Despite winter weather full of rain and wind, the baseball team has spent much of the last month preparing to return to the diamond for the spring season.
Under new head coach Billy Aviles, who was the team’s interim manager at the end of last year, the team has held open-field sessions to prepare the players’ arms and legs for the new season. Without instruction from coaches, the players have used the time to get in strengthening work, while the coaching staff, including Aviles, watches from afar.
“It’s the biggest thing for the kids getting their arms and legs in shape to get ready for tryouts,” he said. “Everything here is so competitive. And here being a baseball town, the kids take a lot of initiative and they do a lot on their own.”
He continued: “It’s nice to see the young kids. I get to watch some of the Little League games but this is the first time I’ve gotten to see the freshmen. It’s nice to see what’s coming down the pipeline. It’s nice. It’s refreshing to have the young kids coming out. We should be pretty strong again.”
More than 50 athletes took part in the month-long open-field sessions – which took place on Tuesdays and Thursdays of most weeks. The players ranged from fourth-year veterans to freshmen preparing to try out for the first time.
With no input from coaches, Aviles relied on his experienced players to lead the way during the sessions, he said.
“It makes it a lot easier when you have returnees,” he said. “They know how you run practice. They have guys in the cages. It’s huge, because it is all it’s all voluntary. There is a lot of work they need to do on their own. It’s huge for the seniors and the juniors to lead by example.”
Returnee Craig Slibsager has been one of those players to help lead the way.
“When we do the little stuff, I just help out with the little kids that just don’t quite have it down,” he said. “Our expectations are high. The best is what we are shooting for. So far, it looks good. Last year we got second in CCS and we want to do better than that.”
And the open field sessions are the first part of that improvement.
To do that, the older players act as motivation and coaches themselves, senior Ryan Jacob said.
“We just make sure they are hustling all the time,” he said. “You can’t let the egos get in the way. Nothing is guaranteed. We are doing pretty good. I think is going to help. A lot more than you can imagine.”
Mostly though it gets the team together with the season on the horizon.
“It’s kind of good because you get back into the swing of things,” Slibsager said. “Because once we have tryouts, the first games are two-three weeks after that. We don’t have that much time, so it’s real good to get back into the swing of things before tryouts.”
“It’s awesome being back out here,” he said. “There a lot of guys too. We look pretty good. Especially guys from JV so it might be hard for the coaches. It feels good to be out here.”
The Balers begin their team tryouts Monday. They will last five days, before the team makes its cuts on Friday.
