Cleburne Baseball Section

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True GritA SEASON OF

TRIUMPH

2012 State Finalists Cleburne Yellow Jacket Baseball Commemorative Edition

The story of how a close-knit group of hard-nosed, never-say-die athletes under the watchful eye of their commander defied the odds of becoming state finalists.

Cleburne Yellow Jacket Baseball Commemorative EditionPage 2 Sunday, July 1, 2012

True Grit The 2012 Cleburne Yellow Jackets

Cleburne Times-Review

True Grit: The 2012 Cleburne Yellow Jackets

Publisher Kay HelmsManaging Editor Dale GosserDesign/Layout John Henry Monica FaramWriters Pete Kendall, John HenryPhotographer David Beans Callie Staton

Advertising Kay Helms, Mgr. Sherri Jouet Eric Faught Tammy Kay Advertising Graphics Ashley Garey Connie Crannell

Cleburne Times-Review

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Onlinewww.cleburnetimes

review.com

Mayor Scott Cain .............................. Page 3Where There is a Will .................... Pages 4-6A Year in Review ........................... Pages 7-8Award winners, coaches .................... Page 9The team ................................. Pages 10-11

When Gen. Taylor Speaks ......... Pages 12-14Anxious playoff moments .................. Page 15Road to Round Rock ................ Pages 16-17The Time of their Lives .............. Pages 18-19Nick Woodall: All-State ..................... Page 20

Inside

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WESTHILLCONSTRUCTION, INC.

Congrats Jackets ona Great Season!

WAY TO GO #20 MAX REYNOLDS817-558-2504

Cleburne Yellow Jacket Baseball Commemorative EditionSunday, July 1, 2012 Page 3

They ‘captured our dreams and made our hearts swell with pride’

Baseball, hot dogs and apple pie. An American tradition.

For Cleburne, it’s now baseball, Round Rock and never-say-die. A

new page in Yellow Jackets history was writ-ten by a tremen-dous group of young men in 2012.

Almost 30 years

ago, Cleburne rallied around a team under the battle cry of “beat Brownwood!” Time stood still as Cleburne watched history in the making.

And for the past 30 years, the Brownwood football game has been the benchmark of community pride.

Until now.While community morale was

low, it was a sleeping giant ready to awaken at the crack of the bat. At just the right time for our com-munity, a team of baseball players captured our dreams and made our hearts swell with pride.

While prognosticator after

prognosticator said this Yellow Jackets baseball team could not win, a group of young men chose to believe otherwise.

During the historic playoff run, Cleburne’s boys beat teams they were told they could not beat. They knocked off a state champion, beat highly ranked teams and fought their way into the state tournament.

Most would be happy to just show up. But not our baseball team. They had character that was not yet fully demonstrated.

During the semifinal game and after falling way behind in the first few innings, the Yellow Jackets saw the other finals team head to their hotel rooms for rest.

Anybody who left that night would miss one of the greatest displays of courage, guts and self-less team effort ever displayed at the state tournament, if not in Texas high school sports.

Getting to the state finals is not what our community will remem-ber about this team.

It is the way they got there that is special.

There were no super stars, just a bunch of boys who believed in each other and believed in their community. Each night a different hero rose to the occasion. Each

night they played sound baseball. And each night, they never, ever gave up.

It also helped that each game, home or away, was home-field advantage for the Yellow Jackets, thanks to our fans. I am told that many op-posing coaches did not want to play in Cleburne because of the noise our fans made.

During the playoffs, they learned that home was where the Yellow Jackets played, regardless of location. Our fans never gave up.

And our students never gave up. At a time when many have written off Cleburne High School, our students proved them wrong, busying themselves preparing for state academic and athletic events. In fact, 162 of them were competing against the best that the great state of Texas had to offer. An accident or anomaly? I don’t think so.

As we look to Cleburne’s future and the coming growth of Texas 121, we must ensure that we remain dedicated to support our students. And to those who say Cleburne’s future is bleak, I say sting ‘em Jackets! Our future is bright!

Scott CainMayor of Cleburne

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Scott Cain, Mayor of the City of

Cleburne, Texas, do hereby proclaim June 6 through 8

as:

Support the Yellow Jacket Baseball Team Days

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“It takes a little courage, and a little

self-control. And some grim

determination. If you want to reach

the goal it takes a deal of striving,

and a firm and stern-set chin.

No matter what the battle, if you really

want to win. There’s no easy path to

glory, there’s no road to fame. Life, how-

ever we may view it, is no simple parlor

game; But its prizes call for fighting, for

endurance and for GRIT; for a rugged

disposition and don’t know when to quit.”

— Author unknown

By Pete Kendallspecial to the ctr

The 2012 Cleburne Yellow Jackets won’t go down in the annals as the most talented

baseball team to grace a base-ball field.

