The Types of Athletes on Every Team

Every team is comprised of a range of athletes. From a 10U water polo team to the San Francisco Giants, each team has players that vary in talent and skill level, as well as the effort and intensity that they bring to the team each day. I think if a coach can understand where his or her athletes are on the spectrum, they can have better expectations and ultimately make better decisions. And if the athlete (and their parents) can understand what type of player they are, they can be better informed as to where they should be putting their focus and attention.

Below is an oversimplified diagram of the correlation between talent level and effort level for athletes on any given team.

  • Group 1 are athletes that have little talent or skill in a given sport and are there to have fun

  • Group 2 athletes have some talent and skill, but don’t put in much effort to get better and improve

  • Group 3 are the majority of ‘competitive’ athletes. They range in skill and effort level, but are above-average in their sport

  • Group 4 athletes are either highly skilled, or highly motivated, or both.

Every coach wants a roster full of athletes in group 4, but that’s almost never the case. Even on professional teams, every roster has a few players in group 3 that may be super talented but don’t show up ready to play or give the effort that their team needs. And you’ll notice that an athlete that is more in the middle of the pack talent-wise will always be preferred if they are the player that overcomes their skill shortcomings with grit and determination and doing what it takes to help the team win.

The 2 key points that I believe can be taken from understanding this scale are:

  1. There is almost never a defined cutoff point when coaches are making roster decisions

and

2. Athletes can and do move on both sides of this scale over the course of their playing career

We all know that rec sports opportunities where every player is guaranteed a spot and plenty of playing time have been reduced over the years. There are 2 main reasons - money and competitiveness. There is a lot of money to be made by the professionalism of youth athletics, and that money is driven primarily by the competitiveness of sports in the world today - from getting to the professional level where millions of dollars are on the line, getting to play in college (where being paid is also now a huge factor) to making a high school team.

1) Most competitive programs either have tryouts, evaluations, and/or roster placement. Having done many of these both as a player and coach, there is almost never a clear line where one roster ends and the next begins. This means that the difference between making the A team or B team or C team can be a matter of a degree or 2 on either end of the athlete spectrum. There are also other reasons, but for the sake of this exercise, the idea is to keep things in perspective related to where you or your athlete fits into every team’s equation. The reason that families tend to ‘tryout’ for multiple teams is because there may be a big drop-off in the athlete experience depending on which team they are on. The best sports programs get very clear on what they can provide - which usually means just having a single team at any age level, or doing everything in their power to make sure the athlete experience is equally great no matter which team they are on in their program.

2) Step 1 is understanding where you are on the spectrum. That can be done by having awareness and doing a self assessment, or asking a trusted coach. Step 2 is deciding where you want to go. Make no mistake, athletes move up and down on this scale all the time. Talent and skill level has much slower movement - it takes years for an athlete of average skill to become world class. But the effort side can jump up overnight if a commitment is made to great work ethic and doing everything you can to improve your weaknesses, be a great teammate, and help your team win.

I’ll leave you with this whiteboard list that a coach made many years ago that will always hold true

Lessons from the ABCA Convention in Dallas

Recapping a great weekend in Dallas, where almost 8,000 baseball coaches from across the country joined to learn, network and share ideas.

1) The role of coaches in a student athlete’s life

Coaches play an incredibly important role in an athletes development. They have an impact one way or another, some greatly positive and some greatly negative. Once a child gets to middle school and beyond, time spent with their teammates and coaches throughout a season is usually higher than anyone aside from their parents and siblings. Parents and student athletes are making an important decision every time they choose to sign up or play on a team. This is important at all levels of sport, and especially important if you are making a decision to play a sport in college.

Great coaches are the ones that build relationships, care about their players, hold them accountable and model their behavior in a way that positively influences their athletes. They also care about teaching sport skills, teamwork, how to compete and how to win.

2) Mental Toughness and Focus

A separator between athletes that compete at a high level and those that don’t is their ability to focus on what they have control over and reduce their limiting or negative thoughts. Great colleges and universities understand this and build a program around the mental performance skills needed to help their athletes compete at the highest level. At the college level, there is a much smaller gap between the top and bottom players on a roster, so physical skills aren’t the ‘lowest hanging fruit’. An athlete’s attitude, ability to focus, and mindset, are the areas most ripe for performance improvement.

3) Dealing with Adversity

In the world of instant gratification and social media influencers that we live in, children have unlimited ‘highlight’ reels and edited and curated content at their fingertips. But in the real world with real people, situations still happen that require a verbal or physical response. Sports have always been a great teacher of life lessons and dealing with failure and success. But now more than ever, being able to deal with adversity is a skill that requires training - from teammates, coaches, teachers and parents.

4) ‘Buy In’

A topic that came up many times over the weekend from speakers was the idea of ‘Buy In’ from athletes within a program. When someone fully commits to a program and all that it entails, the end result is a significantly better product than if a bunch of individuals have their own idea of what they should be doing and how often, and the committment level. At the college level, this includes every aspect of a program. From what they wear to practice to how they run plays on defense. It takes a well run and well organized program to even ask players to ‘buy in’ to the system, but if athletes have the opportunity to trust their coaches, the results will be much more rewarding than staying at arms length.

At the youth and high school levels, too many times players are on multiple teams at the same time, or aren’t fully committed to the one team they are on. ‘Committed’ means showing up to every practice possible, listening and learning from coaches, applying what you’ve learned, and looking for ways to make the team better. In my opinion, this is only way to show up for your team, and it’s very difficult to do if there are too many conflicting activities on your schedule. As difficult as it is, parents and players need to understand that anything less than 100% commitment to any given program each season will have diminishing returns to not only the player, but also his or her team.

