2009 kickoff meeting

email sent to 20 SPYA families to kickoff 2009 baseball campaign.

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Folks,

I know the boys baseball teams are heading into the tourney, football teams are in the playoffs, soccer is finishing, tennis is wrapping up, and basketball is starting up, but it is NOT too early to focus on next Summer and the final year of our boys youth baseball experience.

This group of boys has built a reputation competing in (and occasionally winning) local challenge tourneys, as the District All Star semi finalists (2005 and 2008) and champions (2006 and 2007) as well as State semifinalists in 2007. We want to go as far as possible next Summer as the seniors of Dixie Youth baseball and set the standard for South Park younger teams. We also have the opportunity to go to Cooperstown and play in the ultimate tournament next August.

The difficult part of the equation is that we have almost 40 boys who will be 12 years old next Spring. And there are only 12 spots for All Stars.

It is our goal to better prepare kids for real baseball and the fact that middle school ball will be a big leap. Understandably, 2009 may be the last year of baseball for some. So to give more kids a chance to make that next step, we are doing a few things differently this year. We intend to have Winter practices if you are interested. We intend to run 2 challenge teams in the Spring and play a few extra tourneys around rec ball. The extra reps will go a long way to help determine who are the 12 best baseball players that represent this group in next Summer’s important tournaments. We encourage you to make your son available to any and all of these opportunities.

Most Importantly – We have gotten a fantastic opportunity to take 2 teams (this year only) to Cooperstown in August (Aug 7-14). So even if your son doesn’t make the All Star team, he may have a chance to play in one of the best youth sports experiences of his life.

The coaches would like to get together this Sunday with parents and kids at my house to discuss our plans for more serious baseball in 2009.

Sunday Oct 26 – 5pm
4820 Drakestone Ct
Charlotte 28226
704-366-8851

We will outline our plans and seek some volunteers for organizing the 2009 baseball campaign.

I look forward to seeing you all Sunday.

Thanks

Rob

Memorial Day wrapup

No getting around it – we need more bats. Saturday we had 5 hits in each game. Little arm swings from almost all of them. I got Josh thrown out at plate for what would have been a run, but we were playing against teams that we should beaten easily.

Sunday – we were handed a gift when the coach left his kid on the mound way too long. We went into the top of the 5th down 10-1. One run away from mercy. We batted 16 kids that inning and turned the tide dramatically. A few very good hits finally – but realistically on a 300 foot fence so things tended to roll. Smart bunts, savvy base running and a different outcome in both games.

Good things to take away: the kids did not give up. We came back twice in the second game. We also can manufacture runs if given an opportunity. Important reminder – we can not win if we don’t play MUCH better defense. We don’t have enough power in the lineup to give away runs in All Stars.

UNC baseball, NC Baseball Academy and USA Baseball

In the course of 2 days this weekend, I got to finalize this years basketball for Clay in Greensboro and then focus on baseball.

We stayed next door to the Embassy Suites and had time between hoop games on Saturday to visit Scott’s NC Baseball Academy. Even better this time, as Marcus Floyd and Clay got tons of swings against the machine, pitched out back on the mounds and then came back inside for a half hour in the long cage with front toss and some live arm hitting. They probably hit 200+ balls each. Clay pitched his first few balls from 60 feet too.

And we got to listen to Scott working a lesson. Good advice on staying tall – keeping backside solid and a key on having your thumbs together and go down and out as you start the windup. Plus Scott gave them t-shirts – a perfect way to kill time between basketball games.

Sunday I watched the 9:30am game and left to meet up with Jack and the Carmel Middle team to watch the UNC baseball team playing BC. They are playing at an amazing place USA Baseball National Training facility in Cary. UNC has an unbelievably strong team. Great pitchers, every kid can REALLY hit it hard (we saw at least 4 shots to 390 feet that were routine fly outs!) and defensive work all around. Baseball players today are huge – these kids looked like football players from my era. And they are all fast – really fast.

But the key thing I saw (and hope Jack saw) was the readiness to play each pitch. The fielders are making adjustments based on the pitch called by the coach, and by the catchers placement and by the situation and by the tendencies of the batter EVERY PITCH. They are not just great athlete’s making plays – they are PREPARED athlete’s making adjustments in the game and getting the necessary jump on a ball to make a play. Very impressive.

I drove home realizing we have a lot of work to do before next Summer and our last Little league experience and trip to Cooperstown. I don’t think we have any – ANY – baseball players in the lineup we think is our All Star team. We NEED our kids to watch many more games – and really see what the game looks like when played correctly.

It was fascinating for me. I watched the catchers, infielders and pitchers particularly – but the speed and defense in the outfield was staggering. Remind the All Star kids to watch more baseball – and not just the batters – the real game happens elsewhere.

Challenge update

April 4-6 may be too early for challenge since the teams can barely get a field to practice on at SP. We got exactly 1 inning in Friday night but we started off great. Dan looked great on the mound and then Jamie hit his first home run – dead over center field to start the scoring. Rain called the game and made the whole weekend a wash. Sunday we got in 2 games against the different Park Sharon teams and won them both.

We reverted to our aggressive base running, solid pitching and defense to win. AC had his signature bunt – this time with bases loaded and 1 out – to drive in a run!

I’ll repost with the book when I can, but the big picture is we need more bats. We need more guys – and especially key guys on base. WE ALL need to learn to bunt and place a hit where necessary. This team continues to show smarts, but they are not great baseball players. Lots to work on.

2008 – 11U baseball

Welcome to a new year of youth baseball for our now 11 and under boys.

We learned last Summer that we can win regionally and have fun. We also learned that there are teams who have faster, stronger athletes around North Carolina and if we want to win more games in 2009, we need to start now.

This set of pages will be a shared resource for us to all use for baseball improvement.