Make no mistake, these guys could play ball. You don’t win 30 games and not have ability.

What made this team special was their mastery of the intan-gibles: Attitude, chemistry, work ethic, leadership, confidence, humility.

And ... grit. The ability to stay resolved in

the face of adversity or unpleas-ant duty is ultimately what made this bunch a collective winner.

Brach Farmer was the face of grittiness in the Class 4A state

These Yellow Jackets were a determined lot who trusted one another to do their part in finding a way — any way — to get to the state tournament.

WhereThere

WILLIs a

David Beans/Special to the CTRTucker Nolen displays most proudly the Yellow Jackets’ enthusiasm for the game.

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semifinal victory over Lake Travis.The Cat Daddy, as he’s known

to two- and four-legged friends, did something he probably wasn’t supposed to be able to do, hold a Cavaliers team that had scored six runs in the first two innings to one run over the next seven.

In so doing, he helped the Yellow Jackets do something they definitely weren’t supposed to be able to do, upset Austin Lake Travis, 9-7.

Cleburne was down 6-0 almost before 3,000-plus fans were settled in their seats. That could have been the end of a stirring run of playoff successes.

It wasn’t the end because Farmer shut the door, and the resil-ient Yellow Jackets started pecking away.

First, they tied the score with a six-run fourth inning. They fell behind by a run, tied it again, then scored twice in the eighth to win.

“After the second game [playoff loss] at Stephenville, Brach told us, ‘We’ve got this thing tomorrow.

Don’t worry, guys,’” second base-man Conner Martyniuk said.

Farmer was pitching. And Farmer shut down the Yellowjack-ets at Waco.

Farmer is the strong, silent type, modest around those with clipboards and tape recorders. He acknowledged what was said after the second Stephenville game.

“I remember that,” Farmer said with a grin. “I guess the other guys looked up to me because I could close or pitch anytime they needed me.”

Farmer wasn’t necessarily sur-prised that he pitched, and pitched well, in three big playoff games.

“I just knew it was my job,” he said.

The Lake Travis game was a little different. German Hernandez started on the mound, and the Yel-low Jackets could usually count on him to throw a complete game. He almost didn’t get out of the first.

“I didn’t start out the game in the bullpen,” Farmer said. “[Ross Taylor] told me to go warm up at

the end of the first. If I’m told to hurry, I’ll get 10 to 12 warm-up pitches before I go in. That’s about what I got. I felt good when I came in. Adrenalin helps you a lot.

“I was thinking to myself, ‘Stay low.’ They were hitting German up [in the strike zone].”

Farmer had the backing of his teammates. They’d seen him handcuff Stephenville and Wichita Falls Rider.

“We trusted Brach,” Martyniuk said. “We knew he’d keep it close no matter what. You can’t get any-where without trust. Trust is 100 percent of it.”

Cooper Walls added, “Brach’s a bulldog. When he puts his mind to it, he’s going to win. When he’s on, he refuses to lose. The whole team was like that in the playoffs.”

Farmer added, “[The players] had a huge bond. That started about the first of district when we began having get-togethers. Then we real-ized we could win.”

The second-round game against Arlington Heights was key, Walls

said.“Heights was very good, prob-

ably the second-best team we played [before the state tourna-ment] besides Midway.”

Trust … courage ... grit.It takes grit to beat Heights,

the most storied program in Fort Worth. It takes grit to come back from a nasty loss in Game 2 of a series with Stephenville to win Game 3.

It takes grit and near perfec-tion to sweep Rider, the defending Class 4A state champion, at a site where the Raiders had never lost a game, Graham. It takes cour-age to win a series with Midway, anywhere and anytime.

And it certainly takes courage to beat Austin Lake Travis after falling behind 6-0.

“Lake Travis was the most arrogant team we played,” Walls said. “Cocky, arrogant. We were much more humble. I think we were more humble than Heath, too, but the talent [difference] was overwhelming.”

If your teammates don’t have what many perceive as state tour-nament ability, you have to trust the guy next to you to do his job … and hope that if you do yours just as well, you have a pretty good chance to win.

That’s how the Yellow Jackets operated.

“We didn’t have any Division I recruits. We just played as a team,” catcher Max Reynolds said. “There were a lot of leaders. When some-one was down, someone would step up. It didn’t have to be me, Cooper or German. Everyone was a leader.”

Martyniuk added, “We didn’t have any stars. We just refused to lose. We knew we could play with anybody. Not everyone was going to have a stellar night, but we’d get clutch performances, whether it was from a senior or freshman.”

The Lake Travis Cavaliers were fit to be tied against what they regarded as an inferior opponent.