5) College coaches want adaptable athletes

Specialization was another hot topic at the Conference. College and pro coaches unanimously support multi-sport athletes. The benefits of learning different skills from different types of coaches and the physical qualities needed for different sports provide huge benefits. One of the first qualifiers to gain the interest of a college sport coach is general athleticism. Athleticism can come in many forms, but as a whole, it means the way a player moves and reacts. While everyone is born with a varying amount of athleticism, it’s also a skill that can be trained via speed, agility and strength training. It’s why every college baseball program has a strength and conditioning coach, dedicated times for training, and a focus on movement and sprinting during their warmups before practice. The youth and high school teams and programs that take this training seriously have a leg up on their competition. And if they don’t, Ballplayers is here to fill in the gaps😉

Final Goodbye to Ballplayer Field

As the dust settles on 2023, and after having some time to process and reflect on the closure of Ballplayer Field, I wanted to summarize the impact that the Field had. Lamorinda weekly recently posted an article here, which is worth a read.

It provided value to children (and families) during an important time

Let’s take a brief Covid lookback; indoor restrictions for businesses, fear of being in close quarters, big public sector liability concerns. Almost all activities our children were involved in were shut down or extremely limited. Some of the only options were swim, tennis and golf. Building Ballplayer Field allowed us to move our gym and batting cage outdoors, therefore providing a safe outdoor place for fitness and baseball activities. Once word was out, families told their friends. Throughout the fall and winter of 2020, we had dozens of parents tell us that what we were doing was the only thing keeping their child active - and therefore providing them a physical, social, and mental respite from the confines of their home… A few parents later commented that the positive impacts were almost immeasurable.

It magnified the demand for fun, outdoor, sports related activities for kids

The original iteration of the field (fitness and baseball) were born out of necessity. What came after resulted from demand for additional activities - camps, birthday parties, soccer and lacrosse clinics, events. The Field became a place where kids spent thousands of hours NOT on a screen, while socializing and having fun with old and new friends.

With a turf field and a wide open summer calendar, we decided to host multi-sport and baseball camps. Hundreds of families attended our camps and were happy to have a safe, local option for their children.

The multi-sport camps turned into an idea to host outdoor parties - where the birthday boy or girl could play supervised games like kickball, wiffleball or capture the flag, jump around on an inflatable obstacle course, and then have pizza and dessert. In 3 years we hosted over 200 birthday parties 😱 (never saw that coming!).

It proved to be a great event space

Some of the best events we hosted were 5th grade graduation parties, a Lafayette little league fundraiser for their teams to go to Cooperstown, a St. Perpetua kickball tournament, a sporting goods donation driven, and a site for TV production. We even had a group rent the space to train their birds to fly. All kinds of cool ideas came about due to the fact that we had a privately operated multi-use field.

It provided employment to dozens of people

In addition to the professional coaches Ballplayers employs, the field created a need for even more of those coaches. It also gave an opportunity to provide employment for local high school and Saint Mary’s college students. In 3 and a half years, we provided valuable job experience and income to no less than 40 people.

In the end, I built the field as a means to provide outdoor fitness and recreation for kids with the expectation that it would last 6-12 months. I didn’t expect it to last as long as it did. If someone told me when it opened that this project would take on a life of its own, over more than 3 years, and positively impact thousands of families - I would have been pretty damn happy to do exactly what we did. With the book closed on the field, I wonder what I’ll come up with next…

Lessons from the Youth Sports Management Conference

Last week I had the opportunity to attend ‘NextUp 2023’, a youth sports management conference in New York City. The event brought together leaders from every corner of the youth sports world, and the knowledge shared at the event was incredible.

Some of the biggest topics discussed were the digital transformation we’ve seen children adapt to, and how it integrates into their sports experiences. The ‘professionalism’ of youth sports (and how that might be a good thing), And sports facilities and access for young people to get involved in sports and learn the life lessons that come with them.

On these 3 topics, I’ll summarize my thoughts based on lessons from the amazing speakers and discussions with other youth sports leaders at the event.

Digital Transformation

Video games have been around for decades, but have never been as engaging and immersive as they are now. Esports have grown in popularity, as they have found a way to make digital games become interactive and competitive. These 2 areas are their own animals, but my takeaways on the digital impact of youth sports relate more to how we as coaches and mentors can meet children where they are and understand how they interact on a daily basis. Children have endless and instant access to sports through youtube, social media and on the internet. They are influenced by what they see, good or bad, and it impacts how they play on the field. No one is watching highlight reels of a baseball player bunting a runner from 1st to 2nd base so that he gets into scoring position, or a basketball player hustling back on defense to be in position to get a stop. They are watching the 100mph fastballs, the home runs, the 3 pointers and the slam dunks… I think this translates into how they show up at practice. They don’t want to do the ‘boring’ things like learn the proper footwork to turn a double play - they want to see how hard they can throw their fastball or break their hitting exit velocity record. I’ve witnessed this change happen over the last 5 years, especially since Covid. But how can we meet athletes where they are and harness how they view sports and integrate that into a model that works in real life on the field? I think we do that by making practice and training more fun, fast paced, and competitive. The programs that excel moving forward will continue finding ways to keep children engaged, in a positive way - and make training, practices and games super fun and something that every child looks forward to.

Professionalism of Youth Sports

Rec sports are a dying breed. The ‘sandlot’ doesn’t exist anymore, no matter how much we cling onto ‘when I was a kid, I rode my bike to the park and played pickup games with my friends’. It’s time that parents begin to understand these facts, and why. ‘Professionally’ run club sports have become profit centers for years, and there is a low barrier of entry to get started. (I quoted professionally, because that term varies a great degree from club to club). But because there are so many club options and youth sports have become so competitive, families have the option to choose the program that has paid coaches and a long term plan, or the one that is run by volunteers and may not help their child develop the skills needed to keep up with their peers. No doubt, most volunteer based sports programs have great intentions, and some of them have fantastic programs. But with so many other options, it’s hard for them to compete. So this is where the ‘professionalization’ of youth sports comes in. Imagine the program that consults or hires experts, trains their coaches to rigorous standards, implements a plan for athletic development that includes not only their physical performance, but their psychosocial development as well. This sounds like a program that we would all want our children involved in, right? Well that type of program only exists if it’s run with a sustainable business model. Directors, a management team, high quality coaches, and someone in charge of marketing, social media and website. Many programs are using this exact formula, and they are the ones that families will continue to gravitate toward.

