 

[BBFan413]

no Nester, Jake Williams, Roth, Scott, Cisco's to name a few. Any coach could win in 3A baseball with ACC/SEC/PRO talent.

 

[LeftyTosser]

The coaching change had a lot to do with the talent level also.

 

[Ernest T.Cox]

Just out of curiosity, did some of the talent migrate to Byrnes? Their rise & Riverside's decline seem to coincide.

 

[LeftyTosser]

I believe a lot of it headed east and south. The other part of the situation is that the former coach was able to get the rec and travel teams that were headed to his school following his program. Unfortunately most varsity coaches don't think about down the road, only the team they currently have at the school.

 

[Jhawk4]

Originally posted by BBFan413:
no Nester, Jake Williams, Roth, Scott, Cisco's to name a few. Any coach could win in 3A baseball with ACC/SEC/PRO talent.

Nester wasnt missed, Roth yes, Jake yes, Cisco didnt go to Riverside and the talent line came through Riverside starting when Don Miller was there. But I do not see another team coming close to the 2003-2004 teams with Chalk, Adam and Andrew Crisp, Will Kish, Adam Wood, Brad Hocking, Kyle Enders, Alex Farrotto, Marc Young, Jake Williams as a Freshman and yes Nester was a backup on those teams. That group was special and everyone knew it was special when Tom Myers, Brian Stanton, and Dean Crisp won the USSSA national championship with the Spirit. Riverside had talent in the past few years but not 11 Division 1 players. (8 actually played D1 ball while the other 3 would have but cut short due to injuries)

 

[Dogvendor]

It is a combination of all of the above. Jhawk is correct in saying that the earlier teams were more talented than the later ones. Even though Riverside seemed to be dominant all through the first decade of this century, it has been quite a long time since they won or even played for a state championship in any classification.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Riverside was slated to move up to AAAA several years ago, and wound up staying in AAA due to another school in the Rock Hill area not wanting to be moved down due to travel considerations. Now some may think that it doesn't make much difference, but when you have a school with 1450 - 1500 students matching up against schools with 1200, that gives you in the neighborhood of 2-3 more seniors/starters than your competition. I think that the move to AAAA has had more of an effect than anything else.