Best Juco In Texas..Whos going there!

I know before Coach Tadlock left Grayson County, they had a great program. Don't know if it's still as good or not, but I bet it is.

Wow, a difficult question to answer and equally difficult to find agreement....JUCOS with great baseball:

-----DI-----
Grayson County College
North Central College
San Jacinto North College
Weatherford College
Blinn College
Angelina College
Texarkana College
Navarro COllege

-----DIII (no scholarships)-----
Eastfield College
Richland COllege

There may also be great opportunities at colleges that may not be at the top of the rankings today:

Lon Morris, Ranger, Hill, Odessa, Temple, Northeast

JUCO baseball in Texas -- incredible!

jeff jones 3rd and kyle livingstone ss of arlington heights are both going to navarro jc

Navarro is having a great season!! Not sure, but I'm thinking B.A. had them ranked #1 a few days ago.

McLennan in Waco also has a good program. As of today, they are in 1st in Region 5.
They swept Navarro earlier this year.

http://www.njcaaregion5.org/BaseballHome.htm
http://www.mclennan.edu/athletics/baseball/roster/

With the facilities at Weatherford, you'd think they would be doing better than they are.

What a great ballpark to recruit into.

You can't beat Skip Johnson at Navarro. He gets those kids ready for Div. I and the draft. Last I heard, he's had over 40 players drafted & over 85% players sign Division I college scholarships. Also, Joe Wharton does a great job at Richland. He finds a way to win.

Skip - A UT Pan Am alum. Good guy - good coach.

Grayson now has a former "Bronc" too.

Can't beat 'em.

have kids that have played at most these that i've coached.. I agree that Weatherford is not performing like you would think..Actually Temple is really improving..swept Weatherford and cisco is not that bad for an unknown..

I think one should give credit where credit is due. The Paris JC Dragons are 8-0 in Conference and 21-8 Overall in the season at this point.

I usually avoid the 'what school is better' topics since our organization has kids that go on from HS to play all over but I thought I'd throw in my $.02 here. All of the schools mentioned on this thread have outstanding programs and BB2005 is right, Mclennan is having an outstanding season....they swept Weatherford yesterday.

A program that often gets overlooked is Brookhaven College - especially after they dropped down before last year from the heavy hitting DI Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference to the DIII Metro Athletic Conference. Please know that I am definitely biased since their head coach is one of my closest friends. Now, having said that, Corey Thornton does more with less given that they have zero scholarships to offer yet the program has consistently produced players that move on to four year programs.

This season BC has been decimated with injuries after losing eight starters yet after sweeping Richland in a three game series a few weeks ago they are currently tied for second place in the MAC. Thornton is one of the most respected baseball men in the metroplex and does a superb job in breaking down the game and getting the most out of his players - anyone who has ever had a detailed conversation with him knows what I am talking about.

Corey would never toot his own horn so I thought I'd do it for him....

John,

You've been toot'n that horn way too loud.

I agree that Corey is as fine coach and a fine man but geez............get off your knees.

Sure has been hard to come across good coaches these days, Ken.

Just figured I'd throw some love toward one of the good guys....

Yeah,

I know what you mean John.

Those good guys are hard to come by. Especially the ones who played the game and understand what makes up good chemistry.

Your doing a great job with the DBAT organization. As I knew you would with your reputation. I see a long lasting future for you in this game. Keep up the great work.

quote:

Your doing a great job with the DBAT organization.

Aw shucks, Ken. You know how much I value your opinion.

Now who's on his knees?

I agree with you guys about much of this but the mutual admiration society is a little TOO much!! Corey is a good guy and all but Denny Dixon was the one that put that program on the map in the early-mid 90's and I remember that Corey was sometimes a little too quick to take credit for it ( an article in the DMN in '98 when their team made the playoffs and he took ALL of the credit ). Brookhaven has always been good but to my knowledge Denny was the backbone of that.

MCC is back and playing well and Weatherford should be a little ashamed of themselves as with that facility and all, they should manhandle people ( even in Texas where that is tough to do!! ).