Sports Facilities and Access

In our ‘bubble’ in the East Bay, there is no shortage of options for youth sports. But there is certainly a shortage of both indoor and outdoor facilities for our athletes to play. Show me a basketball club that has too much gym space. Or a soccer club that couldn’t use another field or 2 or 10. For outdoor fields, how can we sustainably improve or repurpose underutilized facilities, or build and develop new ones? Development costs have gotten out of control, and there is less and less land that can be allocated to outdoor recreation, especially in dense urban areas. So that is a huge challenge. But how can youth sports clubs partner with schools, towns and counties to better utilize existing facilities? It’s a topic I continue to explore at great length. There needs to be an economic model that allows this type of partnership to happen.

With regard to indoor facilities, it’s become harder and harder for ‘single use’ facilities to make it. There are very few batting cage facilities that rely on coin operated rentals only, or basketball gyms that don’t also utilize their courts for volleyball. So facilities that get built in the future will be dynamic in the way they operate. They will be set up in a way that they can efficiently host soccer, baseball, lacrosse, futsal and softball in the same space. They will be creative to have uses from early morning to late at night, and host events on the weekends and holidays. Looking back, this is why I opened Ballplayers as a multi-sport training facility. Because I knew it would be difficult to ‘only’ train baseball players and rely 100% on that market. I knew that the strength and speed and movement training we do with baseball players carries over to virtually every other type of athlete. We’ve found new niches in Lacrosse, Water Polo and Soccer because of this decision (and we even use our baseball batting cages for training these athletes). So we have been on the right track for the muti-use sports facility, and I think any new, larger-scale facilities that you see in the future will have a similar model.

I’m excited to continue the conversations and relationships that started at the conference, and plan to dive deeper in a few areas to provide the best opportunities for children in our community.

Final Days at Ballplayer Field

After what will be 3 years and 2 months, Ballplayer Field is officially going away! 😪

I’m having a hard time summing up a proper statement to explain why the field is going away. But I’ll give it a try because I know a lot of people will want to know.

The business model works (camps, birthday parties, baseball practice and clinics, outdoor batting cage rentals, community events). The property owner isn’t kicking us out (they have let us know from day 1 that as soon as a development is in the pipeline, they will give us notice and we’ll be on our way). The community enjoys it (based on reviews from the field and the fact that we’ve hosted hundreds of events, parties, camps and more at the field). There is no impending development planned (this may change of course, but it’s complicated and any development that does take place will likely need a few years to be ready to break ground).

The real reason we’re rolling up the turf is because of state mandates for housing, the housing element that has recently passed, and the fact that the Town of Moraga wants as many properties as possible that have been designated as ‘housing opportunity sites’ to be ‘turn-key’ and ready for development.

After getting through Covid and the field going from a pivot to outdoor training when indoor was restricted - to the current iteration, my position has been that this model works just fine and I’ve hoped to have the opportunity to stay until a development is approved and is ready to break ground. I’ve always wanted to turn this ‘community field’ into a nicer, permanent solution. But in the meantime, we’ve provided a seemingly 100% positive use out of a vacant gravel lot behind Safeway with no residences within 500 feet to disturb.

But rather than attempting to apply for another extension - and risk thousands of dollars of permit and attorney fees - we are going to peacefully surrender.

When I received the most recent 18 month extension by the wonderful folks on the Moraga planning commission in early 2022, I was tasked with making progress toward a more permanent solution, in a properly zoned location. As anyone that lives in Moraga knows, there aren’t many locations that fit the bill. But I’ve made great progress with the Moraga School District and may have the opportunity to collaborate and utilize a school district field (working around the current uses of longtime Moraga based clubs and community organizations). So as a business, Ballplayers is discussing and determining the feasibility of this option and how we’d like to move forward.

In closing, another final post is likely coming that summarizes all that Ballplayer Field has been, but we have appreciated all of the support we’ve received along the way and are really happy with what we built and provided at our oasis by the trailer park🤣. After months of discussions and research, we’re (almost) at peace with the fact that we won’t have a multi-use field across the parking lot from our indoor facility. Maybe this will be a blessing in disguise for a bigger and better opportunity to present itself in the future.

Conversation w/St. Mary's Baseball Coach Eric Valenzuela

SMC Head Baseball Coach Eric Valenzuela

‘Coach V’ is back for another run with the Gaels baseball team. After taking over the program in 2013 and leading the team for 6 years, he took the job at Long Beach State in 2019 where hes been until getting another opportunity to come back to Moraga for 2023 and beyond.

Eric and I first met during his last season in his first stint at Saint Mary’s, when Ballplayers was opening up in 2019. The Gaels had a great season that year and Coach V had an opportunity to move to the Big West Conference - and my alma mater - and coach the ‘Dirtbags’. He immediately found success in Long Beach as they were nationally ranked multiple times during his tenure. I’ve stayed in touch with V over the past few years as an alumni, where LB hosts a great alumni weekend every year before the spring season (I was selected in the MLB draft by the Milwaukee Brewers out of Long Beach in 2005 and have attended the alumni weekend many times during my professional playing career and after I retired). So I was excited to hear that Coach V was headed back to Moraga when news broke this summer.

We finally had a chance to catch up and talk about how things are going and what he’s excited about as he gets started in this new era of Gaels baseball. The two biggest things are the support from administration at SMC and the improvements to the facilities. Both of those go hand in hand, but having an administration that fully supports a program makes a coaches life so much easier. With their indoor hitting facility getting finished a few years ago, and now a stadium renovation being completed, the newly named Ronald Gallagher Stadium is an exciting place to be. He also shared that a full artificial turf resurfacing project is on the books and they will be going full turf by the 2025 season.

Coach V is also excited about his coaching staff, where he has a great mix of coaches with experience as well as younger coaches that are eager to learn and establish themselves in the college ranks. Coach Meggs returns after being the head hitting coach last season. And Danny Costanza is back, after being on Coach V’s staff during his last stint at SMC, going with him to Long Beach, and returning to SMC again. And they have 3 additional coaches that are new this year but are well rounded to provide key support to the program.

As far as talent on the field, the team is bringing back a fair number of the starters from last year. But it’s a clean slate and everyone has to earn a spot. When taking over a program, it takes time to learn and develop players to determine where they fit in. Without the opportunity to have a full recruiting cycle, a ‘new’ head coach has to assess the players currently in the program, as well as the incoming players who committed before he took over. Coach V did have a chance to recruit a few transfers to come in this season and compete for a spot.

