EMERSON, Ga. – After having some early season games snowed-out back home, DeSoto Central High School from Southaven, Miss., was finally able to open its 2015 season last weekend at the LaGrange (Ga.) Toyota Invitational. The Jaguars polished off the rust and then polished off the competition, winning the tournament with a 4-0 record.
With that result packed in their backpacks, the nationally No. 16-ranked Jaguars and third-year head coach Mark Monaghan arrived at Perfect Game Park South at LakePoint Thursday morning as one of the favorites to win this weekend’s Perfect Game High School Showdown.
But this is early in the season – DeSoto Central is only about one-10th of the way through its 2015 schedule, and on Thursday Monaghan was keeping his eye on the big picture.
“It’s a great event, you’re on turf and you maybe get a little more attention but it’s still just a game,” Monaghan told PG. “We want to get better every time we go out and play, so regardless of how we do we hope to get better and learn from it so it can be something that helps us win a (Mississippi) state championship.
“That’s every one of these guys’ ultimate goal and nothing comes before that in terms of what we really want to accomplish this season.”
The Jaguars were at this event in Fort Myers, Fla., last year and finished second to Sarasota (Fla.) High School. With seven of its most prominent seniors in last year’s junior class, they went to finish as runner-up at the Mississippi Class 6A (big-school) state tournament, ending with a 28-10 overall record.
That’s worth noting because DeSoto Central began play at the PG HS Showdown with a 4-3 loss to upstart Houston High School from Germantown, Tenn. The Jaguars trailed 4-0 after two innings and got within 4-1 in the sixth before falling short.
They scored a pair of runs to start the seventh and had the tying and winning runs on third and second with no one out, but their Nos. 4, 5 and 6 hitters went down in order. It was a disappointing loss, to be sure, especially considering the high hopes this team had coming into the event.
“We’ve been looking forward to this all (winter), just preparing for it and everything,” senior right-hander Dallas Woolfolk told PG before he headed to the mound as the Jaguars’ starting (and ultimately, losing) pitcher. “Last year’s (Showdown) was an amazing experience and I feel like we’ve got a good team for this tournament.”
It was not to be on this day, but a single, early season loss does nothing to diminish what the DeSoto Central program has accomplished throughout its history or what it will more than likely accomplish yet this spring. Led by its seven standout seniors – five of whom have signed with either Mississippi State or Ole Miss – there is not telling what level of achievement the DCHS will reach this spring.
“This is a really special team for us,” Woolfolk said. “We play as a team and we just all get along together very well. It’s my senior year and everybody just comes together and plays as one. It’s a very special time to come together and play with all my teammates.”
It’s often cliché to hear a coach talk about having a group of players that have been playing alongside each other for years but in the case of the Jaguars it certainly applies. All of the key seniors on this team played at the varsity level as sophomores so the sometimes difficult process of building team chemistry has been ongoing for three years.
“We started more sophomores the first year I was here than any other class,” Monaghan said. “It was evident that it was a special group and special in the right areas. We knew going into their senior year that if everyone was healthy and stayed together, it would be a special group. Team chemistry has a lot to do with our success.”
The Jaguars top senior pitchers – right-handers Woolfolk, Austin Riley, Keegan James and Spencer Price – all pitched a ton of innings as sophomores, and have thrown to senior catcher Carson Klepzig for three seasons. “He’s been just phenomenal handling those big power arms like that,” Monaghan said of Klepzig.
“I feel like I know them really well,” Klepzig said. “Basically, sometimes it feels like we can read each other’s minds. We’ve all grown up together and have been really close friends; our families are close and everything so we really know each other really well. We feed off each other and it’s kind of contagious – if one person has a good attitude everybody does.”
Riley, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound primary third baseman, is a special talent. A Mississippi State signee, he played in the Perfect Game All-American Classic in San Diego last August and is ranked No. 65 in PG’s class of 2015 national high school prospect rankings; he projects as a legitimate draft prospect, likely to go in the first three or four rounds.
Woolfolk, a 6-foot-3, 205-pounder who can also play the two corner infield positions, is ranked 151st nationally and signed with Ole Miss; outfielder Brant Blaylock (Mississippi State) is at No. 442; Klepzig (Ole Miss), James (Mississippi State) and outfielder Colin Coates (Hinds Community College) are all top-500 prospects.
“To see them be successful, that’s outstanding,” Monaghan said. “That’s the unique thing about this group. There are guys, obviously, that are getting all the NCAA attention and (MLB) draft attention, but you’d never know it. They’re all about the team and that’s what makes it so awesome just being around them daily is because they just want to out here and play and compete.”
Added Woolfolk: “It was all of our goals, to play with a D-I college. That’s what we’ve been working for since we were little kids, to play at D-I schools.”
There is a lot to like about this group of Jaguars and one of the things Monaghan likes the most is their athleticism. The players work during the offseason to improve their athleticism and Monaghan has found that as it improves, so does the players’ versatility. All of the top pitchers are inserted at another position when they are not pitching, which keeps the best athletes in the lineup on a daily basis.
And, of course, the other thing that is easy to like is the players’ closeness with one another, which leads to that all important “good team chemistry.”
“We’re different; we know we want and we’re going to go get it,” Woolfolk said. “We’re playing to win state this year. That’s our goal, to win state, and come home with the championship.”
A loss in their opener at the PG High School Showdown may have ruined the Jaguars’ chances of winning a championship at the event, but in no way did it diminish expectations for the rest of the season. The “ultimate goal” is still very much intact.
“We felt like we had a great chance at winning the state championship last year, but we fell short,” Monaghan said. “The confidence that we gained through the experience of going down to Fort Myers and playing in the Showdown was part of what led to our success, and we kind of want to repeat those things.
“As a coaching staff we just want to do everything we can to set us up to be successful in the end.”
The 13-team tournament continues through Saturday and is running concurrently with the 11-team PG High School Showdown-Academies, which also concludes Saturday.