Sorry for the love fest Mr. Dennis. Hope you're doing well since leaving Collin County. I reckon we're all entitled to our opinions and we're glad to have yours here.

Denny is a great guy and great coach and no slight of him was intended - just didn't see the point of naming him in the post since he's been gone from BC for two years. His Triple Creek Complex is looking great and makes me think that we should all get to fulfill our life long dreams like he has.

Good point Slickfielder. Lets not forget about Denny Dixon. Having the priviledge of being around JC Baseball in Texas, the first thing I that comes to my mind when you mention baseball at Brookhaven College is Denny Dixon. The man laid a great foundation for the program. Denny is a great baseball man and Corey probably learned a thing a two from Denny.

I think he learned a lot more than a thing or two from DD. He talks of him as you would your father.

Who says men can't be sentimental. Someone get me a tissue.

DBAT, didn't mean to sound too harsh on Corey, but I just remember how smart and savvy Denny was and what a BEAR it was to coach against him when he had guys that could play. He really worked at staying one step ahead of you and probably beat Grayson, MCC, etc....WAYYYYY more times than he should have!! He would NEVER say a word either about anyone and we could ALL learn from that I guess ( though it might shut down these boards!!! ).

I am doing well at Chattanooga State and we are currently 27-6 overall and leading our conference. Best start in school history and comes off of a 36-20 record last year that was a school record.

With the new "NCAA" proggress requirements make sure that your son graduates from his JC with and associates unless of course he is a draft prospect refining his game at the JC level. I had a son play at one of the Dallas JC schools and can tell you some coaches don't care about the "academic" portion of the equation. If your son intends to move beyond the JC level keep him on track.

Just advice from my personal experience and observations.

Ouch, Coach Dennis,

First, I would like to refresh your memory. The DMN article in '98 only interviewed Denny. The references to me in the article came from the players. I have zero quotes in that article nor did I take any credit other that the fact I was on the staff.

Second, you are absolutely right. Denny is the single greatest coach I have ever known or played for. Period. There is no person in baseball I respect more than him. In his tenure at Brookhaven he won 300 plus D1 games with no scholarships in arguably the toughest conference in the country.

Third, Denny Dixon has coached many of the area's winningest coaches. Skip Johnson and Whoa Dill (Navarro), JT Blair (Newman Smith), Danny Florence (Sherman, Frozen Ropes) all played for Coach Dixon. Denny also coached with many of the best like Steve Adair (TCA) and Larry Hughes (Southlake).

It hurts me to think that you and possibly other people in the baseball community would think that I would ever try to steal anything from Denny. Fortunately, Coach Dixon's and my relationship is such that we really never cared who received any credit -- we just wanted to win. Our players deserve the credit.

DBAT GM is right. Denny was more than a coach to me. He was a father of a sort.

As far as the program at Brookhaven being one of the best, I make no claims other than:

1 My players pass and they pass 48 transferable hours.

2 Any player who wants to keep playing after Brookhaven will get that opportunity, somewhere.

3 We will play to win, we will play with class, and we will play hard or I will turn in my keys.


Thanks
Corey Thorton

DBAT Coach

Wow, Denny Dixon. Now there's a great baseball mind.

But......I would have thought Corey learned all his baseball knowledge from the Fuqua school of baseball.

quote:

But......I would have thought Corey learned all his baseball knowledge from the Fuqua school of baseball.

lol.... Corey had already been well schooled in the game before I came along to pollute him.

By the way, I understand how the media can portray someone in a certain way when doing an article.

In 2003, Dale Hanson did a piece on our team - then known as the Dallas Knights. The team got about eight minutes of good airtime with interviews of several kids and coaches but my portion somehow ended up on the cutting room floor.

They said something about me having a face for radio....

I heard something about a broken camera lens John.

quote:

I heard something about a broken camera lens John.

I think Corey had something to do with that. And come to think of it the kids did speak highly about him in that one too. Hmmmmm.... I was sabotaged!