Ballplayers employed a few of the SMC players this past summer, as left handed pitchers Owen Cuffe and Derik Eaquinto coached our 14U and 16U summer teams. I recently did an interview with Owen about his development in high school and his recruiting process, which you can view on Instagram here.

I’m excited to see what’s in store for the Gaels in 2024 and wish Coach V, his staff and players, the best of luck this season!

Chat w/Moraga School District Superintendent Julie Parks

As we get settled into the 2023-24 school year, the opportunity to get back into the normal fall routine has allowed me to re-open discussions related to improving sports fields in Moraga. I’ve recently met with Moraga school district Superindendent Julie Parks for both an informational meeting as well as site visits at Los Perales and Rheem elementary schools. The discussions have revolved around finding ways to collaborate in an effort to improve facilities, better utilize current resources, and create or expand outdoor sports/fitness opportunities for local children.

Julie, who was the principal at Miramonte High School for 7 years, has been the Superintendent for Moraga School District since the fall of 2021. She has been more than willing to engage in discussions related to field usage, improvements, and opportunities to benefit the children and families within the school district. More info about Julie can be found in this Lamorinda Weekly article here.

With Ballplayer Field being a temporarily permitted use that is subject to the Moraga Center Specific Plan implementation project, I’ve been working hard to find a suitable alternative to the amazing resource that Ballplayer Field has become. I’ve been very clearly told that the field needs to go away since it doesn’t fit in the Town’s vision for the Moraga Center. Only mixed-use and high density residential projects will be approved in the current shopping center location, so Ballplayer Field’s days are numbered. For now, I won’t belabor the details surrounding the field, but will rather focus on ‘what’s next’.

Across the 4 school district sites (JM, Camino Pablo, Rheem and Los Perales), there are several factors in play:

  • School uses: Recess, lunch time activities, after school sports or childcare programs

  • Local sports club and program use: Primarily by MOL football, MBA baseball, and LMYA soccer, baseball and softball

  • Maintenance: Costs and labor associated with cutting grass, watering, weed abatement and general maintenance.

  • Potential Future Improvements: Larger scale updates and improvements that would likely come from a Bond measure if approved by the residents of the town.

Looking at each school site, there are lots of potential ideas and opportunities for improvements/renovations/more efficient uses. But each idea needs to be vetted against the 4 factors above to determine feasibility. JM has the largest field space, but also has the highest use and would cost the most to make large scale improvements. CP had a renovation project in 2011, but is showing its age and could use a refresh. Rheem has a nice open field and newer solar panels near the blacktop, but is used for some youth soccer and baseball and not much else. LP has had limited updates in the last 30 years and is under-utilized for several reasons.

My discussions with Julie come from the perspective of a local parent and small business owner who’s invested in providing opportunities for children in the community. So I’m constantly trying to balance ‘what’s best for the community’ with ‘what’s best for the business’ and find ways to marry the two for mutual benefit. In my opinion, there are lots of positives that come from a private entity (Ballplayers) establishing a sustainable business model that also benefits students and the community. How we do this, while layering in a partnership and collaboration with a public school district is where several interesting concerns and challenges and possibilities lie.

Ultimately with regards to fields, the biggest priorities for the school district seem to be 1) to provide safe and usable facilities, 2) to enhance or increase outdoor fitness, sports and socialization opportunities, and 3) to balance resources and spending on maintenance needs. If Ballplayers can figure out a way to enhance any, or all, of these areas without any potential drawbacks, then that’s exactly what we’d like to do. Stay tuned as we continue engaging and exploring ideas to partner with the district on a long term viable plan.

Sports Fields in Moraga, and a Chat with the Town Planning Director

Over the course of the past 7 years as I’ve been invested in the Lamorinda sports community, I’ve learned a great deal and had countless interactions with residents, community officials, school district personnel, and parks, recreation and planning commission members. In Moraga, where I started coaching with Moraga Baseball Association in 2016, leased a small studio in 2018, and then opened up Ballplayers in early 2019 - I’ve known the demand for outdoor sports and recreation facilities far outweighs what Moraga currently has to offer.

Currently the Town has zero sports fields outside of school district property, of which none of them are artificial turf - which would allow significantly higher usage throughout the year. Of the Town-operated parks, Hacienda De Los Flores is the defacto community center but is primarily operated by Wedgewood Weddings. Moraga Commons is host to a disc golf course, playground, sand volleyball and basketball courts - but no sports field. And Rancho Laguna is a dog park before 9am and after 5pm, which causes it to be mostly unsuitable for sports practice or competition.

As I’ve explored numerous concepts related to improving or building sports fields in the town, I’ve come to realize many of the challenges. The 3 ways I’ve looked at it are through 1) Publicly developed fields, 2) Through a public/private partnership, and 3) Privately developed.

The only ways I see that the Town would build any new facilities would be through new acquisition of land or as a requirement of development for a residential or commercial developer. To the first point, there isn’t much land remaining for the Town to acquire, and they have historically focused on maintaining and preserving open space, rather than building or improving recreational facilities. Requiring a developer to allocate land for development is an interesting concept - and the model used by the City of Orinda to develop Wilder Fields as part of the larger Wilder community has turned out to be a huge success. Moraga has the opportunity to follow a similar concept through several proposed developments in town.

A public/private partnership is another idea I have explored, both through working with the Town of Moraga, as well as potentially working with the school districts (both MSD and AUHSD). Partnering with the Town would likely involve collaboration related to the developer land allocation mentioned above where myself and other parties could help to determine the best use of land as a community benefit - and then figure out how that development is built, paid for, and utilized. Through a partnership with the school district, it could be a mutually beneficial arrangement where the school and their physical education activities would benefit from improved sports facilities - and with investment from private organizations, nonprofit clubs, and potentially even residents - the community at large would also benefit from better utilized and maintained facilities.

For a privately built field, high land costs, a limited amount of flat land in Moraga, and zoning challenges are the primary hurdles. With new mandates from the State of CA, the Town is hyper-focused on getting residential housing built. As recently as the last few months, even commercially zoned land has been rezoned to ‘mixed-use’ to allow for residential development.

