By: Trey Daly

Are you looking for a quality club to watch this year in High School baseball? Today, I have one to keep a close eye on –  4A Wakefield High School, located in Raleigh, North Carolina. Find out more about the 2023 Wolverines in today’s edition of High School Program Preview…

Who are some of the guys you are looking toward to lead the charge?

We are very fortunate to have some very talented baseball players. They also work hard off the field and in the classroom as well. Some of the guys we look forward to leading us out there are Holden Cooper, Davis Watson and Caden French.

If you had to name your rotation on the mound right now, how would it go?

This is a tough one. We return a lot of varsity innings from last year. Also have some guys who played JV last year battling everyday and a few new young guys who are trending in the right direction to give us a chance every time they take the ball.

Most of our weeks are 3 game weeks, and we keep pitch count down early in the season so we need to have a lot of guys ready to go. Our pitching staff would lean towards Davis Watson, JC Castillo, Wesley Driscoll, Bryce Waltman, Brayden Schear, Holden Cooper, Blake Waltman and Tyler Rotellini. We also have a few guys coming back from a few things who are looking to crack into the mix.

Take us through a normal practice schedule for the Wolverines?

Our 2 underclass teams will start at 2:40 and get out around 4:40. Thankfully we have 4 full length cages and bullpens between both sides off the field so we can get a lot of guys through a lot of work in a hurry. Our varsity will start their bands, dynamic and stretching at 315. After that then going into our throwing program. Followed by an indy defense session. We will do a team defense everyday, with a specific focus. Then go into our offense agenda for the day. We try to wrap up at a max of 2 hours and 30 minutes but a lot of times its between 2 hours and 2 hours and 15 minutes. Our staff does a tremendous job of keeping things rolling and working with our kids.

What’s one area of the Wolverines you really dove into this offseason?

After the season our staff talked a lot about some of the things we needed to work on as a whole. We stressed fundamentals and playing the game the right way. Working on cutting down on some strikeout numbers and spending a lot of time in the weight room. We also do like to have a lot of fun. During the fall we do the annual halloween scrimmage like most schools do. We also do a few days where we play whiffle ball with our women’s softball team as well. Baseball is still a game and it’s still meant to be fun.

When you think of Wake County Baseball, what comes to mind?

First thought is that baseball is very good here. There are a lot of really strong teams from wake county historically with a lot of really good coaching staffs. I’m pretty sure everyone is aware of what Fuquay-Varina has done in the last decade. There are also a lot of teams that even though the names and faces change every year, you can plug it in that they will go 20 and 5 and have a good chance at playing in the 3rd round.

What are some big games on your schedule in 2023?

We really tried to strengthen our schedule with lots of playoff teams from last year. We got our traditional rivalry games in our conference, and those are always a fight year in and year out. We have Pinecrest on our non-conference as well as Garner, Leesville, Green Level, Orange, Cedar Ridge and we are going to the spring break tournament at Corinth Holders this year.

Bold prediction – What’s your gut tell you about the year?

We do return a lot of key pieces coming off a very solid year last year. We are also going to have to fill some big holes as well. If the boys continue to work hard and do the right thing, the sky’s the limit with this group.

Below I’m going to list adjectives, list the player on the 2023 roster who it describes:

Leader: Caden French

Gamer: Holden Cooper

Hitterish:Josh Potter

Bulldog:Davis Watson

Selfless:Caleb Hardy

Competitor: Holden Cooper

Stay tuned for another exciting episode of Impact Program Preview, coming soon..