New Dexter coach learned of his players' passion this season

As this summer baseball season unfolds this month, every high school program in Missouri is focused on laying the groundwork for success either this coming fall or next spring, or both.

The Dexter High School baseball program is no different in that regard, and first-year Bearcat coach Steve Edwards learned this past spring that his program has the foundation for future success.

“We know that we have a good program here in place,” Edwards said. “We know that it is going to continue to get better.”

Edwards hoped for the best when he left his alma mater at Poplar Bluff High School to take the same position with the Bearcats, and he wasn’t disappointed as he reflected on his first spring.

“I learned that these are young men that want to be good,” Edwards said. “They love this game and they put the work in.”

Dexter finished the spring 11-15, which on the surface doesn’t blow anybody away, but to put those 11 victories in context, the Bearcats have only won 11 games three times in the past decade.

“These guys were eager to have the knowledge given to them,” Edwards said. “They wanted to soak everything in, and they wanted to work on their games.”

Five of the 15 defeats that Dexter suffered were by two runs or less, so this season was very close to being remarkable in some ways.

“We wanted to be the best that we could be,” Edwards continued on his players’ work ethics. “They wanted to be teammates and they held each other accountable.

In last month’s MSHSAA Class 4 District 1 Tournament, seven of the nine position players (14 players in all) Edwards utilized will return in 2024.

“I think the sophomores and freshmen are going to be something special,” Edwards said, “along with a couple of juniors, who got into the mix.

“We continued to get better every day from the time that we started to where (we finished). We have grown so much.”

Dexter is in the midst of a summer schedule of games being played by Bearcat athletes from recently graduated eighth graders through the 2023 junior class.

“We’re going to play Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesdays all the way through June,” Edwards said. “It is the continuing the building blocks to process and understand Dexter baseball and what we are trying to do here.”