After an excellent debut season with the Russellville High School varsity baseball team in the spring, rising freshman Brayden Entrekin has received a special, exclusive invitation to compete with another squad later this month.
Entrekin—a versatile player for the Golden Tigers during their 2024 campaign, especially on the mound—was selected to join Team Alabama for Prep Baseball’s upcoming Junior Futures Games showcase in Emerson, Georgia, July 23-28.
“Playing at the Futures Games means a lot to me. It will give me a whole new experience of the game, and I get to see the best competition from all across the country,” Entrekin said. “I will get to represent Team Alabama and Russellville.”
Prep Baseball (or Prep Baseball Report, PBR), started in 2005, has held the Futures Game showcase since 2011. The organization’s mission, according to its website, is “to scout and promote amateur baseball—high school, junior college and college—and, ultimately, help athletes achieve their dreams of playing baseball at the next level.” Prep Baseball claims the most full-time scouts among independent amateur scouting companies and has scouting directors in 41 states and Canada who devote their time to scouting the local talent in their respective regions.
Russellville head coach Jess Smith is familiar with the work of Prep Baseball and said the organization, especially the PBR Alabama team, does a great job of highlighting talented players throughout the state. To be selected to play in the Junior Futures Games, Smith said, is a pretty big deal.
“PBR Alabama does a fantastic job giving players in our state exposure. They blast social media with in-game videos of players, and they travel across the state pretty much every day during baseball season and in the summer to the different tournaments,” Smith said. “For Brayden to be chosen is a huge honor for him and for Russellville baseball with him getting that exposure at that young of an age.”
The opportunity to play in the Futures Games, hosted at the LakePoint Sports Complex, comes by invitation only, which only adds to the prestige of the event. Only the best of the best are selected.
“It means the organization has chosen Brayden as one of the top upcoming underclassmen in Alabama, and he gets to go represent himself alongside some of the best in the state,” Smith said. “It’s a pretty special opportunity, and we certainly think he deserves it. He played on some of the biggest stages with us this year, and we know who he is and his work ethic. He certainly deserves this recognition, and we think he’s going to be one of the best players in his class in the state of Alabama.”
Entrekin, who also plays travel baseball with the Canes Southeast Scout 14U team, played in the outfield and batted .250 with a .380 on-base percentage in 64 at-bats with the Golden Tigers in 2024. He made his biggest impression on the mound, though: In 10 appearances on the bump, Entrekin ended the year with a 3-0 record, one save, and a 1.45 earned run average over 29 innings pitched. He allowed just six earned runs all season and he finished with 16 strikeouts. Most of Entrekin’s pitching appearances came in relief, but notably the southpaw was handed the start in a must-win playoff game against Leeds, showing just how much faith the Russellville coaching staff have in the young arm. Entrekin recorded the win against the Green Wave, tossing five and two-thirds innings and allowing just one earned run as Russellville advanced to the quarterfinals of the Class 5A playoffs.
“He went right after them with no fear. He didn’t blink, he didn’t get nervous, he didn’t look overwhelmed,” Smith told the Franklin Free Press following that game. “To be so young, the way he carried himself gave even our older guys and our coaches confidence. You looked out there and knew that it didn’t really matter what happened, we were going to win that game, and it started with him.”
Entrekin said the coaching he’s received and his experiences with Russellville this past season will serve him well at the Junior Futures Games.
“Having coaches at Russellville that pushed and believed in me helped mentally prepare me for ‘game three’ situations every time I take the mound. Coach Smith believed in me enough to start me against Leeds in game three. It was a big game—win or go home,” he said. “Having Coach (Cody) Greenhill keep me focused, mentally and physically, helped me stay level even when the situation got stressful. Coach Smith’s high pressure practices helped me prepare for high school games and high-level travel tournaments. I plan to take all of these situations with me as I go into the Futures Games.
“Baseball is a game of failure. Coming from seventh grade ball to varsity came with a lot of obstacles, highs and lows. Every single coach and player helped me work through them in some way,” he added.
David Sharp is a member of the PBR Alabama staff and is Prep Baseball’s Regional Supervisor for the Deep South. Sharp, who has extensive experience as a coach, evaluator, and scout, said inviting Entrekin to join Team Alabama was a simple choice.
