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Tournaments  | Story  | 6/7/2017

GTB emphasizes team play

Steven Walters     
Photo: Perfect Game

EMERSON, Ga. – “Pray together, play together.” Those are the words that GTB head coach Jamey McDaniel offered as a glimpse of what their organization is about. The 13u Warner Robbins-based organization centers their team around Christian principles and aims to mold its kids into quality young men.

“The first thing we do is make sure our kids, our families are all focused on God,” said assistant coach Dave Bowen. “In everything we do, we want to make sure that they’re representing God in the way that he would want to be represented, so in everything that we talk about, we talk about ‘is this something that you would think would be viewed upon as positive?’”

McDaniel said that winning is nice, but he wants his players to be there for each other. They want their players to be selfless and to see the needs of others around them. McDaniel said that when a team supports each other, success can then be built off that.

“We work on the outside part too,” McDaniel said. “We want to mold them for high school, college and after. We’re not just chasing trophies. [Our philosophy is] to be a good teammate,” McDaniel said. “You’ve got to be a good teammate. You’ve got to play for yourself, but you’ve got to play for the team because if you don’t play as a team, you won’t succeed.”

Bonding outside of the field is something that is important to GTB, which travels for much of the summer. They take a different approach to practice, having their players take part in private lessons because of the diverse mix of states represented on the team. The team is comprised of players from Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and Kansas City, so they do not get the opportunity to be with each other for extended periods of time until the summer.

“We’ve been playing together for about 2 1/2 years, [we have] great families, great kids, they bond together on and off the field,” McDaniel said. “We stay together and eat every meal together every time we travel. We hang out together and always do something extra.”

“We fit together well,” said pitcher Jamey McDaniel Jr. “It’s natural.”

The team places emphasis on more than just winning, and the faith aspect creeps into the way they go about their business. They want to prepare their kids for the next level of baseball, and they do so by taking a different approach than most, one that they believe has a positive impact on their players.

“You’ll never see us yell, you’ll never see us ridicule a child, and we want people to notice that and notice that we are different in our approach, and because we put God first, that makes our approach different,” Bowen said.

Many of the players recognized the impact that their coaches have had on them, including second baseman Andrew James, who expressed how much he enjoyed the team and what the organization stands for.

“They tell us what we’re doing wrong, and they help us do it better,” James said.

The team made its first trip to LakePoint Park for the 13u Perfect Game/East Cobb Invitational, but is no stranger to Perfect Game events.

“We’ve played in a lot of Perfect Game [events] in Florida,” McDaniel Sr. said. “This is our first time at LakePoint, and it’s an awesome facility. We’ve been to Cooperstown as a team, we’ve been to California, Texas and all over the southeast, and by far this is the nicest complex we’ve played in.”

“It’s been amazing,” Dylan Bowen said about playing in Perfect Game tournaments. ”It’s my favorite type of tournaments to play in.”

Competing and growing as a team were the goals mentioned by the coaches for their team in this tournament. They also said that they wanted to see how they stacked up against teams who are able to practice on a consistent basis as a team, something that they do not have the luxury of doing.

In their first game, GTB faced the No. 6 overall 13u East Cobb Astros, losing 8-0. Dylan Bowen went 1-for-2, and Clayton Hicks threw 1 1/3 innings in relief while allowing no baserunners and striking out two in that game. Even though the team was shutout, they were looking to bounce back and saw the positive in facing a team like that in the tournament.

“I think Perfect Game is getting it right in the way that they’re tracking things. They’re showing kids where they stand against competition at the higher levels, at the middle levels, at the lower levels, and I think that’s really important for kids at this age especially. As you get ready for high school, you can see ‘where do I need to work?’ ‘How do I match up against an East Cobb?’ ‘Can I compete with them?’ and if I can’t, ‘What do I need to go home and work on?’” Dave Bowen said.

GTB lost 4-1 in their game on Wednesday against the Ninth Inning Royals Edwards. Jamey McDaniel started the game, giving up only one earned run and five hits over five innings. Offensively, the team had nine men reach base, with extra-hitter Andrew Barretta going 1-for-3 with a run scored, while Andrew James drove in the only run with a 1-for-2 performance at the plate.

Bowen offered this about his team moving forward in the tournament.

“I think what we’re going to do is just like we did that game, our boys never put their heads down, they competed every at-bat, they tried to make every play, and that’s really all we ever ask of them,” Dave Bowen said. “That’s how we’re going to bounce back, to focus on giving 100 percent.”
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