Middle schoolers go off to camp

Last week Warren County Middle School assistant principal Jimmy Walker and WCMS baseball coach Brent Whitlock took a group of seven middle school players to a week long baseball camp at the University of Alabama Birmingham.
The camp was conducted by UAB coach Brian Shoop and his staff. Coach Shoop was coach Whitlock’s baseball coach at Birmingham Southern.
Coach Shoop is nationally known and has over 700 victories to his credit. He worked at Mississippi State where he coached players such as Will Clark, Rafael Palmeiro, Jeff Brantley and Bobby Thigpen.
He was inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2008. This is coach Shoop’s third season as head coach at UAB where he has led his team to a fourth place finish in Conference USA.
‘Coach Shoop is a great teacher of the fundamentals, but academics are his main priority,’ said Walker.
‘Out of 30 players, 27 of them maintained a 3.0 grade point average or better this year. The kids really had a great time and gained valuable information on their baseball skills.’