“They were definitely pretty

“We trusted Brach. We knew he’d keep it close no matter what. You can’t get anywhere without trust. Trust is 100 percent of it.”

— Conner Martyniuk, on the relief role played by Brach Farmer, right, in the state semifinals

“I just knew it was my job.”— Brach Farmer

See GRIT, Page 6

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mad about [losing],” Martyniuk said. “A lot of people were sur-prised we got to the state tourna-ment. That just motivated us more.

“Coach Taylor told us every game was like every other game. We bought into that. That’s how it works. They [the Cavaliers] said, ‘We’d beat them nine out of 10 times.’ As long as it’s the one we

win, that’s all that matters.”Reynolds had the duty of han-

dling three pitchers — Hernandez, Farmer and Cash Calahan.

“Everyone has a different personality,” he said. “You have to talk differently to different people to calm them down. German is pretty laid-back. I usually didn’t have to go out and talk to him, but I did, any-way. With Brach, you’d go out there and tell a joke, get him to refocus.”

Walls attributed a lot of the Yel-low Jackets’ success to love. The players had bonded years before.

“We knew we weren’t the best team in the state physically,” he said, “but there was no better actual team. We believed in each other. We loved each other.“

Individual recognition wasn’t what the Yellow Jackets were after.

“Coach never told us our stats,” Walls said. “We didn’t care. When

you win district, you’re all-district.”Walls said he’d never been part

of a team that played as hard.“Everyone wanted to go to state,

and we played like it. The begin-ning of the season was rough. Man-sfield Summit is when we decided we were going to state, and from that time we went like 21-3.”

One of the losses was to Granbury. “After the coaches left the dress-

ing room, the players talked about

the game,” Walls said. “When you lose to Granbury, Coach Taylor isn’t your best friend.”

Perhaps whatever Taylor said was for motivation ... and worked.

“I can’t figure him out,” Walls said, “but whatever he does sure works. He kind of challenged our manhood at one practice. But he didn’t have to do it again. After four years, I love that man more than anything.”


“We knew we weren’t

the best team in the state

physically, but there was no better actual

team. We believed in

each other. We loved

each other.“— Cooper Walls

Callie Staton/Special to the CTR

From Page 5

6

James Hardie. The Making of a Dream Home.

A Great Place To Work.www.jameshardie.com

Congratulations on a great season! Yellow Jacket Baseball 2012!


Cleburne 9, Azle 5Max Reynolds’ two-run single opens up a decisive five-run eighth for the Yellow Jackets.

Cleburne 8, Harker Heights 2Reynolds has a double and two RBIs, and Cooper Walls reaches based three times and had a stolen base.

Waco University 4, Cleburne 1The Trojans strike for two runs in the first and hold Yellow Jackets batters to two hits.

West 3, Cleburne 1A Jackets error leads to the game-winner in the third, and West adds insurance in the fourth.

Cleburne 9, Waco University 4Reynolds, Quade Coward and Con-ner Martyniuk all have run-scoring hits in a seven-run first for the Yellow Jackets, who even the score with University.

Cleburne 13, Boswell 1The Yellow Jackets run-rule the Pioneers for their fourth victory.

Abilene Cooper 4, Cleburne 0Cleburne bats fall silent in support of

Brach Farmer, who is also victimized by two errors in the third that lead to two runs for Class 5A Cooper.

Cleburne 5, Western Hills 3Reynolds, Walls and Conner Ma-tyniuk had RBIs, and Walls earns the victory on the mound.

Cleburne 7, Brewer 4Tucker Nolen drives in two runs and freshman Stevan Martinez’s single scores two more as the Jackets hold off a late rally by the Bears.

Cleburne 6, Saginaw 0Freshman Tyler Fowler helps his own cause from the mound with a two-run double in the fourth.

Cleburne 3, Granbury 2Martinez drives in the game-winner with a walkoff base hit in the bottom of the seventh.

Cleburne 7, Keller Timber Creek 0Farmer and the Jackets make easy work of the Keller school.

Springtown 5, Cleburne 4A three-run surge in the fourth cuts into a 4-0 deficit, but the Yellow Jackets can’t catch the Porcupines.

Boswell 3, Cleburne 2The Pioneers nip the Yellow Jackets with a run in the seventh.

Burleson 1, Cleburne 0The archrival Elks win a pitchers’ duel with German Hernandez, whose only mistake was giving up an RBI double in the fourth.

Cleburne 1, Mansfield Summit 0The Yellow Jackets return the favor, gaining a District 7-4A victory when Hernandez comes home on Nolen’s sacrifice fly.

Cleburne 2, Stephenville 1A third consecutive one-run game goes in favor of the Jackets, who use Coward’s RBI in the ninth to win.

