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The Zion Chapel Rebels head into the season with a new coach, new facility and lofty season goals. 

Former Zion Chapel assistant coach Allan Foster has stepped into the role of head coach that his brother, Adam Foster, held previously. Allan Foster was a baseball player at Luverne High School and graduated from Troy University where he served as a student manager and graduate assistant on the baseball team. Before coming to Zion Chapel as an assistant coach in 2020, he served as an assistant at Enterprise High School. 

“Things have been going good. We’ve been fortunate enough to be able to do as much as we have with all the construction that’s been going on,” Foster said of the offseason. “The guys that have been able to be out here have been working out and getting stronger. Our core nucleus of guys have been out here putting in the work and putting the pedal to the floor.”

Zion Chapel is benefiting from its new indoor practice facility this season, which Foster says can be a game changer for the program.

“You can’t put the words to really describe what it means,” he said. “There’s no more rainouts for us, as far as practice goes. You can throw bullpens in there, you can hit and you can even throw ground balls. 

“It opens up a whole other atmosphere for our kids. You don’t have kids wanting to go home after practice anymore, they want to stay back and hit in there. Not just for the program, but the community as a whole, it’s something to be proud of.”

Zion Chapel has to replace a number of veterans from last year’s team but also returns some key players, as well.

“We have a good senior group; (Joseph) LeGear, Brodie Stinson, Brady Flowers are guys we’ll really lean on,” Foster said. “We also have some underclassmen like John Foster (Hamm) and Macon Allen I think will be leaders for us. This is kind of a different group this year. We have more depth at the higher classifications than the lower grades. So, I think that works out really well for me as a first-year (head) coach.”

Hamm pitched 29 1/9 innings last season with 31 strikeouts and a 4.33 ERA. He also earned a .254 batting average with a .427 on-base percentage, 14 RBIs, two doubles, 1 one home run and 11 runs. Stinson held a .257 batting average with 22 runs, nine RBIs, two doubles, two triples and 13 stolen bases. Flowers earned a .258 batting average with six RBIs, 19 runs, three doubles, a triple and 12 stolen bases. 

Foster said his Rebels are working hard on the offense heading into the season.

“We’re really focusing on getting barrels to balls right now,” he said. “I feel like you struggle more offensively than defensively early in the season. So, we’re really focusing on that coming out of the gate.” 

Foster said that the goal for his team is to make the state playoffs and he feels like a tough schedule will help prepare the Rebels for that.

“Our lofty goal is to make the playoffs,” he flatly said. “We’re in a very tough region, coming from a tough region into another tough region with Luverne, Pike Lib and Goshen. We’ll be battle tested, especially in the first few weeks, though. We have (Class) 5A Carroll, Headland, TR Miller and our first home game here is against Ariton. Those first few weeks will be tough but I think our guys will be ready and it’ll be fun.”