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When John Herrick took over the Carrollton Creekview baseball team before this season, he had the chance to lure an experienced pitcher from another school. It was a rare, perfectly legal opportunity to convince a player to transfer.

But his son wasn't leaving Garland Naaman Forest.

"I thought a little bit about going over there," said senior Ty Herrick. "But our team here is real, real close. It's like a family."

MATT NAGER/DMN

When John Herrick accepted the baseball coaching job at Carrollton Creekview, his son Ty chose to remain at Garland Naaman Forest for his senior season.

John Herrick was part of that family the last two seasons as an assistant to Naaman Forest coach Heath Andrews. But on Saturday, he'll be coaching against the players he knows well, including his son, as Naaman Forest and Creekview play a nondistrict game.

"We've never done this before," said John Herrick, who has coached Ty since he started playing baseball at age 5. "It will be interesting. I'll at least get to watch him play."

John Herrick doesn't get to see Ty play much anymore. That was a down side to taking the job, but the Creekview coaching position was too sweet to pass up. It was a chance to return to where Herrick coached from 2000 to 2003 before stepping down to become defensive coordinator for the Creekview football team.

When the baseball coaching position opened, Herrick talked with his son about it.

"He knew how I wanted to be a head coach again," John Herrick said. "He said, 'Dad, you've wanted to go back. You need to go back.' "

But Ty was going to stay at Naaman Forest, and that was OK with his dad.

"If the coaches had been anyone else, I would've brought him over. I wouldn't have given him a choice," Herrick said. "But Heath Andrews and [assistant] Mike Burns are so good with the kids."

And Dad is still one of his coaches, Ty said.

"I always ask him how his team is doing, and he asks me how my team is doing," Ty said. "I tell him what I've been struggling with and what I need to work on."

After Saturday, they'll have a lot more to talk about. The game will be at Dr Pepper Ballpark in Frisco, but the matchup doesn't need a big-time venue to make it memorable for father and son.

"I'm sure we'll both be yapping back and forth," Ty said. "It will be lots of fun."

mwixon@dallasnews.com

Garland Naaman Forest vs. Carrollton Creekview, 7 p.m. Saturday, Frisco's Dr Pepper Ballpark

YEARBOOK MOMENT: During this month four years ago, Plano West sophomore Katie Petersen pitched a no-hitter with eight strikeouts as Plano West beat Irving Nimitz, 6-0. Petersen pitched a perfect game as a junior, had four no-hitters as a senior and now pitches for Midwestern State in Wichita Falls.

A VERY EXCITING TWO: In the final minute of North Crowley's 73-67 victory over Fort Bend Dulles in Saturday's 5A championship game, guard Willie Warren electrified the crowd with a breakaway dunk. The dunk had people talking after the game, including North Crowley coach Tommy Brakel, who described it as "two more points on the scoreboard." Obviously, fans appreciate dunks a lot more than coaches.

MORE SPECIAL: At the 4A state final Saturday, South Oak Cliff center J'Mison Morgan's socks had "no excuses, just results" written on them. After he helped SOC overcome a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter, he was happy to talk about the third state final he's played in. "I think this is the most special because I'm a senior," he said. "It was up to me and the senior class to do it, and we did it."