Crowley 5, Cleburne 4Nick Woodall and Martyniuk score on Fowler’s double in the ninth, but the Jackets strand the tying run.

Cleburne 2, Joshua 1Cash Calahan confounds the Owls and Woodall drives in the game-winner.

Cleburne 8, Burleson Centennial 3The Jackets take advantage of three first-inning walks to score four times, including twice on Nolen’s double to right-center field.

Cleburne 12, Everman 3Hernandez and Fowler each have two RBIs, and Woodall goes 3-for-5 with two doubles and an RBI.

They came, they saw, they conquered2012 in review

David Beans/Special to the CTR

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The entire staff at Jeff England Motor Company would like to congratulate the 2012 Cleburne

Yellow Jackets on a remarkable season!!

1736 N. Main • CleburnePhone: (817) 558-4466

www.jeff england.net


True Grit The 2012 Cleburne Yellow JacketsCleburne 7, Arlington Seguin 3Walls scores twice and has an RBI in support of Calahan’s complete-game victory on the road.

Granbury 5, Cleburne 4The Pirates edge the visitors with three in the second and one each in the fourth and fifth. Woodall goes 2-for-4.

Cleburne 5, Summit 1Hernandez knocks in two during a three-run seventh that seals the season sweep of the Jaguars.

Cleburne 4, Crowley 0Hernandez knocks in two in the first and rides the momentum of one other run in that inning to shut out the Eagles.

Mansfield Legacy 4, Cleburne 0Legacy sends nine hitters to the plate and capitalize on four errors to score four in the fifth and send Calahan to his only loss in district.

Cleburne 7, Joshua 1The Jackets erupt for seven runs in the sixth.

Cleburne 8, Everman 3Woodall has a double, a triple and three RBIs to make a winner out of Hernandez.

Cleburne 9, Arlington Seguin 4Woodall goes 4-for-4, and Walls scores three runs.

Cleburne 8, Waco 1The Jackets open the playoffs with a resounding bi-district victory, won by Hernandez, who goes six innings.

Cleburne 7, Arlington Heights 2Nolen’s two-run double in the fifth clinches the Jackets’ thumping of the Fort Worth powerhouse.

Cleburne 3, Stephenville 2Martyniuk drives in Woodall with the tying run and scores the winner on Fowler’s double to left in the Game 1 of the regional quarterfinals series.

Stephenville 5, Cleburne 4Stephenville strikes with a four-run first to even the best-of-three series at 1-1.

Cleburne 7, Stephenville 0The Yellow Jackets run wild, stealing six bases in a six-run sixth inning to advance.

Cleburne 1, Wichita Falls Rider 0Hernandez aces a Game 1 test in the Region I semifinals.

Cleburne 5, Wichita Falls Rider 0A second consecutive shutout, this one by Farmer, has the Jackets in the regional finals. Woodall’s three-run double keys four-run sixth.

Cleburne 5, Waco Midway 1An error and a wild pitch lead to two first-inning runs, and Hernandez does the rest.

Waco Midway 7, Cleburne 2Midway evens the series with five runs in the third and fifth innings.

Cleburne 2, Waco Midway 1Hello, state tournament! Reynolds drives in Nolen in what turned out to be the winning run in the fourth, and Calahan and Hernandez hold off Midway.

Cleburne 9, Lake Travis 7Martyniuk makes winners of the Jack-ets with a base hit in the eighth that drives in Walls and Woodall.

Rockwall Heath 10, Cleburne 1The Jackets’ season ends with a loss in the Class 4A state final.

A little fun along the way

What playoff pressure?On the bus ride home

from a rainout with Arling-ton Heights, the players de-cided to choreograph their rendition of the Harvard baseball team’s music vid-eo of Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe.”

The team presented its final cut at the baseball banquet last month.

“We were bored, so we thought we’d give it a try,” Max Reynolds said.

Like the Harvard video, the inside of the moving bus shows one player serenad-ing a sleeping teammate.

At the refrain, another player pops up from be-hind a seat and in sync the two begin an orches-trated pumping of fists and crossing of their arms.

When the next verse be-gins, the two players hide behind the seats and another pops up, again singing to the sleeping teammate. Then, additional players begin the refrain choreography.

This continues un-til the entire team is in-volved. — John Henry

David Beans/Special to the CTRA come-from-behind victory in the state semifinals translated to good times for Cleburne.

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Ross Taylor

The coaches

Dustin Fish

Tony Theriault

Brent Burton

Ryan Stepp

Wayland White

AccoladesAll-State Tournament selections

Brach Farmer, Sr. pitcher Conner Martyniuk, Sr. second base Nick Woodall, Jr. outfield

District 7-4A All-District Selections

PitchersGerman HernandezCash Calahan

Second baseConner Martyniuk

OutfieldCooper Walls

Ross Taylor, Coach of the Year Nick Woodall, Offensive Player of the Year

The Seniors What’s nextDylan Grigsby Will study at UT San Antonio.

