Craig County High will have their largest track team ever this year, but no baseball or soccer team at all.
The Virginia High School League spring sports season is scheduled to begin next Monday and Craig County High will be competing in just one sport, softball. The Rockets will open the season at Staunton River on Monday.
Unfortunately, Craig will not be fielding a baseball or soccer team this year. The baseball team only had about a half dozen boys sign up to play. Baseball has traditionally been a big sport in Craig County but the diamond in New Castle will be empty this spring for the third time in the past seven years.
No spring sports were played in 2020 due to the coronavirus, and the baseball team did not have enough boys to play in the 2021 season as well. However, the Rockets fielded a team the past four years and had a dozen players last spring.
The co-ed soccer team also had only about a half dozen players show an interest in playing this year. After several years of certain community members pushing hard to have varsity soccer at Craig County High the team debuted in 2018 with a roster of close to 20. They had decent numbers every season except for 2020 when no one played in any spring sport. In 2021 the Rockets even won the Pioneer District championship, and had 15 players on the team last spring.
Benefiting from the lack of participation in baseball and soccer will be the track team. Coach Jayke Dowdy has about 30 boys out for the track team as well as four or five girls. There will be no home meets but the Rockets should make a good showing out of town with a lot of speed on the team. A schedule has yet to be posted.
