Since being named as South Arkansas Community College’s first baseball coach, Cannon Lester has been busy crisscrossing the state and anyplace else where he can find potential recruits.
So far, it has paid off with Lester already having put together a good chunk of his roster, although it can’t formally be announced until all of the letters-of intent have been received.
“We can’t talk specifics yet, but as far as commitments, we’ve got 30 so far, and we’re looking to add about another five or six throughout the summer, mainly pitchers and catchers now,” Lester said. “Position-player wise, we’re doing pretty good. I don’t think you can ever have enough catching and pitching, so we’re going to look at it a little bit more. With this number, honestly, that’s the number I was shooting for, and now that I see that we’re already there, we’re going to find a few more. It’s been pretty good. The momentum has been good. It’s been a lot better than I expected to be honest. I’m excited.”
Lester described his first month as the Stars’ head coach in one word.
“I think hectic is a good word,” Lester said. “I’ve been really busy scouring the state and reaching out to guys that we know and we trust. I’ve probably been on the phone more than I ever would, but it’s been fun. It’s been exciting. We’ve got some good momentum going, so we’re going to keep it going throughout the summer, just building this team for the fall.”
Lester said the early commitments made stems from players who are eager to play at the college level along with what Lester has planned for the future of the program.
“I felt the newness of it and the timing might be difficult, but I think it shows how many kids around the state really want to play college baseball, want to be a part of something special,” Lester said. “I think once we got them to town and once we got them on campus, I think right now our retention rate for guys that have been on campus is about 95 percent so far, which is unbelievable with guys once they’ve committed and stepped foot on campus for an official visit, so I think the campus has got a lot to offer.
“It’s right there downtown, and I think the vision we’re casting for these kids and I think just the way we go about things, it will be a little bit different than probably what most schools do. I honestly think that COVID has actually helped us a little bit because a lot of teams are rolling in 65 kids, and we’re going to roll in probably 35, 40 at the most, so I think that also gives them a chance to get on the field quick, which is what a lot of them are looking for.”
Lester added that he doesn’t have a set number in place for how big the roster will be.
“The way it’s looking right now, I don’t think there is any certain number, just kind of the guys that come along that we think can help us,” he said. “I think it will be closer to 40 than we are 30 when it’s all said and done once school starts. We’re excited about it. It’s headed in a direction faster than we probably thought it would. It’s exciting.”
Lester said he has brought on Hayden Dow as an assistant coach.
Dow was Lester’s pitching coach at El Dorado before departing to be a graduate assistant with Southern Arkansas.
Lester said Dow will coach pitchers and catchers and also be in charge of the Stars’ strength program.
“I know everything about coach Dow and I think he knows everything about me,” Lester said. “That’s kind of how we run things, and I’m excited to have him back in the fold. He’s awesome with what he does.”
With the Stars set to make their debut next spring, it would be easy to compare the Stars to Arkansas Rich Mountain, who just completed their debut season with a 29-28 record and a runner-up finish in the Division II Plains District Tournament, but Lester said he is only concerned with the Stars.
“I think we’ve got to run our own race,” Lester said. “I think everybody is presented with different obstacles, but we’ll go after it. They’ve got a good program up there at Rich Mountain. Chase Webb is up there from El Dorado, and he speaks very highly of it.”
Lance Spigner, who guided Horatio to several state titles before becoming the Bucks’ first coach, has talked to Lester about how he built his roster.
“He’s been very beneficial in this process,” Lester said. “I’ve seen him at a couple of camps. He’s reached out. He’s open. Anything I’ve asked him so far, he’s very open about it, so we don’t want to compare ourselves to them.
“We want to run our own race and do our own thing, but they had good success this year, and they have a good program up there. We go after a lot of the same kids, so that will be fun in the future. I have nothing but respect for those guys, but we’re going to focus on us down here, do what we can do and focus on what we can control.”
With Lester focused on recruiting, the fall schedule hasn’t been finalized, although he said there are two road trips lined up.
“We haven’t done as much just because we’ve really been focused on this roster right now, but we’ve had a lot of teams reaching out,” Lester said. “I think we’re about to finalize something to go to Bossier-Parrish in Shreveport, and Rich Mountain is probably going to be there as well. Then we’ll probably go over to SAU sometime in October, and there will be some really good teams there from Texas.
“We’ll really get to test ourselves, and I’m sure there will be a few more times during the fall that we’ll play. We’re actually allowed 14 scrimmage dates in the fall against other teams, but we probably won’t do as many. We’ll probably shoot for five or six scrimmage games just so we can really focus on development. We’re going to be a young team.
“Most of our guys are going to be 18-year-old freshmen, and we’re going to be playing against some 21-year-old men, so we really need to develop and take this fall to really hit the weights and develop our routines, just worry about what we can control this fall and get ready for the spring.”
Although Lester is ready to catch his breath, there is still much to do before fall arrives.
“I’m ready to breathe, but I don’t think it’s time to quite slow down yet,” Lester said. “We’ve still got about five to 10 guys out there that we’ve really set our sights on, but I’ll be honest, this last week, we’ve got to narrow down our focus a little bit more and I think we really know what we’re looking for as far as arms and positions go.
“We’re going to go look for those guys this summer, and we’re really going to focus later in the summer on the ‘22 class. I’ve already got a list of guys that I’ve seen and prospects that I need to go check out. Recruiting never stops, so once we’ve got this one locked in, we’re going focus on the ‘22 class and get them ready to build something here.”