“I saw Brayden, personally, at Arab when Russellville played a doubleheader over there,” Sharp said. “I was really, really impressed with him as an eighth grader at the time and now obviously going into his freshman year.
“He came to our premier event in the state this year, called the Yellowhammer State Games, June 18th and 19th over at Sand Mountain Park and really stood out, both as a pitcher and a position player,” he added. “It was a fairly easy decision to ask him.”
Entrekin will be joined by 13 or 14 other players on his Team Alabama, according to Sharp. All the members of the team are chosen by Prep Baseball state directors after many hours of scouting and evaluation.
“We get out during the high school season, and we covered over a hundred teams this past year throughout the state. We get out and we see these players during their high school seasons and follow them into the summer as they go with their travel ball organizations, playing in tournaments over at LakePoint (Sports Complex) or at some of the tournaments we have here in Albertville,” Sharp said. “That’s how we go about it—getting eyes on these players, whether it be during the high school season or during our summer events that we have; that’s how we evaluate the teams that we take over there to the Futures Games.”
After checking in on July 23rd, participants will take part in a pro-style workout on the following day before games begin on Thursday, July 25th. Entrekin will be a member of one of 37 teams from 35 states (Alabama and Georgia will have two teams) taking part in the event, according to Sharp. Each team is guaranteed four games: three games in pool play and at least one game in the single-elimination tournament. Games will be played through Sunday, July 28th.
The Futures Games, billed as Prep Baseball’s premier recruiting event, are truly a spectacle to behold, Sharp said.
“I’m biased—I understand that—but it is truly, truly a unique experience that people can tell you about, but until you go over there and see it yourself you don’t understand the magnitude of it,” he said. “We want to give these players a memorable experience that they’ll never forget.”
Entrekin said he is looking forward to competing with and against some of the best talent from around the country as well as the chance to meet new people.
“Having the opportunity to see the top talent from across the country will make me a better player. Seeing great pitching, pitching against great batters, only makes you better,” he said. “I’m most excited about meeting new people that are my age. It’s fun when you get back to school ball and play against your teammates or others you faced in the travel season. I am lucky to have friends and teammates all across the state and South.”
With so many top competitors and so much talent all in one place there will obviously be a desire to win, but Sharp said the games’ outcomes are not the main point.
“You want to represent your state well, and do we want to win it? Yes. But this is not a win-at-all-costs thing,” Sharp said. “We’re doing this to give these players an experience they’ll remember, and these kids love going over there. Our entire roster will hit…and we’ll be subbing players in and out.
“Players hit in numerical order, and that’s the way it is for everyone over there, which I think is great. We do it to try to keep the at-bats as close to equal as possible,” he added. “Anytime you get on the field, you know, the competitive juices get flowing and you want to win, but that’s not the ultimate goal here.”
The mission of all the Futures Games (there will be three events—14U, 16U, and 17U Futures Games—all happening at the same time) is to give the players the spotlight their talent deserves, Sharp said. If precedent holds, there promises to be plenty of exposure.
“In the last few years we’ve had over 375 college coaches there, and when I say college coaches I’m talking about the Alabamas, the Auburns, the (Vanderbilts), the UCLAs, the Connecticuts, the Saint Johns. They’re from everywhere. It’s the big-time Division I coaches that are there,” Sharp said.
NCAA rules don’t allow coaches to recruit Entrekin yet, Sharp said, but one never knows who could be watching.
“Last year we had an elite arm throwing for us on our (class of) 2028 team and we look in the back and there’s an LSU assistant coach, an Alabama assistant coach, and Tony Vitello, head coach of the national champion Tennessee Volunteers, back there watching our elite arm. That’s a pretty cool experience for such a young player to be a part of,” Sharp said. “There may be a college coach sitting in the stands when Brayden throws, and they see him and they think, you know, that’s a name to remember for the future. That’s what it’s all about.”
If all goes well for Entrekin at the Junior Futures Games—if he shows what Golden Tiger coaches and fans know he’s capable of—it can only set him up for more possibilities down the road.
“I hope that attending the Futures Games will push me as a player,” Entrekin said. “Playing in these games can open more opportunities in the baseball world.”
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