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The Champion, Thursday, June 18 - 24, 2015
SPORTS
Page 23A
Brookhaven Bucks
Brad Schwartz, a junior at the University of Miami in Ohio, throws a pitch for the
Brookhaven Bucks.
The Brookhaven Bucks hired former MLB player Corey Patterson to coach this sea
son.
London Lindley (at bat) was drafted by the Texas Rangers. Photos by Jay Kapp
by Carla Parker
carla@dekalbchamp. com
Baseball is still being played at Her-
mance Stadium at Oglethorpe Univer
sity
However, it is not the Stormy Pe
trels of Oglethorpe playing in those
games; it is the Brookhaven Bucks. The
Bucks are a collegiate summer baseball
team which competes in the Sunbelt
Baseball League, Georgias collegiate
wooden-bat baseball league.
The league launched 10 years ago,
and the Brookhaven Bucks were found
ed five years later by John Davis and
Brad Dickison. Dickison took over the
team three years ago.
“I work with the commissioner of
the league to try to build and expand
it so we can catch up to other leagues,
[such as] the Cape Cod and the Coastal
Plain League,” Dickison said. “Were
moving fast, were getting in the right
direction.”
The Sunbelt Baseball League is
sanctioned by Major League Baseball,
and it allows MLB scouts to see play
ers play with wooden bats, as opposed
to the aluminum bats they play with in
college.
“We’ll have scouts at the games, and
this is basically a chance for [the play
ers] to get seen by pro scouts, and to
[play] during the summer,” Dickison
said. “I have players out of college that
[have] coaches who are calling me, and
they want them to stay in practice.”
Deric Boone, a Druid Hills High
School graduate, is one of those play
ers. Boone, a rising junior at Southern
Union State University, began playing
with the Bucks last summer.
“My summer ball coach knew one
of the coaches from last year and he
talked to him and got me on the team
last year,” he said. “I did pretty good last
year, and they called me out again this
year.”
Boone said he has enjoyed playing
with the Bucks, and it has helped im
proved his baseball skills.
“Baseball is more of an everyday
sport,” he said. “You can’t take a lot of
time off and stay at your peak. It’s good
to see good baseball over the summer.”
Boone hopes to get drafted into the
major leagues like some other alums
of the Brookhaven Bucks. On June 10,
Bucks outfielder London Lindley was
drafted by the Texas Rangers.
“We’re happy for him,” Dickison
said.
Other players who have played for
the Bucks that were drafted include
Nic Wilson, who was drafted by the
Tampa Bay Rays in the 24th round in
2014. Wilson, a Decatur High School
graduate and former player for Georgia
State University, played for the Bucks in
2012.
“These are college players who
hope to be able to move to the next
level,” Dickison said. “Of course it’s a
very small percentage of athletes in the
country that ever get here, but these are
the best of the best here.”
The team has improved each year,
going from a 12-9 in 2011 to a 19-10
team last season. The baseball club
brought in Corey Patterson, who
played 12 years in Major League Base
ball, to coach the team this season.
Patterson is a 1998 graduate of Har
rison High School in Kennesaw and
was a member of the 1998 state cham
pionship baseball team. He was drafted
by the Chicago Cubs as the third over
all pick that same year. He was also a
member of the St. Louis Cardinals team
that won the World Series in 2011.
Dickison said the Brookhaven
Bucks have become a sought-after team
to play for.
“Were just getting better talent all
the time, which leads to better opportu
nities to hire people like Corey and his
staff,” he said.
Although the Bucks are playing
good baseball and has the best record
in the Sunbelt, there are not many
people there to see them win. Dickison
hopes to change that soon.
“I want the stands to be full,” he
said. “At the coastal Carolina leagues,
every [game] is sold out for the en
tire summer. There’s nothing more
fun than having people in the stands.
When these people start cheering them
and putting the antlers up and get
ting into it, you can see a difference in
how they play. The true goal is to bring
Brookhaven out.”
Alum
Continued From Page 21A
Brothers
Continued From Page 22A
a dream come true for Scott.
“I knew that if I could
go on and become a profes
sional football player that
the community would be
proud and my family would
be proud, and therefore my
life would be fulfilled in do
ing that,” Scott said. “It came
to fruition.”
Although a neck injury
ended his football career
during his sophomore year,
Pitts did not let that derail
him from finishing college.
He earned his undergradu
ate degree in 1970 and grad
uate degree in 1972.
After retiring from the
NFL in 1983, Scott worked
for an energy company. He
lives in Decatur and is active
in the community, partici
pating in school career days
and field days.
“[I want to] exceed more in my aca
demics, that’s the main goal,” Chris said.
“After two years; I have a chance to go to a
four-year school. So, there is always another
chance.”
For the first time in six years, Caesar
Burgess, Chamblee boys’ basketball coach,
will not be at the same school with one of
his sons, but he is proud of his sons and
what they have accomplished.
“Fm proud of them just because they are
my boys,” he said. “I don’t care if they ever
played sports; I don’t care what they choose
to do. I just care about them as human be
ings and as good boys. I want them to make
this world a better place, spread love, be
unselfish, realize that life is about helping
people and I want those guys to just help
people. I just want them to be good guys.”
Although he is the coach in the family,
he gives all the credit to his wife, Brenda,
for the twins’ path to baseball.
“She deserves all the credit,” he said.
“She is the driving force behind their base
ball careers. She does everything for them.”