Top Nine on 9th

We are putting together our Top Nine Guilford County high school baseball players from this past season and we could use your help. Just send us your top nine and we don’t have to do this by position, we are just looking for the Top Nine players from Guilford County.

We will have a first and second team unit and we may have to extend and go all the way with 1st, 2nd and 3rd teams……

Send us your Top Nine to the comment box below or just send it to durhamandy@live.com.

The names will probably come to you pretty quick. I was talking to some of our road reporters the other night and they were saying these names real quickly.

Nick McBride
George Carter
Ray Crawford
Josh Tobias
Will Meyers
*****Those guys would look like locks, but what do you think? Whose on your Top Nine and we hope to have this posted no later than June 9.*****

Coach of the Year….Some fans are saying Ken Helms at High Point Central for the job he did in making the Bison a competitive nine. Others have said Lynn Coble at SEG for what his Falcons did after losing so many name players from the 2008 Falcon squad. Sonny Gann from NWG had his kids within one run of Round Four of the playoffs.

Player of the Year…..I keep hearing Will Meyers from over at High Point Wesleyan, but what do you think? What about McBride or Carter or Crawford? Whose your choice?????

45 thoughts on “Top Nine on 9th

  1. Andy how about the top 9 ladies softball players too….go to ncpreps.com and click on the best ladies softball stats in the state.

  2. Send us your Top Nine for Softball and we will get that up on the site too. You can E-mail it or send it to the comment box. E-mail might be the best route.

    I will be checking out that site…..NC Preps.com

  3. wil myers deserves player of the year. there are few who can do what he does on the diamond.

  4. My nominations from teams I’ve seen more than once this year:

    SW – Ogburn, Sutphin, Hudgens, Kellam
    HP Central – Lassiter, Ellis
    HP Christian – Scarborough, Sanders
    Westchester – Floyd
    Wesleyan – Myers, Self
    NW – Swim, McIntosh, Mekita
    Grimsley – Dimock, Rose
    Ragsdale – McBride, Anderson, Coffey, Fultz, Brandenburg
    Northern – Carter, Wells (the catcher)
    NE – Atkins
    Dudley – Crawford

  5. No Atkins at from NE. Started out bery good with the ball but fizzled quickly. The Wyrick kid had a much better season. Was their #1 pithcer and played great at short. Sure the coaches around the league and especailly at NE would say not Atkins.

  6. Sorry, meant to say he started out hot with the bat but frizzled quickly. Was no where near the best pitcher on that team.
    Will Meyers, player of he year. Western Guilford has the coach of the year.

  7. Desean Anderson
    Nick McBride
    Joe Turkson
    George Carter
    Ethan Ogburn
    Cal Sutphin
    Macon Smith
    Alex Swim
    Robbie Macintosh

    Player of the Year: Wil Myers

    Coach of the Year: Reid Holmes

  8. dimock and rose? rose got 2 wins on the year and one being against smith. his era is sky high even though his team provided no support behind them. if you say they deserve to make it then you might as well include jacobs, dunn, shumate, and reader from grimsley. shumate is the most deserving offensivly but made somewhere in the upper 20’s in errors. my opinion, no one makes any all area team from grimsley, but if i had to choose one, i would probably say dimock and possibly shumate

  9. two young men are Steven Makita and Sanders Kuxhausen.
    In stats I’ve reviewed these two players were significant players offensively and defensively.

  10. top nine,

    pretty good list, but how could you put Sutphin ahead of Will Kellam of SW ?

    Kellam, one of the best pure hitters in the area, along with Ogburn ‘s pitching ,were the 2 main workhorses that carried SW this year.

    Let’s see a list that is based on performance and true numbers, not on marketing and
    hype.

  11. Mekita and Swim, the ss and ogburn from sw. lassister and ellis from central. Scarborough and Myers, Dimock, Crawford. Gann for COY.