Conner Martyniuk Headed to Mid-western State in Wichita Falls where he will pursue a spot on the football team.

Justin Luna Will begin his academic career at Blinn Junior College.

Cody Sibley Will enroll at West Texas A&M in Canyon up in the Panhandle.

Colton Kennon Will be a Cougar, a student at the University of Houston.

Tanner Marchel Will go west and pursue his academic studies at Texas Tech.

Preston Bullard Will join three other teammates on the South Plains at Texas Tech.

Brach Farmer Will play baseball at either Wharton or Seminole State College.

Haden Wright Will enroll at Hill College.

Max Reynolds The third Yellow Jacket who will become a Red Raider at Texas Tech.

German Hernandez Will continue his baseball career at Frank Phillips Col-lege.

Cooper Walls Going to Lubbock to study at Texas Tech.

David Beans/Special to the CTRCody Sibley

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Yellow Jacket Baseball Commemorative EditionPage 10 Sunday, July 1, 2012

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tylerfowler

dylangrigsby

coltonkennon

maxreynolds

caseykirkland

stevanmartinez

nickwoodall

#3 fr ss/p #4 sr 2b

#12 sr 2b

#20 sr c

#11 jr 1b

#1 fr rf/ss #2 fr rf/ss

nieladcock

hadenwright

codysibley

brachfarmer

#10 fr of/3b

#18 sr rf

#9 sr p

#17 sr p

loganrunyon

#19 fr c

Yellow Jacket Baseball Commemorative EditionSunday, July 1, 2012 Page 11

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cashcalahan

tuckernolen

wilspurgeon

connermartyniuk

#5 jr p

#13 jr dh/rf

#21 fr cf

#6 sr 2b

danielrichardson

quadecoward

justinluna

prestonbullard

cooperwalls

#7 so 3b

#15 jr 1b

#8 sr cf

#16 sr 3b

#24 sr cf/p

tannermarchel

germanhernandez

#14 sr 1b

#22 sr p/3b

fosterkelm

#23 so p



Gen. Taylor speaks ...


As a longtime educator in the Canyon and Cleburne school districts, Ross Taylor is neither marionette nor puppet.

But he does believe in underlings doing as they’re told without excessive feed-back.

So he was somewhat chagrined his first season as baseball coach at Cleburne High School in 1998 when a player second-guessed an order that required no discus-sion.

Taylor gave the youngster the bunt sign. The player turned back and strolled to the third-base box.

“Didn’t you know I’m the second com-ing of Babe Ruth? Or at least Joe Pepit-one?” was the message for Taylor. “You wouldn’t give those guys the bunt sign.”

That would leave any coach, in the shorthand parlance of our day, in a state of “SMH.”

Shaking my head.For several reasons, Taylor said, that

was one of his toughest seasons at Cle-burne.

When

people listen It took some doing, but coach Ross Taylor is the drill sergeant who has molded a program and players into his own image.


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Matters have since progressed considerably.Now almost a constant as a playoff entry, Cle-

burne has taken two trips to the state tournament under Taylor.

In 2004, it was with superior talent that includ-ed Dillon Gee, a future major-leaguer, and Russell Young. In 2012, it was with talent that most would consider inferior to that of most of the Yellow Jack-ets’ postseason opponents … in particular Waco Midway and Austin Lake Travis.

“The first year was tough,” he said. “I came in thinking I was going to have a group of kids that had already gradu-ated. [Athletic director] Dennis Parker told me, ‘Oh, yeah, those are the guys you’ll be coach-ing.’ When the first spring rolled around — we didn’t have an off-season back then — I’m going, ‘Where is this kid? Where is that kid?’

“The first year was tough on my family. It was the first time that people who were mad at me felt they needed to take it out on my family. That was unfortunate because my wife and kids didn’t have anything to do with the decisions I made on the field.

“But we lived through it. We finished that season playing a lot of young guys because we had a hard time getting some of the older guys to buy into what we wanted to do. The next year, those young players were better as sophomores and juniors than they’d been as freshmen and sophomores.”

All for oneThe second season, Taylor

ran afoul of several of the opposing baseball coach-es, who drew the schedule to create doubleheaders. Cleburne ended up with a twinbill at home against Granbury and two on the road against Burleson and Brownwood.

“That was orchestrated by Granbury, Brown-wood and Burleson, the idea being that you’ll play two doubleheaders on the road this year, but next year have those doubleheaders at home,” Taylor said. “That never happened the next year because [the schedule was redrawn for North Crowley].”

