Roosevelt Joubert/Murphy Monitor
Devin Gifford bends down tp field a grounder.

By Greg Ford
Sports Editor
[email protected]

Things haven’t been easy for the Plano East baseball program these past months.
First, there was the tough 2015 season, which was followed by an offseason filled with controversy that resulted in multiple coaches, including veteran head coach Travis Collins, being let go.However, the bright side for the Panthers is there’s nowhere to go but up.
“We’re kind of on a fresh-start, kind of, initiative around here,” said first-year head coach Joe Cravens. “Everybody has a clean slate, and we’re just coming to the park every day and working as hard as we can. Nobody expects much from us, and we’re going to come out, try to be scrappy and do the little things right and see how we do.”
East’s season begins today at the three-day Rawlings Lake Cities Classic Tournament, with games scheduled to be played at The Colony, Frisco Centennial and Hebron. The Panthers will play in the March 3-5 Arlington Martin Tournament and the March 8-12 McKinney Boyd Tournament before starting 6-6A play on March 15 at Flower Mound Marcus.
(To view the entire article, check out the Feb. 25 edition of the Murphy Monitor)