Christenberry Falcons put in summer work on the diamond, in the cage
By Ken Lay
School may be out for the summer but that doesn’t mean that high school athletes and coaches aren’t hard at work.
Players will be off for the next two weeks during the annual TSSAA-mandated dead period but players were anything but idle last week. Some local high school baseball players even came in early to get some extra work in the batting cage on Thursday morning at Larry Cox Field.
Members of the Christenberry Falcons, a summer team comprised of players from Fulton High School, started arriving nine hours before Knoxville hosted a double header against a team from Maryville and Heritage High School.
“I’ve been here since 9 o’clock this morning and we’ve had guys in and out of here all day long,” Falcons coach Buzz McNish said. “They’ve come in and worked. They’ve been in the cage and worked on some other stuff.”
The Falcons play in a summer league that includes a team from Corryton (the Graveston Freebirds) two from Maryville and one from Anderson County. Teams play five-inning double headers during the week. They also play other teams on the weekends.
The league is run by McNish, Fulton’s baseball coach.
“It gives our guys (a chance) to come in and get reps and get better,” said McNish, who previously coached at West High and Lenoir City. “When I got here and started the league, our guys really needed this because they were so far behind everybody else.
“They were so far behind because they didn’t really do anything during the offseason. This league gives us the chance to move some people around and see what we’ve got.”
When McNish left Marble City for North Knoxville, he had to undertake a monumental task of establishing a winning culture in an all but dormant program. The Falcons finally reaped the benefits of summer work in 2025.
Futon won 22 games this past season and opened the 2025 spring campaign with 15 consecutive wins.
“I think we started 15-0, or something like that and the success that we had in the spring is a direct result of what we did over the summer,” McNish said. “We play two double headers during the week and that gives our young guys the chance to see live pitching in the summer and learn what it’s like in June.”
Many area baseball players spend the summer playing travel baseball across the country. For some players, however, expense eliminates that option.
“Travel ball is expensive and a lot of guys can’t afford that or afford to do other things,” McNish said. “This gives guys a chance to come in and get some extra work. And it’s all free. It doesn’t cost a thing.
“And some guys stay here, even if they (have other options) because they want to play with the players that they play high school ball with.”
Knoxville has gone 12-9 this summer but was swept by Heritage in a double header late last week.
The Falcons will be off for two weeks but will return to the diamond during the second week of July and play in the summer league’s postseason tournament.
“We’ll go at least a week, maybe two, after the dead period and we’ll have our postseason tournament,” McNish said.
