While many of the Troy All-star teams are off playing in sub-district tournaments fighting their way to advance to the next round, coach Kevin Bryan and the rest of the Troy Dixie Junior baseball team is anxiously awaiting the opportunity to play in the State Tournament in Troy.

Through the hot Troy afternoons the Dixie Boys are trudging along finding a way to stay as fresh as they can for the upcoming state competition in July.

“We are coming along,” Bryan said. “We have a long break so we are trying to get our pitchers some work and the batters some live batting practice. There is only so much you can do at practice at the moment.”

Bryan and the Dixie Boys are in efforts to schedule practice games in hopes they can put their hard work at practice to some good use before the games really count.

“We are working with a couple different pitchers during every practice, trying to put them into as many game like situations that I can. At the end of the night we try to have some fun drills and games for the kids.”

Although coach Bryan has seen many of his players before, the last few weeks of practice has given him the ability to find out what kind of team he has.

“I know all these kids, and I know what all they can do,” Bryan said. “I am still learning some new stuff about them. I am getting more familiar with them, and some of the other coaches are as well. We are learning what they can do, and what we can expect from them.”

Although practice has been important for the Dixie Juniors, the players are itching to compete against other teams to show what they are all about.

“They show up every night asking me if I have found anyone for them to play yet,” Bryan said. “Their ready to play someone other than themselves.

Troy competed in the Alabama State Games Tournament earlier this month and finished the tournament with a record of 1-2.

With a few weeks to go until competition, Bryan steadily encourages his players to stay focused and positive.

“We are trying to focus on a lot of the positive things,” Bryan said. “Everybody else is getting to play tournaments and games right now, we are not able to. We are trying to focus on those positives during practice and go from there.”

The Dixie Junior’s will open up their first round with a match-up against the District 5 champion on July 17.