As Tennessee high school baseball gets under way Monday, Soddy-Daisy is expected to be among those with serious postseason hopes.
Two Soddy-Daisy players (Andy Wright and Dillon Clift) already have NCAA Division I scholarships in hand, and more are expected to receive scholarship offers.
"If you look at us on paper and experience-wise, there could be reasons why people think we could make some noise, but we still have to go out there and do it," Trojans coach Jared Hensley said.
An underclassmen already drawing Division I-type attention is Tre Carter, a 6-foot-3, 185-pound outfielder.
The University of Tennessee is among those programs that already have offered the three-sport athlete a scholarship.
"Who knows?" Bradley Central coach Travis Adams replied when asked about a favorite in Region 5-AAA. "Everybody knows Soddy-Daisy is going to be good again."
Bradley isn't without a standout or two, either, including pitcher Ty King, a Tennessee Tech signee. While Chandler Hamilton (Cleveland State) is currently his only other signee or commitment, Adams has high hopes for Austin Calfee, Tanner Cox and Tyler Carpenter.
Hensley said Ooltewah's Brian Hitchcox and East Hamilton's Steve Garland were the best coaches in the district but added that Adams has gone a great job rebuilding the Bears program and that former McMinn County star Matt Ray was doing an awesome job putting the Cherokees back together.
The Cherokees likely will be led by Cory Edgemon.
Cleveland will be led by catcher Hunter Oliver, a Troy University signee. There are other area players already at Troy -- Ooltewah's T.J. and Brody Binder and Heritage's Lee Gibson -- and Baylor's Hunter Mercer signed with the Alabama school in November.
Top returning players at Ooltewah are senior infielder Hayden Bradley, who hit .398 last season, and pitchers Caleb Collins and Mitch Duncan. Collins had a 2.18 earned run average and a 3-2 record in 2014.
* East Hamilton shortstop and pitcher Nicholas Woods apparently will be ready for the season openers. A sophomore who started a year ago, Woods suffered a torn ACL and subsequent knee surgery after getting off to a good start in football as a quarterback.
* Possibly overlooked in the flurry of coaching changes, Wes Stone resigned at South Pittsburg and moved to region rival Boyd-Buchanan, where he is working as defensive coordinator in football and assistant coach in baseball.
* Hitchcox hired Wes Caldwell, who coached him at Rhea County, and the move bodes well for the Owls. Caldwell is one of the most spirited and knowledgeable baseball guys in the area.
* Most of the pitching is back at McCallie, which Greg Payne coached to a state title last year, and the Blue Tornado could go as deep as a dozen on its pitching staff. Matthew Brock and Justin Glover are coming off injuries that precluded their participation last year, and Payne also has a transfer from Dalton (Jackson Bell) who was the Catamounts' top starter last season. Also in the mix is sophomore Corbin Brooksbank, whose fastball was clocked at 91 mph a couple of weeks ago.
* Baylor has a pair of college signees in shortstop Hunter Holland (Belmont) and Mercer. The Red Raiders likely will rely heavily on sophomore pitchers Gavin Roberson and Wilson Maclellan, who combined last year for 14 wins. Roberson had a 1.08 ERA and Maclellan a 1.64. Red Raiders coach Gene Etter also is high on senior outfielder Sterling Stewart.
* Confident is the best way to describe Rhea County, which is in a district with the likes of Cookeville, White County, Cumberland County, Warren County and Stone Memorial. The Eagles' top performers are expected to be pitcher Charlie Ward, shortstop Jordan Brown, left-handed pitcher/first baseman Gabe Tyrrell, Jordan Day, Travis Aikman and Garrett Swafford.
* The most clearly defined district favorite is likely Central in 6-AA. Glen Carter has the bulk of last year's team returning -- only one starter graduated -- and his top returnees are catcher Tyler Lowe, third baseman Gabe Fomby, first baseman Scout Morgan, outfielder Andrew McDaniel, shortstop Joseph Clark and pitchers Dakota Fowler and Brett Hardy. The Pounders also picked up Walker Valley transfers Will and Walker Waters, and Carter said both will pitch. Freshman Andrew Bingham, a pitcher/outfielder, also will be on the varsity.