  12. Will Myers
    Robbie McIntosh
    Kyle Brandenburg
    Macon Smith
    Brock Hudgens
    Nick McBride
    Steven Mekita
    Desean Anderson
    Cal Sutphin
    Alex Swim
    Ray Crawford

    Maybe some surprise I am leaving off Ogburn and Kellam. Ogburn has a great offer from NCSU and has tons of upside potential but he did have 6 losses. Hudgens had a much better record. Brandenburg actually led Ragsdale in hitting by a very sizeable margin and is a true switch hitter. The players I mentioned above are all multi-tool players and not one dimensional. And yes, I gave you 10. Couldn’t cut any of those kids.

    Player of the year – Will Myers, no question. Runner-up, Nick McBride

    Coach of the year – Could be several. Gann, Maness, Causey, Holmes but I go with Scott Davis at Wesleyan. He and Donald Brewer are an awesome staff. State runner-up after being State champions last year.

  13. Good point Truth. It would be interesting to compare the stats on Kellam and Sutphin. Both are solid, and are contributors to SW. Ogburn has a lot of hype associated with him and lives up to it. Remember that “hype” is not necessarily a bad thing.

  14. college coach,

    Ogburn did lose 5 or 6 games this year for the cowboys, but was by far their best on the mound. Many of his losses came against top competition with little or no run support from his hitters. His hitting was about as consistent as any other cowboy stick , other than Kellam.

    Kellam was by far the best hitter on the team and really the only cowboy that struck fear on the opponents when he approached the plate this year.

    Kellam also played solid defense at first, saving many outs on digs and swipes that alot of people take for granted.

    No knock on other cowboys, but honestly, these two players were the only ” Go to Guys ” SW had this year.

    Please make these picks based on accomplishments.

    Upside. Tools and Projectibility are great, but, if you can’t make it happen when the show begins, then maybe you are not ready to be labeled one of the Best.

  15. Stephen Mekita, Corey McKinney, Alex Swim, and Robbie McIntosh from NW should be on this top nine somewhere. The season this guys had you have to have them on there!!!!!!!!!

  16. Andy,
    You do a great job of following sports in the area and promoting high school athletics specifically, but , I see what’s wrong with high school sports in today’s world. Anyone who knows anything about hs sports should know that it’s absolutely ridiculous to trul believe that any one area team actually has 4 of the top 9 players in the area. No wonder we have so many non-faculty coaches in the gcs system. No teacher in his right mind would want to subject him/herself to this. The same parent probably wants to have 8 valedictorians!

  17. We are looking at trying to go with the one player per team system for our “Official” Top Nine at 9 and it will be tough with the talent pools at Ragsdale, NWG, SWG and WG….

    Who is the main man at SWG? Is it Brock Hudgens?????

  18. I’ve seen Cal Sutphin play for years. Tough to find a better set of hands. Great fielder. Arm strength really improved this year (not that it needed to) with lots of off-season work. I have not seen at the plate as much but what I have read has been positive. And he understands situations as well as anyone.

    Brock Hudgens had a great year for SWG at the plate and on the mound.

    Hard to pick 9 kids in Guilford County but they deserve to be mentioned. There are lots of good players in this county.

  19. Will Kellam was the most consistent and best overall player this year @ SWG—he was the best turnaround story in the area–“Not his Dad” by the way.

  20. Coach Ken Helms of High Point is the Metro 4A Coach of the year, so he gets my vote for GC coach of the year.

  21. Good Point ” truth “” You do speak the truth. Look at the numbers and they will tell. We all know what they are and tell the rest to live with it. If you really want to know the truth just ask the Man in charge.

  22. As Jack mentioned earlier, who is the man at Northwest Guilford or maybe we should say, who was the man this past season?

    Ms. Garrett said all, but if you had to make the call who would you take for top honors?

    Anyone know who was named team MVP? That would be a good determiner……

    Seems we would be looking closely at Swim, McIntosh or Mekita……..

  23. Northwest has depth. They have several good players. While this year we have heard about McIntosh, Swim, Mekita, they have several other talented players like Clemmons, Saunders, Kuxhausen and some i forget. I don’t know that they have any superstars; just a bunch of good players.

