PORT NECHES, Texas — Port Neches-Groves will face a new dawn when 2025 rolls around.
The Indians baseball program will enter their next season under the leadership of former head coach of the Orangefield Bobcats, Tim Erickson.
Scott Carter called it a career after the 2023 season with PNG after several successful decades in the game of baseball.
Erickson enters the program with a shiny reputation after bringing the Bobcats to the Regional Finals in 2023 before losing to the Franklin Lions.
In an interview with 12News, Erickson looked back on what he had with the Bobcats and the time he spent there and said, "great group of seniors to start with. We had 12 seniors on the team, saw those guys when they were in 4th and 5th grade, so I spent a lot of time with them."
The kind of program Erickson builds is more than the capability of the team itself.
With the team he built in Orangefield, Coach said, "I don't know if it was the most talented group of guys that we had in the last several years, but they played hard, they worked together, they played for each other, we had a lot of fun last year."
In bringing what he's been able to do in his career, Erickson knows the type of program he's inheriting and is fully prepared for the expectations.
"It's going to be an easy transition because Coach Carter did such a good job here. He's a good friend of mine, and taking over a program like this should be easy," Erickson said because of the success PNG has seen over the years.
We're still plenty of time away from the beginning of the next baseball season at the high school level, but that doesn't diminish Erickson's desire to hit the field any less.
"Anxious to get started. I know it's early right now, but just from offseason on {I'm} just excited to get started and get to work and {I'm} looking forward to it," said Erickson.
Port Neches-Groves will first have to compete on the gridiron to defend their 5A DII State Championship before thinking about creating a new era of success for their baseball team.
However, the season will be here before we know it, and rival teams can expect Tim Erickson to be working closely with his group to have them ready for the first scrimmage of 2025.