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!