Atlanta Fire skipper, Corne Dry has reflected positively on the debut season of the Toyota Minor League Championship where his team was knocked out just one game short of the finals weekend in North Carolina.

“Minor league kicked off with a bang, there was a lot of hype around it and I think it really produced. Personally, we did really well, and just falling short in the playoff games was pretty disappointing and we as a team took a hard knock from that…As a team, we could have got a lot further but I think we did really well and had a good tournament,” he recounted.

The Fire came up short in 2021 losing in the best of three series of the Atlantic Conference final versus the Empire State Titans but Dry has deeply enjoyed his time at the helm so far. “I love being a leader, I enjoy that role and the pressure that comes along with it. It was a big challenge coming into a new team as I only got here last year. Being one of the new faces in the team, it was kind of hard earning the respect of your peers whilst trying to know everyone and how they perform under pressure…..I loved it and I have to credit the guys for how they took me in and the respect they showed to me,” he said.

The one improvement the South African-born skipper would like to see from his team is consistency, “(All about) consistency, we played really good cricket at times and really poor cricket at times. In guys’ personal games they would go through really good games and different in energy in the next game…If we can get consistency in that, it will (produce) a lot better for us. We lost a few games on the Sunday after playing brilliant cricket on Saturday and I do not think it is complacency but just not pitching up with the same energy.”

Without a doubt, the challenge will be testing for the relatively new captain who in one season has already become an Atlanta fan favorite, but he is determined to get the job done bringing titles home to Atlanta.

Catch our preview to 2022 in our next blog post!!