The second year, Cleburne finished 10-6 in district and one game out of the playoffs because the Yellow Jackets were swept in a doubleheader at Brownwood the last day of the season.

“It was not a fair scenario for all the kids involved and not just our kids,” Taylor said. “It depended on who you played. Granbury was dis-

trict champion and Brownwood second. Granbury had the [Eric] Tomlinson kid, and Brownwood had Clyde Meeks and Deacon Burns.”

The Yellow Jackets would have better baseball talent down the road, but the ’99 team was much like the 2012 team in one respect — players bought into the team concept.

Among the regulars were Keaton Fails, Michael Skoog, Wes Parnell, Matt [Pig] Dill and Hector Patino.

“We had more buy-in the second year, and the third year we were in the playoffs,” Taylor said. “We started a four- or five-year run where we kept getting better. After the ’04 season, we were good enough to be a playoff team, but we didn’t accept the challenge that comes with making it that far [state tournament].

“All of a sudden, there was a big target on our back, especially in pre-district. Everybody wanted a piece of us. We were really kind of average in ’05, but we came back and won the district. We went to the quarterfinals that year and had a team capable of going further than that.

“It’s been pretty steady. I think it’s accepted by the community and coaches that we’re supposed to be a playoff team. For the most part, it’s what our players expect.”

Taylor placed a major emphasis on team base-

ball when he arrived. There was resistance, he said.“That was tough for me because I didn’t have

that issue where I came from [Canyon Randall]. We’d been a steady playoff team there. I wasn’t used to guys calling timeout and telling me, ‘You don’t give the four-hole hitter the hit-and-run.’ Hey, you’re a high school baseball player. If you were a major leaguer with 45 home runs, I prob-ably wouldn’t give you a bunt sign or hit-and-run sign.”

That makes him even more appreciative of the early play-ers who bought in entirely.

“Keaton Fails, Wesley Parnell and Matt Dill bought in. Hector Patino was one of the first who tried to buy in. Michael Skoog, after he got over an injury, had two good years for us. Fails was a really good athlete and a class act.

“We still use some of those guys as examples. Some years, we’ll get catchers with a lot of ability, and some years we won’t. Matt Dill didn’t have a lot of ability, but he was a ballplayer. He intimidated a lot of guys and put off running by the way he threw the ball back to the mound and to second base between innings. Everything he threw had a purpose. The purpose was: Don’t run on me.

“This year, we had Max [Reynolds], another Matt Dill kind of guy. Physically, he wasn’t as strong as some other guys have been, but he played with a purpose and did a great job. He did some things that some people might

not notice.”

The motivatorAs a coach, Taylor has been described as feisty

and gruff. Off the field, he can be quite fun-loving. As a psychology major and teacher, he has a pretty good idea what image he’s projecting ... and why.

“People ask me, ‘Are you mad.’ I say, ‘If I were really mad, you’d know it.’ We talk about first im-pressions in psychology class and how it’s hard to get over that. I’ve walked around the Little League park and heard, ‘If you think it’s tough here, wait until Coach Taylor gets hold of you.’

“It is what it is. I’m not going to be many little kids’ friend until they grow up. I tell people that from the beginning. I’ll be as friendly as they’ll allow me to be. Sometimes, familiarity breeds

“We have some kids who are

good enough physically, but

they get the idea they’re the big fish

in a little pond. You say

something to them, and they

say, ‘Well, I’m the best you’ve got.’

“That’s true. They’re the best

we’ve got. But are they the best that they can be? That’s what we’re

trying to teach our guys. Have you

reached your potential? If ev-

eryone in this program reaches his potential, then

we’ll win a lot of games.

— Ross Taylor

See TAYLOR, Page 14

Ross TaylorRoss Taylor, in his 15th season at

Cleburne High School, is a graduate of Caprock High school in Amarillo and earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Eastern Oregon State College and a master’s in edu-cation from West Texas A&M.

He and his wife, Kim, have two children, Kayla, a former softball player at Cleburne who now teaches English at the school; and Ty, who played for his father at Cleburne. Ty plays for Oklahoma.

1984 Began high school career at Amarillo

Caprock High School.

1990 Selected head base-ball coach at Canyon

Randall High school before becom-ing assistant principal at the school in 1996.


13



contempt. If you’re too friendly, especially with young kids, they forget that I’m the coach and they’re the player. You have to be careful about that.

“I think we have a generation of kids who’ve been encouraged to voice their opinions. That’s all well and good. I was encouraged to do that at my house. But they still have to understand the position they’re in. They’re not the boss yet. They’ll be the boss someday. Right now, they’re not.”

Legendary basketball coach Charlie Turner once said that respect was a primary motivator for kids but that a little fear never hurt.

