Cullman High School is well known throughout the country for its baseball program. Year in and year out, the chatter starts about how they will back up another great season due to losing their senior class. The answer is simple. Coach Patterson and his staff starts building their team from the bottom up. Coaches are in place to teach and grow the baseball players from the time they enter the program. The number four ranked Bearcats are looking for another Alabama High School Athletic Association State Championship, and once that’s accomplished, the chatter will start again for next year.
The often forgotten piece of the pie lies within the junior varsity team. A team compiled of tenth-graders, the Cats JV team is a top-notch program mirrored like the big boys.
Cullman’s junior varsity team is coached by Daniel Moore, a 2011 graduate of Cullman who went on to play baseball at Snead State. After college, Coach Moore was led back to his roots to assist in his passion for helping kids achieve their dreams of playing baseball at an extremely high level. This junior varsity season is no different than any other at Cullman, but the 2021 group of ballplayers are an exceptional group to coach.
The 2021 Cullman junior varsity team roster consists of Kaden Burgess, Tucker Cagle, Bennett Edmondson, Patton Elkins, Cole Floyd, Brody Foxx, Garrett Hall, Elijah Hayes, Hunter Howell, Riley Jackson, Cody Jones, Landon McCulloch, Jackson Norris, Easton Peed, John Weston Ray, and Zane Watwood. A group of sixteen kids who play as a team, build each other up, and never have that unselfish moment. These guys are indeed in it to win it for their brothers.
The Cats JV team went 27-2 during the 2021 season and sadly played their last game Tuesday night defeating rival Hartselle 15-2 on the road. The Cats two losses came in games against Hoover in the season’s opening game and a late-night game against Bob Jones after playing several games in the same week. About those twenty-seven wins. The Bearcats didn’t play twenty-seven weak teams to pad the record book. These were top-notch programs throughout the state of Alabama that compete year in and year out for championships in their respected divisions. Wins against teams like Russellville, Hueytown, Huntsville, Hoover, Hartselle, Homewood, Bob Jones, Decatur, Madison Academy, Hazel Green, James Clements, and Muscle Shoals is not a bad resume for these boys to take into the varsity seasons at Cullman.
Cullman Daily caught up with Coach Daniel Moore after the final game of the season to get his thoughts about the 2021 season and the kids he has the honor of coaching. “I am so proud of what this year’s JV team was able to accomplish. We finished the season 27-2. After our final game, I told them that it was one of the most enjoyable seasons I’ve coached, not because of the record or the wins, but because of the group of young men they were and how enjoyable they made my job on a daily basis. They are a special group of players, and we, as a coaching staff, are very excited about what the future holds for them. They are unselfish, hard-working, and competitors. Probably the proudest I am of them is how well they competed throughout the season. So many games we were down early, and they battled, competed, and continued to find ways to win. Every player contributed and stepped up at some point throughout the season. I am very excited to see what they can do over the next few years.”, said Moore.
Congratulations to the 2021 Cullman Bearcats junior varsity team on an outstanding season.
