A new sports coop in the area will bring a new sport to the high school realm this Spring. Maxwell-St Pat’s has formed a new coop for baseball to play the sport in the high school season. The newly formed team will feature athletes from both schools, playing under the name of Maxwell-St Pats, with a to-be-determined mascot.
Ryan Jones, Athletic Director at Maxwell, will lead the team with Brad Braithwait from North Platte Saint Pat’s as his assistant. The team will begin practices this coming Monday, March 22nd and prepare for their first game on April 8th at Lincoln Christian.
Jones said the idea began about a year ago with the two schools and excitement is building.
“We’re just ecstatic to work with St Pats and really to get high school baseball out in Western Nebraska. A lot of excited people, a lot of excited kids and we’re looking forward to what this season brings and all the challenges that go with it, but we’re really excited to start it up.”
The regular season has 12 games scheduled at this point, all double-headers with three of the matchups at home, which will be played at Bill Wood Field in North Platte. Districts will be held May 6th-8th. The schedule features road trips to Lincoln, St Paul and Kearney.
“More bonding time I guess on the road trips, especially will need to happen with two different schools. I’m kind of excited about some road trips, actually.”
Jones said the challenge of mixing two schools shouldn’t be too big of a hurdle.
“You go to two different schools, but a lot of our kids live in North Platte and grew up, most of I’m assuming played little league baseball or other peewee sports programs together. And with social media nowadays, kids know each other, they really do. As far as getting to know each other for the first time I think most of them have already been through that.”
You can hear the entire interview with Jones below.
The full season schedule is below. All games are doubleheaders.
Thursday, 4/8 @ Lincoln Christian 3:30/5:30
Monday, April 12 v Central City/Fullerton 3:00/5:00
Saturday, April 17 v Twin River 11:00/1:00
Thursday, April 22 v Hastings Adams Central 4:00/6:00
Saturday, April 24 @ St Paul 1:00/3:00
Thursday, April 29 @ Kearney High 4:00/6:00
May 6-8 Class B District Tourney TBD