“I think fear is a motivator,” Taylor said. “I think love is another. You can be motivated in a number of ways. I don’t wake up in the morn-ing thinking about who I can make afraid of me today. That’s not what I’m after.”

He’s probably not looking to be their friend.“Not unless they need me to be,” Taylor

said. “There are some kids I’m going to pet here. There are others who get plenty of that at home. I don’t try to fill that void if it’s already being filled. Probably the toughest thing in coaching is figuring your kids out so you know what they need.”

He definitely attempts to instill responsibil-ity in his players.

“I think we have a generation of coaches coming along whose mentality is they don’t coach effort and attitude,” Taylor said. “Well, you don’t have to if it’s college and you can re-

cruit. You can recruit guys with great attitudes, so all you have to do is coach technique.

“In high school, we coach the kids who come through, and we do have to coach effort and attitude sometimes. We have some kids who are good enough physically, but they get the idea they’re the big fish in a little pond. You say something to them, and they say, ‘Well, I’m the best you’ve got.’

“That’s true. They’re the best we’ve got. But are they the best that they can be? That’s what we’re trying to teach our guys. Have you reached your potential? If everyone in this program reaches his potential, then we’ll win a lot of games and get the people of Cleburne excited about baseball.

“But if they don’t reach their potential, then we’re going to be average in a lot of years.”

He likes to win. He likes things that con-tribute to winning.

“For me, it’s not about winning or losing. It’s about playing the game well,” Taylor said. “If we do that often enough, our record will show it.”

When he’s asked how long he’ll be in Cleburne, he remembers a coaches’ meeting his first year at Parker’s country estate.

“We were introducing ourselves and basically stating why we were in Cleburne,” Taylor said. “I said, ‘I’m here to win a state championship.’ I had the fire to coach hard and try to win. The day that fire goes out, I’ll hang it up and hand it to somebody else.”

Ross Taylor knows when to have fun, too, as German Hernandez can tell you. “Proba-bly the toughest thing in coaching is figur-ing your kids out so you know what they need,” he said.Courtesy photo

From Page 13

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Tanner Marchel

#14

coltonkennon

#12

QuadeCoward

#15


The “fourth” of JuneThe inning heard ’round Round Rock, when Cle-burne made its unforgettable run to come back from six runs down. Here’s how it happened:zx Nick Woodall ground out, shortstop to first base.zx German Hernandez single to right-center field.zx Conner Martyniuk struck out.zx Tyler Fowler hit-by-pitch. Hernandez advanced to second.zx Tucker Nolen walk. Hernandez to third, Fowler to second.zx Quade Coward hit-by-pitch. Hernandez scored, Fowler to third, Nolen to second. Lake Travis 6, Cleburne 1zx Max Reynolds walk. Fowler scored, Nolen to third, Coward to second. Lake Travis 6, Cleburne 2zx Stevan Martinez single to center. Nolen, Coward score, Tanner Marchel, run-ning for Reynolds, to sec-ond. Lake Travis 6, Cleburne 4zx Cooper Walls walk, Marchel to third, Martinez to second.zx Woodall single to left. Marchel and Martinez score. Lake Travis 6, Cleburne 6zx Hernandez struck out.


Anyone who saw it will never forget Cleburne’s im-probable 9-7 come-from-behind victory against Austin Lake Travis in the semifinals of the Class 4A state baseball tournament.

It’s what got the Yellow Jackets to the champion-ship game and provided perhaps the best example of everything the Yellow Jackets did so right for most of the season.

They played like gang-busters and never gave up.

Down 6-0 to the Cavaliers early, the Yellow Jackets battled back, scor-ing six runs in the fourth inning — started by a Ger-man Hernandez single and capped by a two-run single by Nick Woodall. All with two outs.

Cleburne fell behind in the late innings by a run, tied it again and won it with two runs in the eighth.

A huge crowd of more than 3,700 was on hand to applaud the achievement — or if you were from Lake Travis, to curse it — and fans were still talk-ing about it 24 hours later despite Cleburne’s 10-1 loss to Rockwall Heath in the final.

No dispute, really, that Cleburne-Lake Travis was the biggest game on the biggest stage on the Yellow Jackets’ 41-game schedule.

But there were a couple that were close.

A week previous in

Hewitt, the Yellow Jackets needed to win the rubber game of a three-game se-ries against Waco Midway to advance to Round Rock.

Junior pitcher Cash Calahan scattered three hits over six innings in a 2-1 victory against the Panthers.

Calahan struck out three and walked two and pitched to one batter in the seventh before giving way to Game 1’s pitching sensa-tion, Hernandez, with no outs and one aboard.

