Royals Baseball State Champs
The Jay Royals baseball team are state champs for the first time in 54 years. Northsantarosa News for an exclusive interview with Jay’s Dewayne Raley, head baseball coach about the win.
Q-Congrats Coach Raley. How does it feel to get your first state championship and the school’s first in 54 years?
A-It’s incredible to be a part of something so big that doesn’t happen very often. I’m not really sure there are words to describe my feelings other than blessed and thankful. When we made the last out and I watched the boys storm the field, I stopped for a moment, looked around, and said to myself, “Wow!”
I think that about sums it up.
Q-You played a really tough schedule…I’m sure looking back, you feel that that prepared yall for the postseason?
A-Yes, I do. We had a stretch last year where we won several games in a row by 10 runs or better. I don’t think that made us any better. So, we made sure to schedule bigger, better teams this year. Throughout this season, we had several 1 or 2 run games and even a couple extra inning games. Whether we won or lost those, we grew and got better. We learned what we had to do to win. And, we learned we could win.
Q-Was there a moment in the regular season that you thought, this team is really coming together and we are playing our best baseball?
A-It wasn’t until we beat Holmes County, on April 12, a team that had been to the final four the last 3 years, and Chipley, on April 16, the defending state champion, that I think the boys really realized that they were pretty good and could compete with or beat anybody. At that point, we began playing our best baseball.
Q-Making sure that your team does the little things are very important to you…speak to that if you can.
A-We started the year with a list of strategies and actions that we felt we needed to do to be successful. Each of these strategies or actions may seem small, but they all add up to something bigger. Something as small as throwing a first pitch strike, getting a bunt down, or having a quality at bat add up and could be the deciding factor in being successful or not. You must do even the little things right to be successful.
