The Houston County Bears baseball team had a historic season en route to winning the AAAAAA State Title in 2023 that saw a program record in wins with 36, a record setting 348 runs scored, and a record setting final ranking of #6 in the nation which included being #1 in all of Georgia and #1 in the nation among public high schools.
2023 also saw HoCo get to go play in a tournament they could very well never play at again when the team went to the National High School Invitational at the team USA Baseball Complex in Cary, North Carolina. One month after the season ended, Andrew Dunford became the first Bears baseball player ever to skip college and go directly to the MLB after be drafted by the Detroit Tigers.
Now, we turn the page and look ahead to 2024, a season that will be one day longer due to the leap year and this season’s team will be loaded with 23 upper classmen on the roster (11 seniors and 12 juniors). For the last decade or so, HoCo has scheduled tough opponents in order to be battle tested for the Playoffs and it has worked well as they have won four state titles in the last nine seasons.
The Bears will scrimmage Mt. Paran Christian tomorrow night at the Garden and then the season will kick-off next Tuesday at Lowndes and then, HoCo will host the Vikings a week from tomorrow and this two-game set will be a battle between the defending AAAAAA and AAAAAAA state champions.
To learn more about the Bears’ schedule and the excitement of the upcoming season, you can watch Coach Matt Hopkins’ interview down below.