In my recent meeting with Moraga Planning Director Afshan Hamid, we discussed much of what I’ve just summarized. It was our first formal conversation related to the substantial development of a sports field in town, but it has been part of a multi-year history of Ballplayers trying to create new youth recreational opportunities.

Starting with the infamous ‘tent’ before Director Hamid was a Town employee, where we attempted to operate a 10,000 sq/ft temporary structure that was to host 8 batting cages for the winter. It’s a long story, maybe for another time, but ultimately the cages never operated, our business took a $25,000 hit, and somehow we kept moving forward.

The batting cages that never were…

The batting cage tent was up over the holidays in 2019 and into January 2020, so soon after the dust settled from this fallout, we were hit with another blow… Covid (ever heard of it? 😂). We quickly pivoted to remote and virtual workouts and private lessons, and then took our whole operation to Rancho Laguna park in Moraga, where we rented the park from 9-5 all summer long and hosted outdoor camps and baseball practices from sun up to sun down! It was a huge success and we had incredibly positive feedback from families for providing outdoor physical and social opportunities for kids in the community.

Covid summer at Rancho Laguna

The dog park was great, but it got me thinking about how to build a field of our own, with artificial turf and without dog poop and gopher holes! So the concept for Ballplayer Field was born and I was right back at Town offices requesting a permit for another temporary use (at the same site as the previous tent). I wanted to have something outdoors that we could continue to use while Covid showed no signs of allowing us back to our normal operation, but also not spend a fortune and take out a huge loan, so around August 2020, Ballplayer Field was born. The town planning department and planning commission approved the plan for an initial 6 month term.

The beginning of Ballplayer Field

While operating our field and seeing the demand it created, I continued to have conversations around how to build a more substantial, legitimate field. I wanted (and still do) to expand on the concept in it’s existing location, but at the exact same time, the Town was changing zoning for all undeveloped parcels near the Moraga Center to mixed use - which makes it more difficult to have a commercial use. So I’ve been stuck in limbo trying to maximize the temporary use of Ballplayer Field, while also exploring all avenues of creating a permanent solution.

As it stands now, after 2.5 years of utilizing the field through 3 extensions of the original permit (and over $17,000 in application and attorney fees paid to the Town), Ballplayer Field is set to go away at the end of October 2023 unless something changes. I’m now at a point of determining next steps, which is what prompted the meeting in the first place.

Over the next few months, I’ll be juggling these opportunities:

  • Have conversations with Town Council members and Planning staff and commissioners about the potential to build a sports field as part of a new residential development in town

  • Aim to work with Moraga School District, residents, board and committee members, and nonprofit sports clubs regarding the potential to improve fields and install artificial turf at any of the Elementary school sites or JM

  • Discuss the potential of continuing to use Ballplayer Field until any of the above options come to fruition, or there is any other development approved at it’s site.

Clearly it’s a long, windy, and expensive road to get a sports field or recreation facility built in town… but naive or not, I hold onto the thought that ‘If it were easy, someone would have done it by now!’. I remain committed to turning over every rock - and I know I’ll continue to need and ask for help along the way!

Chat with New Campolindo Baseball Coach Julian Fiammengo

With high school baseball officially 1 week away, I wanted to take the time to catch up with new Campo baseball coach Julian Fiammengo. Julian is taking over a program with a lot of talent from the Freshman through Senior classes, and hopes to hit the ground running in his first season at the helm.

‘Coach Mengo’ has already begun establishing a new culture at Campo and takes pride in setting a good standard for all players in the program. He’s been working hard since the day he was hired to learn about players in the program, evaluate them, and create a plan for the season for all 3 levels - Freshman, JV and Varsity. Campo hasn’t had a Freshman program in a few years, so that will be a highly welcome addition to allow for more opportunities and development for incoming players. Mengo has also worked to establish a coaching staff to ensure each team has great coaching and all players are put in the best position for success.

Most players don’t realize how much preparation it takes to be ready for live games, and how quickly those games start after tryouts. So Mengo has been stressing the work that needs to be put in ahead of tryouts to make sure players are prepared and ready to hit the ground running starting next Monday 2/6. He and I have discussed many of the players in the program, as most of them either currently train at Ballplayers or have in the past. We work with nearly all of the Varsity pitchers that attend Campo, so it’s been refreshing to have a collaborative approach to getting those pitchers ready and making sure they have built up a solid foundation over the last 2 months.

Looking ahead to the season, Campo has a tough schedule lined up, and they hope to improve on last years 5-7 record in the Diablo Foothill division. They have a solid roster from top to bottom, highlighted by Clemson commit Hideki Prather and new Stanford Commit and Freshman 😱 Graham Schlicht.

I look forward to seeing what Coach Mengo can do in 2023 as he embarks on the next generation of Campo baseball!

Chat with Campolindo Athletic Director Ray Meadows

I recently had a chance to catch up with Ray Meadows, primarily on the topic of gender equity and making the high school weight room a more inviting space for female athletes.

Ray has been the AD and a teacher at Campo since 2019, but also previously coached at taught there from 2004 - 2010. He is a former D1 water polo player at UC Santa Barbara and also coaches the swim team at Springbrook in Lafayette.

One topic we focused on was ‘what can we do to create a more equitable and inviting atmosphere in the weight room for female athletes?’ The Booster Club has identified the issue and earmarked funds to address it. Several people have mentioned Ballplayers for doing a good job providing opportunities for female athletes to train, which I take as a great compliment! Since we’ve trained many female Lacrosse, Water Polo, Soccer, Tennis and Softball players - maybe we can use what we’ve learned along the way to provide insight into what can be done at Campolindo.

The first consideration is the use of space and aesthetics of the weight room at Campo. Both Ray and I agreed, along with other coaches who have provided feedback, that there isn’t necessarily a difference in the type of equipment used for female athletes vs males. Sports performance training for male and female athletes is very similar. The physical skills a female soccer player needs vs a male are no different - and therefore their training should be similar as well. Of course, there are a few differences that should be addressed (females more susceptible to knee injuries and generally have less upper body strength on a relative bodyweight basis for example). But that doesn’t affect the equipment needed in the weight room.

