By CRAIG ADKINS
For The Reporter
Editor’s note: Reporter sports writer Craig Adkins contacted each of the Sectional 8 baseball coaches to get their thoughts on the competition and intensity of the sectional. Today’s responses are from Ryan Bunnell of Westfield.
Describe Sectional 8 from your standpoint.
In my opinion, it’s consistently the toughest sectional in the state. It’s two to three high stakes, high stress games with an incredible atmosphere for high school baseball. With six teams regularly ranked among the top 15-20 in the state, it’s semi-state level competition. It’s awesome and terrible all rolled into one. It’s just sad this happens in the first round rather than late rounds of the state tournament.
Why is it so difficult to advance out of Sectional 8?
Six teams regularly ranked in the top 20 in the state, so this sectional is full of talented players. Each team is led by excellent coaches who run excellent programs, so players are talented and well prepared. It’s a tough run, that drains you physically and mentally because it’s one big game after another in a short period of time. You have to play near-perfect baseball in a stressful environment, then repeat it again in a short turnaround.
No matter what the sectional draw outcome is, what keeps Sectional 8 such a gauntlet and a “meat grinder?” (Eerily similar to the Hoosier Crossroads Conference).
I have said this a lot recently, I think Sectional 8 chooses you. In a single elimination format, you have to have some things go your way in addition to playing at a very high level consistently for two to three games. The teams are ranked, coached well and full of highly-skilled players. Often, many of the top arms in the state are in Sectional 8. So, it’s physically and mentally draining games in a short window of time.
Does hosting Sectional 8 make it that much harder to win it? (Noblesville is the last host to win in 2014)
I don’t think so, I’ve never felt like it helps or hurts a team to host. We have won it when we have hosted and we have lost. The hardest factor is the talent level of the competition. It’s consistently semi-state level competition at the sectional level. So it’s simply hard to consistently win it.
How does Sectional 8 prepare you for the rest of the tournament?
Players are “battle tested” and prepared because of it. Often, the regional doesn’t have the same atmosphere as Sectional 8 and as a coach you have to work to keep your kids motivated and focused on the game at hand. It’s been a challenge at times to keep the team focused and hungry after an emotional Sectional 8 run, so it prepares you because you are playing great teams/programs, but the atmosphere of regional often isn’t as electric as Sectional 8 and you have to guard against a “letdown.”