While Hixson in 6-AA graduated a hefty number of players, coachColton Green has pitcher Tanner Moylan and junior Andrew Rollins returning. As a freshman, Moylan had some big-game opportunities and finished with a 1.73 ERA last year. Rollins, a junior, should be among the area's top hitters.
The Wildcats' biggest challenger should be decided this week. Hixson and Red Bank play a two-game district series Monday and Tuesday.
"I'll be relying on a lot of young pitching," Red Bank coach Trey Hicks said. "Playing Hixson the first two games of the season is huge and could determine who is in the driver's seat very early in the season. With limited practice because of the weather, they may not be the prettiest games to watch, but they're very important for both teams."
Hicks will rely heavily on outfielder Ben Brown, first baseman Alex Chambers, shortstop D.J. Hale and catcher Jaylon Moore.
Tyner, which was quite competitive last season, hangs a lot of responsibility on pitcher/first baseman Mike Haywood, pitcher Emmanuel Moss, catcher Bryan Wilson and outfielder Ryan Reviere.
* District 7-AA should be competitive, possibly from top to bottom, although a couple of coaches are giving Chattanooga Christian the favorite's role.
"They're the team to beat," offered Signal Mountain coach Josh Gandy, the former Eagles assistant who's taken over for Bumper Reese.
That said, his Eagles are expected to be in the mix along with Grundy County and Notre Dame.
"I'm not a big fan of making predictions early in the year," Grundy coach Chase Jones said. "I know that CCS, Signal and Notre Dame return a lot of starters and Sequatchie has some young kids that are going to develop into good baseball players. I think Bledsoe (County) will be much improved. It's going to be an exciting season for 7-AA."
While he lost three position players to graduation, Jones has his entire pitching staff back (Chandler Knight, Elijah Bean, Tanner Foutch, Taten McBee and Houston Mainord). He also picked up Dallas Bryan, a senior transfer from Coffee County, who should help on the mound and also at the plate. Rejoining the team after not playing since his freshman year is Hunter Condra.
Signal has one of the district's most experienced players in senior catcher Chris Feemster, who has started since joining the team as an eighth-grader.
All the coaches are aware of Notre Dame's Alex Darras, the football quarterback who has been a starter in baseball since his freshman season. The junior will pitch and play shortstop.
* The Region 3-A championship should come down to District 6's South Pittsburg (now coached by Brian Paris) and District 5's Boyd-Buchanan.
"I'm sure Boyd is planning on winning it all, but both had great seasons last year and only lost one or two seniors," Silverdale Baptist coach Jonathan Adcock said. "Both have very strong pitching staffs."
Silverdale was hit hard by graduation after making the state tournament two years ago, and the rebuilding Seahawks could determine the 5-A outcome.
"I'm hoping we can be right in there, but I expect more parity throughout the district," Adcock said. "CSAS, Copper Basin and Grace (Academy) should have much improved teams."
Silverdale is still young -- 17 of its players are freshmen or sophomores -- and Adcock will be leaning on Josiah Green, Jordan Delashmitt and Chance Brown. Green is a pitcher/third baseman, Delashmitt a middle infielder and Brown a catcher/outfielder. Sophomores Michael Hawkins and River Crowther are expected to play major pitching roles.
Grace and Boyd-Buchanan each has seven starters returning, but Boyd-Buchanan has one of the strongest pitching staffs in the state, a group that includes Skyler Anderson, Josh Antwine, John Sewell, Brandon Willingham, Cade Evans and Colby Morgan.
Among other area Class A players to watch are Arts & Sciences catcher Brett Bowles, pitcher/outfielder Tanner Lee and pitcher/first baseman Joey Tomlinson; Grace pitcher/outfielder Andrew Godsey and third baseman/pitcher Zach Dean; and Copper Basin pitcher Phil Spargo.
"He kept them in a lot of games with a good fastball and an above-average slider," Grace coach Jeff Reese said of Spargo.
Dean threw a no-hitter in the district tournament last year and finished with 58 strikeouts and just 14 walks in 44 innings.
South Pittsburg will be favored to repeat as 6-A champion. The Pirates, who won both regular-season and tournament titles, are replacing just one position player, and the entire pitching staff is back. They have eight seniors including three who filled significant roles as freshmen on the school's last state-tournament team.
Pirates players returning who were named to the all-district team last season are Tyler Reed, Kitt Grider, Brady Petty and McKenna Blevins.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.