My 2 cents here about Denny, since we're doing this...
I've known him my entire life. Awesome man. Will do anything for you and has for me personally. He was a hard nosed player that I had the privilege to watch play when he was on my dads teams many years ago. I played for him on his first team to coach...I was 8 years old and we went undefeated. I played for him again on the Mavericks and we were 62-22 in ONE SUMMER of play. That was way before the USSSA and all those other organizations started getting involved in the area. He got his start in the McKinney Little Leagues and has gone on from there. He's all about baseball and helping the players who play the game. When I see Corey or Danny coaching, you can see qualities that Denny has in each of them. They do an outstanding job and have a passion for the game. He's an awesome man with an incredible legacy of baseball coaches to show for it.

....not to mention Denny's raised about a dozen kids. Anybody that can do that has got to have the patience of Job and has my full respect.

My two boys keep my hands full and my hair thin.

I can't pass up an opportunity to put in my .02 cents worth about Denny Dixon. Denny was my FOOTBALL coach in the 5th and 6th grade in McKinney. I've known him all my life. I also played for him with the McKinney Mavericks before I left to pursue my dream job after high school. He has meant more to me in my baseball exploits than any other person. He is one of the most generous men you will ever know and has forgotten more baseball than most of us will ever know. He deserves to be included in any top baseball coaches lists in these parts without a doubt. What he did at Brookhaven without scholarships is absolutely unbelieveable. Beat a lot of powerhouse D1 schools. He coached my 16 year olds son's team last summer without taking a single penny. We tried to pay him and he wouldn't take it. He and his wife Glenda are two of the most wonderful people on earth and I love them dearly. He's a special man in more ways than one! I have a lot to thank him for!

Thank you Denny Dixon for being a great coach and an even better man.

Navarro JUCO is the best IMHO

2006 RHP Casey Whitmer from Kilgore HS is going there, maybe... Casey keeps hitting 450-500 ft bombs and pitching perfect baseball with high velocity. Well, 6 innings of perfect ball just the other day anyway with at least two MLB clubs there not including the one who may as well have been there after my follow-up. Wow !!!

Peace, Shep

One thing that has really been strange to me through the years is the paradigm shift in velocity of top-ranked pitchers from beginning to finish of season. One pitcher might be throwing 95-97MPH at start and struggling to break 90MPH at mid-season while another goes from 86-88MPH to 90-93MPH as in the case of one pitcher I mentioned in last post in this thread.
Go figure...but believe me when I say, this happens every year and sleepers wake-up and stake their claim when the chips are down
Look for others to pop up in next few weeks all over the country who are flying under radar. Happens every year. Scouts on top of things will benefit as in the case of those at recent game of Casey Whitmer at Kilgore High School.

Several amateur scouting associations missed that one

Peace,
Shep

Guess I haven't seen any of those 95-97 MPH pitchers in HS or JUCO this year.

If Mr. Whitmer is as good as you say then he won't be missed by the scouts.

PP,

You are absolutely right about the scouts not missing Mr. Whitmer. They are all over him right now and somewhat in panic mode to get cross-ckers and Directors in to see him. Might want to ck your site there in TX at http://www.insideprepbaseball.com and look up article on Kilgore vs. Whitehouse game with Helms/Whitmer matchup by Becker. I scout in SE USA and didn't miss that. Good subscription to have with a great deal of information.

Looking forward to watching this fine prospect's leap to top of heap. Navarro JUCO will be lucky to keep him from signing-IMHO

Baseball is an interesting game when paradigm shifts like this occur and often make me wonder what happened prior to changes that shape those who rise to top and take others place in the order and scheme of things. Sometimes it just takes patience and prayer to be lifted up. peace, Shep

T & C WHMR

Haven't forgotten about you guys. Have made a couple more calls that would make you guys

The Chips are falling

Good Luck !

Shep

T & C Whitmer

Have you cked PG's Hotlist in TX lately ???

Jerry's staff is all over you guys out there. Found me a catcher this week who is also the real deal. peace, Shep

Any other local folks' kids looking at Eastfield?