Coach Steve Irwin teaches middle school connections in addition to being the head baseball and football coach at Oglethorpe County Middle School.
Coaching middle school students brings its own set of challenges, especially with athletes at different stages of physical and athletic development. Irwin said he adjusts expectations to accommodate this variability.
“You may have an eighth-grader that may be 5-feet-10, 190 (pounds),” he said. “You may have a seventh-grader that’s 5-3, not even 100 pounds, and you’ve got kids at such different athletic abilities and just their overall development.”
Irwin said growth is key, even when immediate performance may not meet expectations.
“There’s got to be growth there, and with growth, it means that sometimes you may not reach the expectations that you may have and that you put on yourself and the team as a whole,” he said.
After winning the league tournament last year, the middle school baseball team is rebuilding with a .500 win-loss record.
“Not exactly where we had hoped to be at the very beginning of the year,” Irwin said. “We’re playing good baseball the last two weeks, so hopefully that rolls into what we’re trying to do this next two weeks.”
The team is young, with only five eighth-graders and seven seventh-graders. However, eighth-graders JD Armour, Tirsten Cooper and Cole Cutsail are hitting the ball well, Irwin said, contributing to the team’s progress.
For some players, middle school may be their first time playing sports, so Irwin adapts his coaching style as needed.
“You can be more demanding and more rigid at the high school level than you can be at the middle school just based on the development of the student,” he said.
Barbi Wommack, grandmother of Maximas Martin, a seventh-grader on the baseball team, said playing sports in middle school is a “wonderful opportunity.”
“A lot of the boys have played rec ball, but it gives them the camaraderie and the experience,” Wommack said. “I think they need to play middle school and then go on to high school.”
Irwin also reminds his assistant coaches to balance discipline with fun to ensure the sport remains enjoyable.
“We don’t want to lose a kid as a sixth-grader or seventh-grader that may turn into a really, really good ballplayer,” he said.