Coach Kyle Barr has been recommended to the Gilmer Board of Education, as a replacement for the Bobcats’ vacant head baseball coach position. Former head coach, Jason Keller, headed back to his home state of Texas to take an administrative job.Barr, a Lumpkin County native, was an assistant under Keller for the last three years. Barr plans to set the Bobcats’ bar high. He acknowledged that region rival, Ringgold, is the presumed standard bearer.

“I would think the team to beat’s Ringgold again. They had a ton of juniors and they finished top eight in the state this year,” Barr said.

Barr’s Bobcats’ baseball season will be balanced on the back of a talented rising junior class. Only two seniors will be returning, Clay McClure and Austin White. McClure broke his hand early in the year and had to work his way back throughout the 2011 season. White led the team in hits.

Barr has high hopes for the youth on his team.

“We have a lot of sophomores that is probably are best class. They’ll be rising juniors.”

Rising junior, Marlen Hensley, will return as the number one starting pitcher, as well as fellow rising junior Shane Dale, who will compete to be the number two or number three pitcher. Austin White, “who didn’t pitch last year (2011 season) will see some innings this year,” Barr said. Catcher, Forrest Bramlett, who led the team in RBI, will also be returning.

Barr, while ecstatic that he received the recommendation for the job left vacant Keller, acknowledges that Keller’s shoes will not be easily filled. Barr said Keller’s biggest attribute was instilling in the team “attitude.”

The Bobcats have had very little success over the years, making the state tournament once since 1975. Keller aimed to change that. The Bobcats missed qualifying for the state tournament by one game in 2011. Barr acknowledged that while the team has always had goals of making the state tournament, the players weren’t necessarily sure of how to achieve that goal.

“They’ve always said the right things, but not really knowing how to get there.” Barr said. “We’ve tried to change that and give them the killer instinct. When you’ve got somebody down you put them away. When you’re down you keep coming back. I think we got some of that in place last year.”

Gilmer’s 2011 season, started with 20 straight road games, yet the Bobcats still managed to finish over .500 at 14-10 with six of the 10 losses coming to teams that were ranked within the top eight in the state. Barr was impressed with his team’s resilience.

”Our kids did a great job, of handling and playing our first 20 games on the road.”

With Gilmer being one of the smaller schools, and Region 7AAA being full of teams in the upper echelon of the state, Barr’s job will be to ensure that players are prepared for the road ahead.