So this lead to the idea that maybe the weight room can be intimidating for female athletes, especially ones that have never trained. After all, a typical high school weight room is utilized by the football team more than any other program, so the connotation that it is only for big football players can certainly be a real issue. With limited space in the weight room at Campo, there is not a lot that can be done to make it more open and inviting, while also being able to effectively train large groups in one session. But things like highlighting sports teams or individual players up on the walls would go a long way to show that ALL athletes are welcome in the weight room. The potential addition of more lighter weights and medicine balls could help as well.

The second concern is access and scheduling for the weight room for female sports. This is a 2 part issue in that 1) there is limited space and only 1-2 teams can get the ‘prime’ after school weight room time. And 2) someone needs to run the sessions, whether that is the sport coach or an outside coach or trainer.

Of course the priority will go to the teams who are invested in utilizing the weight room to train their athletes - but those are generally also the teams that do a great job with fundraising and can afford to pay a coach or trainer to run those sessions. Several teams would like to supplement their program with strength and speed training, but they don’t have funding available to pay a coach, or their coach doesn’t have the time to essentially volunteer more of their personal hours to oversee that type of program. This can be a complicated issue at the high school level, as public school coaches are paid a very meager stipend, which only covers their sport season. And adjusted on an hourly basis relative to the time it takes to run a program, it can make you cringe.

The solution to this issue is not an easy one. Each sport is essentially responsible for providing (or not providing) these additional opportunities. So it’s up to the sport coach - or the Booster Club or a private foundation, to create a program that supplements their ‘on-field’ practice.

Ultimately, it is an interesting issue that can be a challenge to address within the context of the current public high school system of underpaid coaches, small weight rooms, and no ‘strength/performance’ coach on staff. But Ray and I have had a few good conversations and, at the very least, hope to make progress toward equitable opportunities in the weight room in the future.

Thoughts after competing in the national Master’s Track & Field championships

I traveled to Lexington Kentucky this weekend to compete in the Pentathalon (Long Jump, Javelin, 200M, Discus & 1500M) and Individual 200M in the Men’s 40-44 age category. It’s a once per year event that brings in 1500 athletes from across the country to compete in age-group based events. With no formal track and field experience, but many years training as a professional athlete, I decided to challenge myself with something new as I was turning 40 earlier this year. It was a great experience, I came out of it with no injuries 🙏 😀, and I learned a few things along the way.

5 lessons from my time in Kentucky

- Masters competitions are super popular across the US. The uniqueness of 5 year age windows levels the playing field, and allows everyone from age 25-99 to compete against similar-aged athletes. While golf, tennis, biking and swimming are also very popular with adults - track and field is unique in the variety of events and diversity of competitors.

- Everyone can benefit from having a coach if they want to learn a new skill. While you can learn a lot from watching other people, or even videos on youtube, nothing replaces good coaching. In addition to the running events, I competed in the long jump, javelin, and discus without any proper training. I literally threw a javelin for the very first time on the day of the event. Needless to say, the results were less than spectacular. I held my own (thanks to 11 years of training as a professional athlete), but I know that I can make significant improvements if I enlisted a coach to dial in the detailed techniques of each event.

- There’s no replacement for natural talent. No one that made the finals in the 100 or 200M was slow in high school. That being said, you can 100% teach speed, but it’s a matter of maximizing and optimizing the natural talent that you have. Same thing applies to many other sports or skills. Your natural abilities set your foundation, and how you train and practice is what determines how far you go.

- It takes a long time to make small improvements (once you've built a solid foundation). I had a conversation with the bronze medalist in the 200M, he said that in 2019 his time was 25 seconds. And now he is down to 23 seconds. 4 years to improve by 2 seconds. That’s less than a 10% improvement over the course of 48 months. It’s the same as a pro baseball pitcher trying to increase 2mph on his fastball. It can take hundreds of hours of training to make a 1% improvement once you have ‘fully developed’. But on the other end of the spectrum, a young untrained athlete can make huge improvements in a matter of weeks and months with proper training.

- Athletes come in all shapes and sizes. A typical body type comes to mind when you think of an NFL running back or an NBA center, but now more than ever the general stereotype doesn’t hold up. I saw some incredible performances last weekend by athletes that didn’t look like what you’d expect. You can turn on the TV and see an undersized golfer or MLB pitcher doing amazing things. The lesson is - don’t let a preconceived idea of what an athlete in your sport looks like hold you back. Put in consistent work, week after week, and watch what happens 💪.

High School Spring Sports Recap

As we wrap up the 2021/22 school year, here’s a quick recap of how each of the high schools in Lamorinda fared this spring in their Baseball, Softball, and Lacrosse programs

BASEBALL

Varsity

Miramonte 10-15 overall, 1-11 in league. Lost in first round of NCS playoffs (Division 3)

Acalanes 15-10 overall, 8-4 in league. Lost in first round of NCS playoffs (Division 1)

Campolindo 13-11 overall, 5-7 in league. Still in NCS playoffs, won round 1 vs Pinole & round 2 vs Novato

JV

Miramonte 5-16 overall, 0-10 in league

Acalanes 19-2-2 overall, 11-1-1 in league

Campolindo 7-11 overall, 3-8 in league

Frosh

Miramonte 8-11 overall

Acalanes 11-4 overall

Campolindo - No Frosh team

SOFTBALL

Varsity

Miramonte 2-11-1 overall, 2-6 in league

Acalanes 11-11 overall, 8-2 in league. Lost in NCS round 1 to Encinal

Campolindo 7-12 overall, 5-5 in league. Lost in NCS round 1 to San Rafael

LACROSSE

Men’s Varsity

Miramonte 17-3 overall, 8-0 in league. League Champs! Lost in Round 2 of NCS to Campo

Acalanes 12-8 overall, 5-2 in league. Lost in NCS round 2 to Tamalpais

Campolindo 10-8 overall, 6-1 in league. Lost in NCS semifinals to Tamalpais

Women’s Varsity

Miramonte 7-12 overall, 5-3 in league. Lost in NCS round 1 to Tamalpais

Acalanes 7-11 overall, 6-2 in league. Lost in NCS round 1 to Marin Academy

Campolindo 16-2 overall, 8-0 in league. League Champs! Lost in NCS Championship game to Marin Academy

Ballplayer Field extended 18 months

At the conclusion of the 3 hour planning commission hearing last night, it was ultimately determined that Ballplayer Field will be allowed to continue operating for 18 more months!

