The Sealy Tiger baseball team was among other University Interscholastic League teams to hold its first official practice last Friday and joined their softball counterparts that started the week prior.

Amidst freezing temperatures and wintry precipitation in the area at the end of last week, first-year head coach Trey Marik was unsure the team would even be able to hit the outdoor field Friday but the daytime sun dried the playing surface out enough to host practice.

“The weather turned out a lot better than I thought, I didn’t think we’d get outside at all,” Marik said Friday. “The boys were excited to get back outside. This group right here, we’ve been out here all school year so it’s not really the first day for them it’s just more of an extension and we don’t have to be in a hurry because we’re going to get some more work done. It’s just great to be back out here on the field as always, with this group this is more of a continuation of what we’ve been working on.”

Part of what the group has been working on is warming with a purpose and executing the throwing plan Marik has installed entering his 29th year coaching baseball.

“The most basic thing in the game of baseball is playing catch. You have to throw well – which means you have to throw it with some velocity – you have to throw it accurately and you have to be able to catch the ball,” Marik said. “Most of the games are lost because either a ball was thrown poorly or it’s not caught and that’s what I stress more than anything is being able to play catch.”

Just in the short time the team has been together, the head coach has already seen improvements.

“This group has shown over the last four or five months, they’ve made great strides in having accountability and realizing that if they don’t catch the ball now, they’re not going to catch it in the game,” Marik said. “It can’t be a light switch that you can turn on when game time hits, it has to matter now. Playing catch has to matter now or it won’t matter during game time.”

Although regular-season games won’t start until Feb. 21 against West Columbia, Sealy’s first scrimmage is scheduled for Feb. 8 against Burton and Brazos at home. The Tigers are also set to host Sweeny (Feb. 11) and Needville (Feb. 15) as well as travel to Katy to face Jordan (Feb. 18) to round out their scrimmage schedule.

For more on the Sealy baseball team, be on the lookout for the upcoming Spring Sports Preview magazine.