In the spring of 1989, the movie ‘Field of Dreams’ spurred one of the best lines of all-time that to date still gets recited, “If you build it, they will come.”
The line refers to Kevin Costner in a small farm town in Iowa building a baseball field out of his corn fields for the return of the 1919 Chicago Black Sox.
Fast forward nearly thirty years later, the small town of Baldwin is hoping to duplicate that success by building a successful football program to attract not only fans, but college scouts as well.
It didn’t take long for college football coaches around the South to catch on, as nearly 100 coaches came by during the spring to get a glimpse of the talent at Baldwin. They came away quite impressed.
Head coach Steve Shields has college coaches knocking on his office door daily to get a look of top recruits. Kentucky, Florida, Southern Miss, Oregon State, Memphis, FIU, FAU, Georgia Southern, South Alabama, Troy, Appalachian State, Ohio and Middle Tennessee were among the coaches stopping by.
Among the players the coaches are lining up to watch are Tyler Murray (Sr., ATH), Isaiah Miller (Sr., RB), Torri Singletary (Sr., DE), Hershel Newman (Sr., NG/DT), Kolby Burns (Jr., DL), Johnny Williams (Sr., DB), Shane Sanderson (Sr., RB/WR) and Frederick Curry (Jr., WR/FS).
With all that talent, you have to believe the expectations are quite high this season to finally make the playoffs. However, it’s been 5 years since Baldwin made the playoffs, and for the Indians to end the spell they will have to knock off juggernauts Fort White, Union County or Hawthorne, as well as a talented Hilliard program.
A key for the Indians to pull off the upsets will be the non-district games to open the season against West Nassau, Englewood and Jackson. Starting off 3-0 would go a long way towards the confidence needed starting District 6-1A play.
Baldwin Indians
Baldwin A Hot Commodity For College Coaches
Written by Corey Davis
Photo by jacksonville.com
