The AAA Rookie team has a different personality fielding each base on the field, but they share a simple goal: winning.

When practice began in early June, most of the players had little to no interaction with many of their teammates. Not knowing each other’s thoughts and tendencies provided an early challenge.

“When I first met these guys at district they were new to one another,” said head coach Chris Goshea said. “We didn’t have the personality that we have now. Now these guys have come together like brothers.”

After growing together through the warm up and district tournament the Rookies have come together to form a successful baseball team. They lost their first round game in the district tournament and stared elimination in the face before coming together to win out the rest of the tournament and clinch the district championship.

“They are a very exciting group of guys,” Goshea said. “But they all have their own personalities. It has added a strange dynamic to the team.”

So strange that that the Rookies have a set of twins, Braden, and Bradley Prestwood on the team who couldn’t be more different that one another on the ball field.

“The set of twins playing on the team are like night and day,” Goshea said. “One of them is more reserved while one of them runs around 100 miles per hour. It’s a beautiful thing to watch them interact with each other. They both bring a lot of personality.”

While Bradley likes to run around and ask a lot of questions, Braden is more reserved and quiet.

“He is a thinker when it comes to the game of baseball,” Goshea said. “He is always thinking about the next play and about hot to improve his game. He asked questions about how to improve his swing and get how to get better as a player.”

Like most successful teams, there are a group of players who lead by example and direction.

“If Mario Davenport and Tre’Von Brown see you get too loose, they will try and bring them back and get focused,” Goshea said. “They have been really good at that. I have coached them the last few years and they know what makes me tick.”

All the personalities on the team have gelled together, and the coach said that is a critical component to success on the field.

“That is something that you definitely have to have,” Goshea said. “You need to have a balance in the team. By no means do I want them to be the same. My approach is different for all 12 of them. The kids all help to balance each other out.”

The Rookies hope that all the personalities will come together when they start their state tournament in Oxford at 2 p.m. today against Decatur-National.