Hendersonville High’s Jordan Holland had an impressive junior season. It came as a surprise to many, including himself. The junior struggled with a knee injury before the season, but that didn’t stop Holland from being named the 2011 Gallatin News Examiner Sumner County Baseball Co-Player of the Year. “Honestly, I wasn’t expecting it,” Holland said. “I missed the whole preseason with a knee injury. I played in one scrimmage game and didn’t practice at all, so it was kind of rough. But I guess it just came from working hard.”

Holland, who hit .370 with five home runs and 21 runs batted in for Hendersonville, said that the injury nagged him for much of the early season, but he did not allow it to effect his play. “It kind of lingered a little bit, but I played through it,” he said. “You just play each day without worrying about it.” Holland’s resiliency proved imperative. “I thought Jordan helped carry us this year,” Hendersonville coach Mike Hendrix said. “He had a lot of good at-bats and a lot of big hits. He was like the catalyst of our team. We kind of went as Jordan went.” Hendersonville had just three seniors in 2011, and one of them - pitcher Adam Dorris - missed time early in the season due to an injury.

Holland filled in for the injured Dorris on the hill, and the Commandos barely missed a beat. “When Adam got hurt at the beginning of the year, we used Jordan a lot on the mound,” Hendrix said. “He was a great asset to our pitching staff.” Holland finished the season with a 4-3 record and 34 strikeouts, posting a 3.72 earned-run average. “He meant a lot to our baseball team,” Hendrix said. “Whether it’s a junior, a sophomore or a freshman who comes in and picks us up, it really doesn’t make a difference. When you don’t have a lot of seniors, somebody has got to come in and pick up the slack, and that’s what Jordan did.”

With his junior season behind him, Holland said that he is using this summer to improve his game and his leadership role for the Commandos in 2012. “I’ve just been trying to get in better shape and add some more muscle,” Holland said. “It was kind of weird this year because we only had three seniors, so I kind of grew into (a leadership role). I’m looking forward to being a leader, and I’m going to work as hard as I can to get better.”

To Hendrix, however, Holland is already there. “He’s a leader on our team, and the kids look up to him,” Hendrix said. “It puts a lot of pressure on you, but he was able to handle a lot of it this year. We’ll see what happens. “We’re going to be expecting big things out of him next year.” Hendrix said that Holland’s role on the mound would likely increase as well . “I think looking at us right now, we’re going to have to find some guys that can go out there and give us some innings,” he said. “I think Jordan will go into next spring as our No. 1. If I had the pencil right now, he’d be the No. 1 going into next year. “But you never know what young kids will do, or what some of the older kids coming back can do.”