I’m truly humbled by the amount of support that has been shown - over 40 incredible public comments, amazing financial support for the fees involved in fighting to keep the field through the GoFundMe page, many positive comments on Facebook and Nextdoor, and all of the speakers who stepped up and voiced their support during the meeting! It’s incredible to hear how many positive effects have come from the activities we’ve provided at the field. Who knew an idea to throw together a puzzle-piece turf field behind Safeway would have this much impact?!

It’s difficult to summarize all the twists and turns and different directions that the meeting went in, but overall the understanding that the field has been a beneficial and positive resource for the community prevailed over the Town Staff’s argument that it is inconsistent with the zoning and would impede development of a future ‘Town Square’. I applaud the volunteer Planning Commissioners for hearing all sides of the issues that were presented and ultimately coming to a conclusion that I feel is fair for all parties.

The meeting was recorded via LiveStream, and can be watched HERE

Ballplayers will continue to be creative and build on the success we’ve had at the field with our birthday parties, camps, batting cage and outdoor fitness. We’ll keep providing healthy outdoor options for the youth of the community, while also employing local high school and college students to help coach our events.

Coach Craig leaving for professional tryout

In the final few days before Craig heads out to Texas, I wanted to acknowledge what he’s provided to Ballplayers over the last 14 months and wish him luck as he puts his spikes back on to pitch in a 3 week tryout.

Before coming in to work every day, he’s been training on his own to prepare to get back on the mound 3 years after finishing his college pitching career at Mayville State University in North Dakota. The tryout will be an opportunity to see where he stands, and has given him the ability to take what he’s learned after college and apply it. It’s always super interesting to realize how much you learn once you begin coaching - stuff that you wish you knew while you were still playing. As a young coach, it’s mutually beneficial to work with younger athletes, because you can teach them everything you’ve learned along the way - but in that teaching, you learn new things yourself as well.

Craig has built quite a following, with his schedule getting filled up with lessons almost every day of the week - so he will have big shoes to fill while he’s gone. If you ask any of the young Ballplayers he works with, they’ll surely say that he’s made them a better player and held them accountable - whether that’s with their pitching, hitting, or defense.

In addition to private lessons, Craig has been a valuable part of our staff as the Head Coach of our summer and fall 18U teams, coaching clinics and camps, group hitting sessions, and teaching many of our Speed & Strong classes.

On behalf of myself and all our coaches, we wish Craig the best of luck in Texas and will gladly welcome him back - whether that’s in a few weeks or several months.

*Craig has a couple openings remaining between today and his last day on Friday here. Coaches Austin, Caleb and James will pick up his shifts once he leaves.

Chat w/Sean Hennessy - Miramonte Baseball

Baseball season is officially here and all of the high school spring athletes are in the middle of tryouts week while simultaneously preparing for real games to start. For Miramonte Baseball, that means a scrimmage against Alhambra on Saturday to see how everyone competes before deciding final rosters for Varsity, JV and Freshman.

Sean Hennessy is starting a new chapter for Miramonte, taking over this year with hopes of developing a strong program year after year. He’s currently the Chair of the physical education department on campus, and previously coached at Las Lomas High for several years.

The biggest priority for the program is to get back to establishing a winning culture that was previously set for over 2 decades by Vince Dell’Aquila. With a large group of players in the program, Sean is eager to do just that. But first, he needs to sort through the huge contingent of upperclassmen and decide on who has the best chance to help the Varsity team win ballgames this year.

Of of the toughest things for a new coach is to learn and evaluate all of the players in the program, but Sean has a great head start on that, as he’s attended several games in prior years and also sees most of the players on campus and in the weight room - so there is a natural familiarity.

What I respect about Sean is that he understands that building a program is more about developing players over their 4 years in high school than it is putting all of your eggs in one basket at the Varsity level and disregarding the younger players - of which many will inevitably will become varsity players down the road. That doesn’t mean that Varsity isn’t the priority, because it always will be, but keeping continuity in the program and emphasizing development with younger players is still very important.

I’m looking forward to watching the Matadors this season - and there will hopefully be some great matchups with Campo and Acalanes!

Chat w/Moraga Mayor Mike McCluer

Yesterday I had the opportunity to sit down with Mike McCluer, current Mayor of Moraga, to discuss sports fields and facilities in the community. Mike has been an advocate for finding a way to add a sports and recreation facility in Moraga.

This is a topic that dates back many years - and there have been many talks and meetings and studies done to address the community desire for these type of amenities. In my opinion, the demand is stronger now than ever, with an ever-increasing amount of youth and club sports options available. The limiting factor to many of these programs, ours included, is access to quality field or gym space. Since opening Ballplayer Field last year, we’ve been contacted by a dozen sports teams/clubs about the ability to use the field for practices - underscoring the need that programs have for space, especially artificial turf.

If you take a closer look at sports fields in particular in Lamorinda (not including school district property), Orinda has Wilder Fields, Orinda Sports Field, and Pine Grove. Lafayette has Community Park and Buckeye Baseball Fields. Moraga doesn’t have a community sports field - just Moraga Commons Park and Rancho Laguna, of which neither are realistically used for local sports programs. The 3 artificial turf fields at Wilder have an incredibly high usage rate due to the demand, and provide multiple benefits - including significant revenue for the town and recreation access to Orinda residents.

Mike pointed out the difficulty there has been in securing a location and land to be allocated for sports fields. Housing developments over the past 10 years have largely been void of usable greenspace and parks - and developers aren’t incentivized to earmark a few acres of prime real estate to go to a sports field that wouldn’t bring them anywhere near the revenue that housing would. Partnering with a developer to find a suitable location for a field or 2 that doesn’t negatively impact their development would be a potential way to bring this idea to fruition.

