Aurora coach shaves head for Houn’ Dawgs’ 3rd straight final four

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Whether it’s walk-off home runs, diving catches or one-hitters, it seems the Aurora Houn’ Dawgs are always up for the challenge.

“It’s pretty stinking special,” said head coach James Hoffman.

But it’s been no cake walk for the defending state champs.

“All year long you’ve taken everybody’s best shot and you produced and you got the job done,” Hoffman said to his team after Thursday’s 1-0 quarterfinal win over Helias.

Just one loss this season despite over half the lineup changing from a year ago.

“It’s all new minus the Sparks, Fisher, Singer and Miller.  Everyone else has changed positions.  These guys just go about their business and get the job done.”

Every night a new hero; Matt Miller’s walk-off dinger to win sectionals, Austin Erickson’s diving grab in the quarters, Gage Singer’s game-winning home run against Helias, and of course the nearly unhittable ace Wyatt Sparks.

This team, ranked number 1 all season, can do it all, except interviews.

“Their Interview skills? on a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give it about a negative 10,” said Hoffman.

“I’m not alright with this whole interview thing, but it’ll be alright,” said senior Matt Miller.  “We don’t like to do interviews, just play baseball, do what we do best.”

A lot of pressure to reach a third straight final four.  The Houn Dawg seniors were on the cover of the O-Zone Spring Magazine, but this hard-working, overachieving group came through once again, with a little extra motivation.

Coach Hoffman reluctantly agreed to shave his beloved hair off if his team made it back to the final four.

“I explained to them that my hair was much more valuable than a district title. They had to get me back to the final four and then we’d talk.”

A day later, Hoffman’s hair was gone.

The Houn’ Dawgs face third ranked Boonville in Friday’s semifinals in O’Fallon at 6:30 pm.

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