Frank Couch
Oak Mountain Baseball
Oak Mountain's Trevor Shaw warms up prior to the 2016 season.
Derek Irons brings a new message to the Oak Mountain baseball program.
“We want to dominate the average play,” said Irons, who is entering his first year leading the Eagles.
Irons comes from Charles Henderson High in Troy, where he led that program to back-to-back Class 4A state championships in 2013 and 2014. The 40-3 overall record the Trojans registered in 2013 stands as the highest winning percentage in a single season in Alabama High School Athletic Association history.
Oak Mountain has not made the postseason since 2011, and that task is made no easier by being in Class 7A, Area 5, a perennially tough area featuring Hoover, Thompson and Tuscaloosa County.
Despite the gap in success experienced recently by the coach and the program, Irons has been pleasantly surprised by the attitude surrounding the players.
“Their expectations line up a lot with mine. They’re not content with where they are, and that was encouraging for me to see,” he said.
The Eagles will look to their senior class for guidance. Coleman Autrey, Michael Flack, Jake Elkins, Trevor Shaw and Will Driskill make up a small portion of the team, but “set the pace” for the rest of the guys, Irons said.
“You always start off with your seniors,” he said. “We only have five, but those guys have done a great job in terms of their leadership so far.”
The average plays on defense consist of ground balls, pop-ups, rundowns and bunts. Offensively, the Eagles want to put pressure on opposing defenses with aggressive base running and situational hitting.
“The reality is, most of the games we are going to play in will be won by catching the ball, throwing the ball and hitting the ball. That’s what we’re going to focus on,” Irons said.
The Eagles begin their 2016 campaign in a tournament at Briarwood Christian School on Feb. 15.