The Panthers got a lone run to cut the lead in half on a sacrifice popup into short right field. The game ended moments later. Zach Johnigan lined out to first baseman Quade Coward. Dustin Vasek, running on the play, was almost to third when Coward threw to second to complete the double play.

If the Lake Travis game was No. 1, Midway was 1A. And if Midway was 1A, Cleburne’s 1-0 win over Wichita Falls Rider in Game 1 of the third round series at Graham was 1B.

Hernandez was never better, allowing only one hit, in the fifth.

He struck out five, and the Yellow Jackets made an assortment of dandy plays behind him.

Cooper Walls and Wood-all got a month’s worth of exercise running down shots to center and left.

Cleburne scored the only run in the bottom of the sixth. Tucker Nolen

was hit by a pitch, and Coward reached first on an error. Max Reynolds struck out to bring Stevan Martinez to the dish.

He took a first-pitch strike, then stroked a fast-ball to left, and Nolen came chugging around third with the run.

Interesting that two different pitchers would be the Cleburne stars in the games against Midway and Rider. A third pitcher, se-nior Brach Farmer, was the youngster without whom the Yellow Jackets could not possibly have beaten Lake Travis.

Farmer relieved with the score 6-0 and a man aboard in the second and allowed three hits in seven subse-quent innings.

In a wild eighth, leadoff hitter Walls reached first on an infield hit. Woodall set down an oil painting of a bunt, the Cavaliers flubbed it, and Cleburne had run-ners at second and third with no outs.

Hernandez walked to load the bases. Conner Martyniuk lifted a single to left to score both runners.

It was up to Farmer and his defense to hold the lead in the bottom of the inning. The Yellow Jackets made short work of a trio of Cavaliers on a fly ball to Walls in center, a grounder to Tyler Fowler at shortstop and another fly to Walls.

Which was the better game? We’ll let you make the call. They were all dandies.

Things that make you go ...

Whoa!The Yellow Jackets’ thrilling playoff run kept coaches, parents and fans on the

edge of their seats.

15


True Grit The 2012 Cleburne Yellow Jackets’ Road to Round Rock

Bi-district Area Regional quarterfinals

Regional semifinals

Regional final

Bi-districtAreaRegional quarterfinals

Regional semifinals

Regional final

# - DistrictW - Winner

R - Runner-upT - Third

F - Fourth

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Bi-district Area Regional quarterfinals

Regional semifinals

Regional final

Bi-districtAreaRegional quarterfinals

Regional semifinals

Regional final

# - DistrictW - Winner

R - Runner-upT - Third

F - Fourth

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A & A Metal would like to extend our congratulations to Quade Coward

and the rest of 2012 Cleburne Yellow Jacket Varsity baseball team!!

817-641-9383 / 115 S. Front St., Cleburne / M-F 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Sat. 8 a.m. - Noon

Cleburne Yellow Jacket Baseball Commemorative EditionPage 18 Sunday, july 1, 2012


The time of their livesThis baseball season won’t soon be forgotten by the Cleburne community. The players and their families ... well, they’ll never forget the memories of the spring of 2012.

Going to state ... Party time!David Beans/Special to the CTR

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Cleburne Yellow Jacket Baseball Commemorative EditionSunday, july 1, 2012 Page 19

Photos by David Beans

Preston Bullard Cooper Walls German Hernandez

Cash Calahan Conner Martyniuk

District champsNick Woodall

Max Reynolds

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Nick Woodall Class 4A All-State

.372Team-leading batting average, including .490 in District 7-4A. That’s smokin’.

26If there was a runner in scoring position, Woodall was better than anybody driving them home. He was tops among 2012 Yellow Jackets with 26 RBIs and hit a blistering .484 with runners in scoring position

.463The junior had a power drive, leading all teammates in slugging percentage. That number increased to .612 in district.

7

By the numbers

Fowler and Woodall and German Hernandez each had a team-leading seven doubles. Junior Tucker Nolen was next with six.

2Coincidentally perhaps, three players shared the team lead in triples (2), freshman Tyler Fowler, Nick Woodall and Cooper Walls.

86RBIs by top run-producing underclassmen, including 34 by freshmen Fowler and Stevan Martinez. In addi-tion to Woodall, the team’s top run producer, juniors Nolen (16 RBIs) and Quade Coward (10) return.

1.70Combined ERA among the Yellow Jackets’ pitching staff, led by starter Brach Farmer’s 1.51, followed by Cash Calahan and German Hernandez (1.71 each) by hurlers who had at least 25 innings pitched.

8-3Top winner among Cle-burne starters was Farmer, followed by Hernandez at 8-4 and Calahan, both District 7-4A All-District performers, at 7-1.

65Strikeouts for team-leader German Hernandez.


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