By Andy Walter

CAMDEN — Jeff Gravatt hadn’t seen a whole lot of his players over the past year.

The coronavirus pandemic meant that the members of Caesar Rodney High’s baseball team have only been in school sporadically since last March.

Gravatt, the Riders’ coach, admits some of those players have changed a lot.

“There are some kids we didn’t see for a while,” he said. “Then you see them for the first time in a few months and you’re like, man, you almost didn’t recognize them. They’ve gotten so much taller or filled out.”

The hope, of course, is that some of those bigger and stronger kids will also be better baseball players when CR opens the season on Tuesday by hosting Dover at 4:15 p.m.

But the fact is there’s some mystery about how the Riders — or any other squad — will look after having last season canceled by the pandemic.

CR had 10 seniors on last year’s roster, most of whom would have been two or three-year starters. The only current player with genuine varsity experience is junior pitcher Andrew Rigby.

Rigby, whose brother Ryan was a senior last spring, was only a freshman in the Riders’ last full season in 2019. Now he’s considered a veteran as he steps up from being a reliever to a starting pitcher.

“I was kind of on the bottom half, now I’ve got to be a leader to all the younger kids that I’ve played with for a while,” said Rigby.

Even though he played some travel ball last summer, Rigby said it’s not the same as playing for a school team.

“It feels good to be back out here,” said Rigby, who also plays the outfield and first base. “I played in the summer but it’s totally different here ... being with kids that you go to school with and other teams that you really know.”

In the current situation, senior David Dill also qualifies as something of a veteran. The catcher/infielder had been practicing with the varsity last year when the season was canceled.

With students not in the school building every day, Dill said it’s just been nice being around his friends again at practice.
“It really is,” he said. “Every year we have our baseball friends, hang out and do this or do that. Now being in school and out of school, it’s just really nice to see them.

“Playing with a lot of these freshmen, I remember back playing travel with them. Just seeing them come up in high school, it’s a huge difference. It’s not even like them anymore. ... We lost a lot of players, a lot of other teams lost a lot of other players, so it’s basically like a whole new team.”

The Riders have six seniors on this year’s squad but also four sophomores and a pair of freshmen.

CR finished 10-9 in 2019 after reaching the DIAA state tournament for the second season in a row. Of course, that seems like ancient history now.

Unlike fall and winter sports teams, spring sports programs are slated to play full schedules this year. In baseball, that means teams can play an 18-game schedule with non-conference matchups as well as divisional games.

When it comes to the finer details of the sport, players have to almost re-learn how to play the game.

“I told the coaches the other day, we can’t assume that the kids know anything,” said Gravatt. “We have to break it down into very small pieces and start from the ground up. We’re getting better.

“It’s a little slower start this year. But the kids are growing — they’re getting a lot better. There’s definitely a learning curve for the younger guys. ... Every team is in the same situation.”

“When we haven’t played in a while, they forget the basic stuff,” said Dill. “During practice, you have to learn it all back.
“It seems like it’s been forever since we played. Now that the season’s here, I just can’t wait.”