  24. I think it would have to be McIntosh or Swim. Mc is solid in two spots defensively and hits well. Swim hits well and is hands down the best catcher in the area. Tough call. I say you compare the offensive stats and make the decision based on those.

  25. Congratulations to the NWG “TEAM” what a great season they had. I didn’t get to many of the games this year but I kept up with them. Andy ask who was the man at NWG?? I say Robbie Mcintosh and Alex Swim would be my CO NWG MVP’S. They both as seniors deserve to be on the all area team. Both are not only outstanding players but also outstanding young men with a humble,hard working demeanor. I’ve watched both of them for many years and they are both the “man” this year at NWG.

  26. I realize our little school doesn’t get much pub, but we have one of the best 1-2 young punches in the state in pitcher/1st baseman JB Bethea and catcher Nick Taylor. Both are sophomores and both can hit the ball and bring it in the field. I don’t know if a single baserunner stole a base off of Taylor this year and Bethea can really bring it on the mound and is being rated as a top pitching prospect from the left side. He is a pretty darn good 1st baseman too.

    Now I know they won’t make any list on here, most people don’t even know Vandalia has a baseball team, but maybe next year some of the “big boys” will play step up to the plate and play the mighty Vikings of Vandalia and we can see how we match up with all these superstars. We are proud of our boys and there is no doubt that they are as good as a lot of these teams/players always mentioned.

  27. Clemons made some fantastic catches this year and had many crucial hits, the 3 run HR in WG game in the 6th to tie the game 10 to 10 and eventually NW went on to win the game. The catch against the fence in the East Forsyth with bases loaded and 2 outs was a deciding factor in the win..in every game he commanded centerfield with his hustle and speed. He made many, many more crucial over the shoulder catches …Swim or McIntosh should get MVP..they were fabulous this year…McKinney hit the ball very well this year, he has my vote too…All the players did their jobs and did them well…Gann will not see a team like this for some time to come…

  28. Vandalia Viking. We know your school and have given you guys some pub over the last couple of years. I was at the Vandalia-Gospel Light game at Ernie Shore Field last year and we have put out the word on JB, Nick Taylor and Steven Cogner over the course of the past two years. Their names just don’t show up as much as the other kids and we will always print more as we receive more so send us some info.

    We know Jonathan Bethea from his days at Page and from his work with on the Colt baseball teams. I remember JB from Page basketball games back when he was 5 or 6 years old.

    We know Taylor and Conger from the Greensboro Batting Center and I knew Luke Oates when he was probably 6 or 7 years old.

    I was conference softball coach of the year at VCS back in 85 and 86 and had seven of the top 10 players on the all-conference team in ’85 with Cooper, Brookbank, Whitt, Surratt, both Campbells and I beleive Barber, so I know the landscape.

    You’ll get more pub today than we ever did back then and that’s what this site is all about. Send us more so we can print it and send it in from all directions.

    Best of luck to Bethea, Taylor, Conger, and others and how’s the Biggs kid doing?????

    Kevin Brown, Richard Autry, Mike Wilson, Mike New, David Hales, Craig Glass, Keith Roberts….Vandalia has produced some pretty good talent over the years.

    We need to hear more from you……

  29. Andy,

    Our lack of pub is not your doing. You actually provide an avenue for us to get our names out there a million times more than the News & Record ever would. You do a great job with the site.

    The Bethea kid just kind of fell on our doorstep, but he is a great player and a great kid. Page lost a good one in him. I really think he will bring a lot of attention to our school before he leaves our campus in a few years.

    Another player that deserves mention is Tyler Haley, our junior shortstop and Michael Matthews, an eighth grader you will hear A LOT about in a couple of years.

    The boys will have a really good team next year, returning all but 2 on a team that could have won the state if not for some tough breaks in the semis. Hopefully we can get some of these better teams on the schedule next year.

