2,196 MLB PLAYERS | 15,133 MLB DRAFT SELECTIONS
Create Account
Sign in Create Account
High School  | General  | 2/7/2022

Parkview Has Eyes Set On History

Blake Dowson     
Photo: Cayden Gaskin (Parkview HS)
2022 High School Baseball Preview Index

Parkview High School in Lilburn, Ga. has a chance to make history this year.
 
That is, they have the chance to make history again this year. Parkview completed a three-peat last year, winning their third straight state title. Not many programs can claim a three-peat.
 
A four-peat? No team in Georgia since 1954 can claim that one. And Parkview is doing it in Georgia’s biggest classification.
 
“That would be a huge history-maker,” Head Coach Chan Brown said. “There’s the tradition of it, the pride of it. There’s the ‘up next’ part of it with the seniors, everyone wants to keep the streak alive. It starts to become a sense of purpose and pride for each team.”
 
This senior class has never lost their final game of the season. It’s a lot easier to know what it takes to win it all when you have won it all each year you’ve been in high school.
 
The team goes as the seniors do, Brown explained. It takes senior leadership each year to make this thing work. He’s got good leaders in that group, which means he’s feeling good heading into the season.
 
The group includes Matthew Holcomb (RHP, Young Harris College), Cayden Gaskin (MIF, Florida SouthWestern), Jabari Daniely (1B, uncommitted), Andrews Opata (OF, North Georgia), and Jayden Talik (OF, Young Harris College).
 
“Those guys have really stepped up this preseason,” Brown said. “We’ve got a really talented sophomore class, and some of them got their feet wet last year, but they’re going to need that leadership in between the lines because it’s all about them.”
 
The sophomore group at Parkview includes four players ranked inside Perfect Game’s top-500 in the 2024 class.
 
The group is headlined by two arms – Thorpe Musci and Ford Thompson. Thompson, the No. 25 left-handed pitcher in the 2024 class and a Georgia commit, will be in the starting rotation for Brown this spring. Musci, who is the No. 38 overall prospect in the class and the No. 9 right-handed pitcher, will be the go-to late-inning guy for Brown. Musci is committed to Georgia Tech.
 
Brett Andrews will play a utility role for Parkview, and is a top-50 catcher in the class. Cade Brown will be on the dirt this spring, and is the No. 53 third base prospect in the class. Makhi Buckley rounds out the talented group as a top-200 outfielder in the class.
 
Musci and Thompson, along with Holcomb and junior right-hander Garrett Lambert (Mercer), adds up to what Brown thinks is the team’s biggest advantage.
 
“I think pitching will be our strength,” he said. “We’ll need to grow up a bit in the hitting world and position world. We might take some bumps and bruises early. But we’ll get more experience and hopefully all the pieces of the puzzle will come together to hopefully give us a chance to get four in a row.”
 
Sandwiched between the senior leadership and talented sophomore group is junior Colin Houck, who will move from third base to shortstop and anchor the offense this year, while hopefully bringing his .400 average from last year with him.
 
Houck is a top-200 player in the 2023 class, and the No. 40 shortstop prospect in the class. The uncommitted prospect will be circled on each opposing team’s scouting report. And although you can’t ask much more of a player than his .400 average last year, Brown thinks Houck will show more consistent power throughout the year as they head toward region and postseason play.
 
Parkview really loads the schedule up at the beginning of the season, so they will have a good idea of what this team is made of early on. A trip to Hoover, Ala. to play in the Perfect Game High School Showdown highlights what Brown calls the “preseason” part of the schedule.
 
Brown splits the season into three parts. There’s the preseason, which includes everything before region games, then there are the region games, and then the playoffs.
 
Each part of the season builds to the next, and hopefully you’re playing your best baseball at the end.
 
“You can play an easy schedule and go 10-0, and it really doesn’t tell you where you are,” Brown said. “We want to challenge our kids as much as we can…It’s a matter of trying to get reps and putting them through every test we can put them through.”
 
It’s a formula that has worked the past three seasons, and one that isn’t changing anytime soon.
 
This Parkview team has the returning talent to get to another state championship game and win it yet again, accomplishing something that hasn’t been done in almost 70 years in the process.
 
The standard has been set the last three years. It makes it that much easier to set the goal for 2022.
 
“We’ve got a lot of young players that got experience last year playing for a state championship,” Brown said. “That’s always a good thing. We’ve got a lot of kids back who played in that state championship game and they want to get back. That’s always a good motivational piece for the kids.”
 
PG Special Events
Travel, Lodging, Entertainment
PG Partners
Recommended
About Perfect Game :: Contact us :: Terms of Use :: Privacy Policy :: Testimonials :: Job Opportunities
Copyright 1994-2024 by Perfect Game. All rights reserved. No portion of this information may be reprinted or reproduced without the written consent of Perfect Game.