WILLIAMSBURG — Jeremy Shope and his Whitley County Colonel baseball team received a standing ovation when they completed their trip from Lexington to the Whitley County High School baseball field Sunday.
The Colonels, fresh off of bringing home the baseball program’s, and 13th Region’s, first-ever state baseball championship, were greeted by tons of fans wearing their state championship T-shirts.
“I’m speechless. I love the 13th Region,” Shope said. “I was a young kid in Harlan, Kentucky with a coal minor father, long ago. I fell in love with the game of baseball playing in Harlan Little League. Getting back here in the 13th Region all of these years later, it’s special to me, it’s special to our region. It’s awesome. It’s awesome.
“Today is a special day,” he added. “I don’t know any other way to describe it. For the boys to pull this off all year long, and in the biggest moments, says a lot for our program, and a lot for our alumni. Our kids understood the ground work had been laid, and they believed and got there.”
Whitley County’s state championship run saw the Colonels win a program-best 39 games, capture the Kentucky 2A, Section 7 championship, and finish runner-up in the Kentucky 2A’s State Tournament before winning the state’s biggest championship on the biggest stage — Kentucky Proud Park.
“This group is coachable, they have grit, and they have the will to win,” Shope said of his team’s state championship run.
Senior Mason Croley, who finished the 2023 season with a 14-1 mark said he didn’t know how to put into words of his team’s run to the state championship”
“It’s hard to express … but it’s a great day to be a Colonel, and a great day to be in Williamsburg,” he said.
State tournament Most Valuable Player Grant Zehr said the trip home was a “special day.”
“Everybody is happy, and this is one of the happiest places I’ve been. I’m a senior, and I don’t want to leave — wish I could stay, but I can’t.”
It marked the first time a Whitley County High School sports program won a state championship since the girls’ basketball team won the state championship in 1985.
The Colonels also became the first “606” team to carotids the baseball state championship since Boyd County accomplished the feat in 2001. Paintsville won in 1990, East Carter in 1984, Somerset in 1974, Ashland in 1966, 67, and 68, and Prestonsburg in 1948.
“In Kentucky you have one class, you play against every school in Kentucky,” Shope said. “It’s a single-elimination tournament, so every game is huge. These boys showed up, ready to play, and we pitched it, played some defense, and gave ourselves a chance.”
