Building a winner

What follows is the script for this week's "Sports @ Large" radio broadcast. The show airs each Monday at 5:30 p.m. on WYPR, 88.1 FM in Baltimore, with a re-air during the "Maryland Morning" program on Tuesdays at 9 a.m.

Three years ago, Brian Boles absorbed a 35-2 beating as coach of the St. Frances Academy baseball team.

At a lot of places, and with a lot of coaches, there are no comebacks from such humiliation. Some coaches either cut and run away from such a mess, or never get involved in the first place.

But for Boles, there was never a chance that he would leave until the job got done. And the job just had to get done at St. Frances.

Let's back up. Ten years ago, Brian Boles was a part of the first baseball team at St. Frances. In the beginning, that group of players was more a club squad than an actual varsity team, and they went five full seasons without winning a game.

But Boles was good enough to play college baseball, first at Chesapeake College, then at Elizabeth City State University, where he hit. 415 and led the team in homers as a junior.

A hip-pointer, and its aftermath, was enough to rob Boles of a post-collegiate playing career, but by then, the game was too deeply ensconced in his soul.

And as fate would have it, St. Frances needed someone to run the baseball team. Boles, by then, just 22, took the challenge.

With his father and brother alongside as assistants, Boles set about gathering together a collection of players for whom baseball was something more than just a springtime diversion.

And more importantly, he became a bridge between the game and African-American kids, two parties who have increasingly become estranged from each other.

The program showed slow, but steady improvement, though in Boles' first four years, the Panthers didn't achieve a winning record.

However, St. Frances did reach the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association's C Conference playoffs last year, but the team, in Boles' words tasted failure.

With all but two players returning, the Panthers set out this season to taste something different, namely success.

Each of the four St. Frances starting pitchers turned in an earned run average below 3, with junior Devan Hill leading the way with a 0.77 ERA.

Meanwhile, the Panther hitting attack jumped to life behind junior Chris Dixon, who drove in 40 runs in the short high school season and leadoff hitter Devante Brown.

Brown hit a cool .510 this season with 49 hits in 95 at-bats, while stealing 34 bases. Before you knew it, the Panthers had a 21-6 record.

That, of course, ensured another berth in the playoffs and eventually a trip to the C Conference championship game two weeks ago.

There, Hill scattered five hits and struck out eight, while shortstop Darrell "Boom" Anderson went 4-for-4 and scored two runs, as St. Frances captured the title with an 8-3 win over St. John's Catholic Prep of Frederick.

Brian Boles will never forget the bitter taste of that 33-run drubbing. But the great thing about sports in general and baseball in particular, is if you hang in long enough, something sweet comes along eventually to balance things out.