Providence High launches its NCHSAA baseball state title bid, facing ‘The Noise’

Danny Hignight believes his Providence High baseball team can compete with any of the 64 teams vying for the 4A state championship.

The opponent that bothers him most is the noise.

The Panthers, who are among the state’s most powerful high school baseball teams in recent seasons, opened playoff action with an 11-1 win Tuesday against Southeast Guilford (12-14).

In all, 128 games in four classifications were scheduled for Tuesday.

None of the 256 teams in competition for a state championship has a record like Providence, which is 27-0, ranked fifth nationally by Maxpreps, and has the No. 1 seed in the 4A West region.

And all of that creates the noise.

“All of that outside noise,” says Hignight, in his 18th season as Panthers’ head baseball coach. “We talk about it a lot. The kids hear it from their moms, their dads, their friends, their teachers.”

The noise says Providence is a powerhouse, loaded with players who have a future at the collegiate and even professional level.

Hignight -- whose team plays Southwest Guilford at home in a second round game Friday -- tries to counter that with reality.

“We’re a No. 1 seed....I know what some people expect,” he said. “But you still have to play the game. Southeast Guilford is coming down here to beat us.”

“Did you see the Kentucky Derby?” Hignight adds referring to 80-to-1 longshot Rich Strike’s victory Saturday.

Baseball success is nothing new at Providence.

The Panthers won a 4A state title in 1995, while Hignight was playing at Alexander Central High. They added another in 2015, under Hignight. The school has won 21 conference championships, more than a dozen major tournaments, and has reached the regional finals eight times.

Three former Panthers have reached Major League Baseball, and a dozen have been drafted. Ex-Providence players dot the rosters of college programs, including all-SEC pitching prospect Noah Hall at South Carolina and Michael Dansky, who helped lead Wingate to the NCAA Division 2 championship a year ago.

But Hignight says Providence baseball starts anew, every year.

“Each season is a new start,” he says. “We get going in August, and we work very hard, up until the season starts in March.

“We stay with the process we believe in. The kids have to work very hard.”

If the Panthers aren’t practicing as a team, they’re lifting weights or spending time in batting cages.

Like his players, Hignight works hard too.

It’s the way he did it as a player at Alexander Central and then Appalachian State. He fine-tuned his approach as an assistant coach at Watauga High, and then under a coaching icon, Hal Bagwell, at South Mecklenburg.

Five of Hignight’s assistant coaches have gone on to head coaching positions, including Jonathan Tuscan, who won a state title in 2013 at South Mecklenburg.

Last June, then-Providence assistant Sean Thomas replaced Bagwell as head coach at Ardrey Kell, guiding the Knights to a 19-6 record this season.

“We have two young assistant coaches on our staff this year that will be head coaches one day,” Hignight says.

He says each team’s personality is a little different, but the good ones share one trait – toughness.

“This year’s team has that quality,” he says.

In Game 2 this season, Providence trailed Winston-Salem area power Reagan but rallied for a 13-10 victory.

“Mental toughness helped pull us through,” Hignight says. “And this team has two other important qualities – really good leadership, and humility.”

Senior pitchers Eli Jerzembeck and Michael Forret lead the Panthers. Jerzembeck has committed to South Carolina but is getting heavy attention from Major League Baseball scouts, with his 97 mph fastball. He had 18 strikeouts in an April game against Ohio power Lakewood St. Edward.

Forret has committed to East Carolina after being heavily recruited by Division 1 schools.

The lineup is loaded with power and speed. Senior catcher Tommy Walker (an Appalachian State commit) and juniors Anthony Watson, Camden Hull, Luke Wolff, Sam Dansky (Charlotte commit) and Carson Dunlap have multiple home runs.

All of that is heady stuff — and it has helped produce the noise.

But Hignight reminds his team that it can all go away quickly. His 2012 team was ranked No. 1 nationally by USA Today, then lost 5-4 to Mount Tabor in the first round of the playoffs.

“It’s like this,” Hignight says. “If you expect to put on a show, you’ll get a war. If you expect to get in a war, you’ll put on a show.”

Steve Lyttle on Twitter: @slyttle

This story was originally published May 10, 2022 at 11:09 AM.