Gilmer High baseball spent much of June on its home field preparing for the 2027 season.
Baseball is one of the few spring sports at GHS with an established summer regimen. The Cats were on the field Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Each day began with a weight training session before a two-hour practice.
They focused on sharpening individual skills, but the bulk of their time was spent playing intrasquad scrimmages.
“We divided up into two teams, and sometimes three teams of five or six guys apiece and would play, which was nice," Thurman said. "You don’t always get an opportunity to do that during the season. We’re always getting ready for the next series or game. With this we were able to scrimmage, and when some situation came up, we were able to stop play and coach guys on what they were supposed to do in a particular situation. We were able to take our time, which was good.
“In the past we’ve gone to the Berry College camp where we competed in games. Sometimes when you end up competing against another school, the competition comes out in you and you end up doing things to win or keep a score a certain way. When we scrimmage at home we don’t have to worry about that and can just focus on ourselves.”
There are 27 players on the roster, and Thurman said around 12 players also took the field with their travel teams. At least 20 players were present for each practice.
“We have a lot of football guys who are playing and a few who also play basketball. They had a busy June, and we have a lot of travel ball kids," Thurman said. "A lot of times those travel tournaments start on a Thursday and might not end until Monday or even Tuesday. That’s been a change here recently (as tournaments previously took place on the weekend). We’re getting close to about half of our roster being travel ball players.
“Another big priority for the summer was getting those ninth graders into our program and letting them get acclimated to the high school program. I felt like we did a good job of doing that.”
The Bobcats will have some time off over the coming months before preseason preparations begin in the fall. Official team practice will resume in January.
“We had a great month, and our kids’ camps went really well,” Thurman said. “We had 70 kids at our regular camp and our father/son camp had about 25 kids or so and their dads. That was a really good Saturday before Father’s Day. Overall we felt like it was a productive summer.”