There are really 3 ‘types’ of sports fields - City-owned, school district, and private. There are pros and cons to each. City and school fields are mostly paid for and maintained by taxes and bond measures and operated by city/school employees. Private fields are funded by individuals or investors, but are operated by professionals with a sports background who have experience with sports programs and operations.

For several years now, I’ve been exploring all 3 options to find a way to update, improve, or bring a new sports facility to the Lamorinda area, not just for the benefit of Ballplayers, but for all youth in the community as well. It’s proven to be quite a challenge! I’ll continue to search for opportunities and see where things go from here.

Ballplayers is Expanding!

PHASE 1 - NEW BATTING CAGE

Since we opened in 2019, I’ve tried to come up with ways to utilize the 800+ square feet we have in the back of our facility. Pre-Covid, we hosted indoor parties and used the back room for an eating area. We’ve also had a small office/kitchen, ping pong table, basketball ‘pop a shot’, a small recovery room, and a storage room.

We’ve always wanted to add an additional batting cage to the facility, but there has never been a way - until now! We’ve gotten creative and morphed a 15X30’ area into an awesome mini cage!

In our new cage, we’ll be able to do lots of hitting lessons (while opening up the main cage for other activities), as well as catching drills, lacrosse shooting, soccer, and even a way to do ‘long toss’ into the backstop net this winter.

Check out our 10 second transformation! 😆

Phase 2 coming soon 🤩😯 Keep an eye out!

Results from our fall ball program

Fall Ball 2021 Highlights

We just concluded our 9 week fall baseball program at the 16U and 18U levels and it was a great success! The goal of the program was not to simply practice and play a few games, but to train and improve baseball skills, throwing velocity, and overall strength and speed. Our throwing program was the primary focus, as it consisted of 3 days/week of progressive long toss with increasing intensity. Pair that with extra strength training and that’s the magic formula for not only velocity but arm health as well.

The coaches and I tried to explain this from day 1, but it’s hard for players to understand something that they’ve never expericence before - so we simply had to hold them accountable to follow the program and we knew the results would show.

After 8 weeks of intense throwing, the velocity improvements we saw were amazing. Even better than we expected going in. We tested everyone’s throwing velocity from a crow hop throw in the first week, and then again last week - and the average increase was +5mph! We had 1 player increase 10mph and 4 others were +8 😲😱.

The only way you get these kind of results is by following the tried and true formula of agressive throwing, arm care and strength and bodyweight increases. Needless to say - we’ll be following the same blueprint next fall. And we will have another opportunity to run a similar program over the winter as players prepare for the spring season.

Campo 2023 Grad Adrian Blumberg

While games weren’t the focus of the program, we understand that reps on the field against other teams is important (and fun), so we wanted to have a endpoint of the fall program for players to look forward to. We concluded the program this past weekend with a tournament at Mistlin Sports Park. Both of our teams put their training into action and many players had great performances. Our 18U team outscored the opponents 15-3 over 3 games 🔥

Chat w/Connor Hornsby - Acalanes Baseball

Although he hasn’t yet turned 30, Connor has been a fixture in the baseball community since his playing days at Acalanes where he was a 2 time NCS champion for the Dons. He moved on to Saint Mary’s starting in 2013, where he played 2B and outfield for the Gaels. After finishing his playing career, Connor began working in real estate, while also getting into coaching.

He took over for Clint Hoover as the head Varsity coach at Acalanes in late fall of 2019 - just in time to get hit with the pandemic a few games into his head coaching career. After regrouping last fall, Connor and I started working together and formed a winter program that allowed players the opportunity to get in some ‘real’ game action while leagues and tournaments were shut down. We played our games at Willow Pass park in Concord, and eventually Wilder Fields in Orinda once the city began granting permits to outside users.

After the 2021 spring season - we again worked together to provide a great summer program where he managed all of the incoming Acalanes freshman via Cowboys Baseball, and many of the rest of the Acalanes players joined Ballplayers on our 16 & 17U summer teams - where we played our home games at Acalanes HS.

This winter, Connor is looking forward to getting all of the fooball players back after they finish their season - hopefully after a deep run into the playoffs - and providing an opportunity for them to train and work on their skills ahead of the ‘22 spring baseball season.

After losing 12th round MLB draft pick & Vanderbilt commit Davis Diaz, as well as several other solid seniors, Connor is looking to develop the players he has and compete this spring. They’ve got a strong schedule lined up, and they will be fun to watch!

Chat with Ben Campopiano - New Miramonte Principal

After a busy start to the fall, I had the chance last week to sit down with Ben Campopiano, the new principal at Miramonte HS. He took over for Julie Parks, who stayed in the community as the superintendent of Moraga School District.

Ben has a long background in sports, which is why I was excited to talk athletics as it pertains to the high school district, and specifically at Miramonte. His background ranges from starting Bronco Baseball Academy in Walnut Creek in 2001, to coaching Baseball at Northgate High School and holding a position as Director of Baseball Operations with UC Santa Clara Baseball. More info about Ben can be found here.

Our discussion was broad in terms of topics, but the general theme was that there is incredible demand for sports in the Lamorinda community, where ~70% of students in the district play a competitive sport. The intertwining of academics and athletics is in the fabric of our daily lives from elementary through high school, and providing the resources, staff and facilities to support both school-based and outside programs benefits everyone.

The systems in place for public high schools make it difficult to attract quality coaches, as the time committment relative to salary is a huge challenge. Almost exclusively, high school coaches either need to be retired, work a morning job (often teaching), or supplement their high school coaching with club or travel teams. This is a challenge that isn’t going away, so finding and keeping quality coaches who run a great program from top to bottom will always be a priority.

One topic that has special significance for both Ben and I are field space in the area, particularly artificial turf fields which can be utilized throughout the year by multiple sports and groups (and require very little maintenance). Miramonte, like every other school in the district, has so much field space that is underutilized. Each school has raised funds and installed turf for their football fields, but putting in turf on baseball, softball and multi-use fields would be supported by so many student-athletes at each school.

Overall I was happy to have the opportunity to talk with Ben and open up an ongoing dialogue about working together to provide great programs for our local athletic community.