The next few days will be early ones for coach Dana Smith and his Sumner baseball team.

The Tiger pitchers are set for some morning practices, throwing sessions in the gym of the East Sullivan school before the day starts.

Smith feels the squad needs the extra time, considering how much they lost at the beginning of the season. Smith’s just happy to be back on the job after the school board decided not to rehire him only days before the season was to start, then rehired him Tuesday evening.

Smith met with 16 potential baseball players Wednesday to discuss scheduling logistics as well as the events of the past 21/2 weeks. The Tigers were unable to use the gym for practice and tryouts Wednesday because a curriculum fair had been scheduled in that space.

Smith felt a discussion about what went on at the school was needed for the kids on the team.

“I think it went pretty well,” he said Wednesday evening. “The kids are a little bit clearer on what’s going on. I think they realize that everything wasn’t their fault.”

Smith’s troubles started March 11 when the Flanders Bay Community School Board voted 6-5 against a recommendation to renew Smith’s contract as baseball coach. At the time Smith, who is also the Sumner boys basketball coach, said he believed the vote was related to complaints about the way Smith conducted himself during basketball games.

Sumner softball coach Debbie Osgood, outdoor track and field coach Vern Campbell, and junior varsity coaches Andrea Pelletier (softball) and Matt Umphrey (baseball) resigned March 14 in protest of the school board’s vote.

But Tuesday the school board met again, voted to reconsider the original vote, and then voted 6-3 to rehire Smith as the baseball coach, Sumner athletic director Dennis Harmon said Tuesday night.

Osgood, Campbell, Pelletier, and Umphrey were also reinstated to their positions. Smith said he believed Osgood met with her team Wednesday, and that softball will get started today.

Campbell said he will meet with his athletes today for a logistics meeting and begin practice Monday. He had already explained to them his decision to resign, and he said the team understood.

“It was a matter of the principle of due process,” Campbell said Wednesday. “I had to take a stand on what I thought was right.”

It’s a late start for all three teams. A select number of pitchers and catchers were allowed to report March 18 and the full teams were allowed to start practice and tryouts on Monday. The baseball and softball seasons are scheduled to open after 3 p.m. April 12. Track and field practices opened Monday and also begin April 12.

Smith is expecting about 10 more players – or at least enough to field full varsity and junior varsity teams – to report for tryouts. In other years he has placed sign-up sheets in the school to have an idea of who would try out for the team, but he wasn’t able to do that this year.

It’s a young group, but the pitchers have committed to early mornings in order to catch up. The Tigers have a scrimmage April 9.

“They understand that they have to work on their arm strength,” he said. “They’re just excited and ready to go.”

Many of Campbell’s athletes competed during the indoor track and field season and have been working out on their own in anticipation of the outdoor season. Campbell said he doesn’t feel the shortened practice period will affect his team.

“Not these kids,” he said. “They’re just great.”