    Thanks for all you do Andy. This site is great for the little guys.

  30. By the way, that wasn’t meant as a dig to the News & Record. I understand budgets and we are small fry compared to a lot of schools. Thanks again.

  31. Now that i think about it the man @ NWG is the whole team bc baseball is not just a one person game it takes an entire team to be good just not a couple of players. I saw them play a lot and every game they were getting contributions from everybody up and down there lineup they played well all season and as far as im concerned they should still be playing in the state playoffs!!!!!!

  32. Back to the top of the order, Mr Truth has spoken his part now I want to let my Opinion out. I would agree with you 100 percent on your Comments on Will Kellam. He basically carried that team on his shoulders with his Bat. Every time I seen this kid hit he had fear in the opposing team pitchers eyes. His unique approach to the plate was great, his swing was the Sultan of Swing. His hands did all the work with reading the Ball . Mr Truth says it is all based on marketing and hype and he is right. The things that you do are based on accomplishments not because you are marketed. That is one of the Main reasons that some Kids that have the tools and the talent to play but in the End it all about how this kid was marketed. I can go back years with Baseball and tell you one thing, it wasnt how you looked or how you dressed or if your Dads and Moms had money you play if you was the better that the the Rich or so called marketed kid. There was a couple of kids on that SWG Team that gave it all they had also and you know who I am talking about, But by far the Kid that wore # 19 was the kid with the heart and determination to go out and give that 110 percent of hiself every game. This kid has earned his Dues and it will show. Best of Luck to Will Kellam, I will miss that sweet swing you have. Special thanks to KM & JJ

  33. why cant you all just list players you feel are deserving without bashing other kids. The jealousy of the parents on here is ridiculous. Sometimes life is not fair, but instead of teaching our kids to bitch and complain about it, we should worry about the things we can control. Be better people, do your best and quit bitching about others.

  34. D1 or D2 wich way will they go, alot of these kids dont evn know, and will they make it, alot of them already know and have offers as juniors and thats insane to me, there season could end early and who knows.market them like pigs or cows for meat is what the daddys do.

  35. WHO WAS THE BEST COWBOY. SEEMS TO ME THAT SUTPHIN GETS THE NOD,LOOKS LIKE HES THE PEOPLES CHOICE.

  36. No Way Sutphin was the best Cowboy, He might of been in the top Five , but truly not the best. Thats a Fact. Ask the Truth he will tell the truth. Calling Air Mail

  37. sutphins pretty good. ogburn, hudgens, rein, slack, keller all good too. im sure im leaving someone out. no slight intended. but you gotta give cal credit. he is very solid at the most important defensive position on the field. who is the truth? what makes her so great?

  38. For one, That is not the most imporatnat position on the field, I think it starts with your receiver. He has to handle all the calls and pitches. Remember you have to pitch the ball and then catch it. For Seconds if you read theses blogs the Truth tells it like it is. Ask the Man in charge he will tell you who the best was. There was too many airmails on the field by what lots of people saw.

  39. He’s a cowboy baby, thats right , The Duke- Eastwood-.He floats like a butterfly stings like a bee thats why hes the BEST COWBOY there was to be.now thats no airmail thats THE TRUTH.

  40. We are going to close the comments on this one for now and remind everyone we still need names for our Top Nine at 9 Softball team.

    Any new selections for the baseball team or the softball team please send those to durhamandy@live.com.

    We will have the Metro 4-A All-Conference team on here at the site Saturday morning and if you know of other Conferences that have released this info please send it our way……..

    Thanks again,
    Top Nine on June 9 and again if you have more nominations please send those to durhamandy@live.com……

  41. I think Trevor Brackett and Felix Delgado should get honorable mentions from Page High School, Coach Hardin is just always impressing me with his words upon them. I hear they are both really good pitchers bringing it somewhere between 75-80 MPH. Another player that Hardin is pretty high upon is young cat Tyler Sandlin, Look out for these cats in 2010, Page Baseball is making its comeback!!!

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