The Organization
Founder and Head Coach: Jimmy Gobble
Coaches: Scott Childress, Nathan Breeding, Kevin Hill, John Taylor
Board of Directors: Jimmy Gobble, Angie Barr, Keith Davis
Treasurer: Angie Barr
Maintenance: Parents and coaches
Fundraising: Parents
ABOUT THE WASHINGTON COUNTY BRISTOL EXPRESS
The Washington County-Bristol Express Baseball Club is a Christian faith-based, youth sports organization based in Washington County, Bristol Virginia. EXPRESS was founded in the summer of 2015 by former MLB Pitcher, Jimmy Gobble. Jimmy wanted to reach out to the community with a different kind of youth sports program that would combine Christian faith and values with sports at a competitive level.
The goal is, to create an environment for children where they could grow and develop as athletes, without sacrificing their morals and values, or running the risk of "burn-out" caused by an exaggerated stress-filled environment often created on competitive sports teams. Make no mistake about it, EXPRESS travel teams play serious competitive sports, but we try our best not to burden the players beyond what is necessary, depending on the age group and considering their respective level of play, to effectively compete.
Originally, the WCIL Trojans began with one 9U baseball team playing in the BPA Tournaments for the spring 2015 season. Throughout the season the thoughts to expand the baseball program to cover from 8U-12U age divisions were made. In July of 2015, Victory Baptist Church of Bristol Virginia, their Pastor Austin Cook, and Bob Guffy agreed to allow WCIL Express Baseball begin work on an empty field on their property and build our own home complex! First round of tryouts will take in August and our first baseball season with all four age groups will begin spring of 2016.
JIMMY GOBBLE
Billy James Gobble is a former Major League Baseball pitcher, originally from Bristol Virginia, he attended John S. Battle High School in Bristol and started four years on the varsity team. He led the team to three state tournament appearances and compiled a 32-8 record and 512 strikeouts. He signed a baseball scholarship with the University of Kentucky before being drafted by the Royals with the 43rd pick in the 1999 Major League Baseball Draft. Gobble was 22 years old when he broke into the big leagues on August 3, 2003, with the Kansas City Royals. He steadily improved through his first three seasons; in 2007 he appeared in 74 games, the most on Kansas City's staff and tied for fifth in the American League. The Chicago White Sox signed him in April of 2009, he last played in the Colorado Rockies organization in 2010.
OUR VISION & MISSION
Vision Statement:
By applying Christian "faith-based" principles, build an unprecedented youth athletic program that will:
1. Shape character and create role models,
2. Positively and significantly impact athletes, coaches, parents, families, officials, leagues, tournaments and our community;
3. Develop and demonstrate the highest level of character, discipline, leadership and service required to succeed in both sports and life.
Mission Statement:
The Mission of EXPRESS is to significantly impact our community by developing young athletes into leaders with character and a passion for excellence. We will accomplish this by instilling in our youth a balanced approach to athletics, combining a positive Christ-centered environment with a competitive environment built on expert coaching, strong fundamentals development and an insistence on hustle, discipline, perserverance and - emphasizing the growth of the whole athlete (body, mind, and spirit), using the universal language of sports.
