Local baseball coaches selected to lead annual all-star teams
Bishop England High School baseball coach Mike Darnell — who has led the Bishops to three straight Class AAA state championships and six overall during his tenure — has been named the head coach of the Class AA-AAA South team, which will showcase its talent this spring in the annual North-South All-Star Games.
Darnell was an assistant coach previously, and this is the first time he will serve as the head coach.
Darnell relies on assistant coaches Bill Collier and Nick Traeger for their expertise, and he says the North-South honor is a reflection of the program.
“I believe this says a lot about our program and the great job all of our assistant coaches do on a daily basis to make us successful,” said Darnell, who will be assisted by Airport’s Tim Perry in the North-South Game. “There is not a single decision in this program which we don’t get together as a coaching staff and discuss. I am very fortunate to have worked with some great men who devote a ton of time to the program. Those guys and the players who have come through the program are really why you get invited to coach in events like this.”
Darnell isn’t the only local coach selected to the North-South Games. Jerry Stoots, who coaches at Oceanside Collegiate Academy, will coach the South Select Team. He will be assisted by Jimmy Frost of Gilbert.
Wando’s Dirk Thomas will coach the South Class A-AA-AAAAA team. He will be assisted by Casey Waites of Dutch Fork.
The all-star games will be held after the state championships, which are slated for mid-May.
BISHOPS IN TOURNEY
You would think that the Bishop England baseball team might get an invitation to play in the Georgetown High School’s International Paper Baseball Classic, which has a field that includes past state champs and most teams that Rank No. 1 in the preseason poll.
The Bishops can check both boxes on those counts, but the team didn’t receive an invite. Instead, the Bishops will play in Gilbert High School’s Sandlapper Invitational, which will be held March 5-8. Gilbert began the season as the No. 3 team in Class AAA. The two schools will play in the first round.
The Bishops are also scheduled to play Rock Hill, J.L. Mann and Byrnes in pool play. J.L. Mann begins the season at No. 7 in the coaches poll of Class AAAAA teams.
“The Georgetown thing might have a lot to do with playing in the same conference now,” Darnell said. “We were invited last year because we were the defending tournament champs. The Gilbert tournament is something we have done in the past and were always going to return to after the Georgetown thing ran its course. It is a tournament with a bunch of 5-A schools in it, which is always good from a competition standpoint. We start off with Gilbert, which is always tough. I have known Ashley (Gilbert’s coach) for a long time … he does a great job with his guys there.”