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Nico Gregali returns to a good situation with Ravenwood baseball





Ravenwood infielder Austin Johnson watches a flyball hit into the evening air Thursday evening.Jay Sowers/Main Street Media

Ravenwood infielder Austin Johnson watches a flyball hit into the evening air Thursday evening.Jay Sowers/Main Street Media

When Nico Gregali was hired to coach Fairview baseball, he spoke often about building a culture because the Yellowjackets didn’t have much recent tradition.

The result was a season the school hadn’t seen in years. More than 20 wins for the first time in more than a decade.

His new job is a different animal.

Gregali was hired last week and officially announced a few days ago as head coach at Ravenwood, a more traditional power and a place where he has spent time as an assistant before.

The Raptors reached state tournaments in 2015 and 2016 when he was on staff with Danny Borne, who left his head coaching position for another job in the school district recently.

“Ravenwood is definitely going to have the returning talent to have what the ‘15 and ‘16 teams were capable of doing, and the 2018 region championship that came up short against Rossview in the sectional,” Gregali said. “Those three teams were as talented of rosters as I’ve been around, and I think the 2022 team is similar.”

 

 

Gregali, who turned 35 in May, has made a variety of coaching stops, working on benches at Southeastern Illinois College and Oakland High School before taking an assistantship under then-Ravenwood coach Teddy Craig.

His new position isn’t a rebuilding job, it’s a launchpad opportunity.

Ravenwood brings back a strong senior nucleus with Lucas Kocian, Blake Bevis, Andrew Dudas, Myles Denton, Nick Wraum and Thomas Cooper.

Gregali coached Denton’s older brothers Zane and Bryce at Ravenwood. Bryce was a second-round MLB Draft selection by the Cardinals in 2015, and Zane just wrapped up his sophomore season at Alabama.

The program has yet to clear the last hurdle in winning a state title. It’s all about being positioned, Gregali said, which takes a little patience.

“(At Fairview) I said number one, we want to compete for district championships. In high school sports in Tennessee that’s all you can control. You can’t think about anything until you take care of your district. You just have to be there.”

Perhaps the best thing about Gregali’s next stop: There shouldn’t be many surprises.

He met the team in-person on Tuesday, looked at the schedule and rosters and glanced over the facilities. Everything looked fairly familiar.

“They haven’t missed a beat,” Gregali said. “The successes are there, the track record of good kids and families are still there. I can’t imagine I’m walking into anything that’s very foreign.”

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