Cooter BB enters strange new place, as 'Cats rebuild

BELL CITY – The high school baseball teams throughout the Bootheel may want to enjoy this moment in time when they face Cooter because history indicates that a lull in the incredible run of success by the Wildcats won’t last long.

Over the past two decades, there hasn’t been a program in Southeast Missouri that has strung together the success that Cooter has.

“We’ve won 16 of the last 17 Districts,” veteran coach David Mathis said, “and 17 of the last 18 at the Class 1 level.”

That streak MAY be curtailed this year, as the Wildcats are in complete rebuilding mode.

“We graduated seven seniors, all of them starters, and two were all-state (players),” Mathis said on Wednesday after his team dropped a 10-2 decision at Bell City.

Cooter (1-4) has labored early through this fall season, as Mathis has just 11 players on his roster, which “Is the lowest numbers that we have ever had,” according to Mathis.

“Only three of our guys even got at-bats last year,” Mathis said. “We’re pretty inexperienced.”

Things that Cooter fans took for granted, as they watched their favorite team advance to five MSHSAA Final Fours since 2009 (winning the MSHSAA Class 1 state championship in 2014), are not assured this fall.

“We’re doing a lot of ground balls and fly balls,” Mathis said of his training regiment this fall. “They have to get game reps.”

That is why the fall season is imperative for a program like Cooter.

The Wildcats will play a 20-game schedule before competing in the Tri-County Conference Tournament in late September.

“If you don’t get to (play fall baseball),” Mathis explained, “it hurts a school like us because if these (young) guys have to come out in the spring and play, they aren’t going to be ready.”

Cooter has just two seniors (Tyson Banks and Talan King) while six of the 11 Wildcat athletes are freshmen and sophomores.

Following the loss to the Cubs, Mathis delivered explicit instructions on the importance of fundamental baseball being executed, regardless of the age of his players.

“These kids have not gotten at-bats or anything since junior high,” Mathis said. “It’s a work in progress.”

Wildcat junior Sawyer McAfee managed to get a pair of hits against a really impressive Cub thrower, Dawson Loomes while Banks, Jackson Watkins (junior), and Hunter Sams (freshman) also connected for hits.

“By the end of the fall,” Mathis said, “we’ll catch balls, and do what we do because it is tradition. They don’t want to be the team that stops that.”

Cooter will host Senath-Hornersville today at 4:30 p.m., followed by another home game with Bernie on Friday at 4:30 p.m.