Welcome to the 2016 Tournament Baseball Season and I am very happy to be coaching the 11A Red Team!!! Many items to cover, so bear with me. I’d like to share some of my perspective on baseball and competition, how we’ll stay organized, and what I hope the players, parents and coaches all get out of this baseball season.
First off, some clarity on the 11 year old tournament teams. Because of the size of the class, we (Orono Baseball) were able to field three teams. This is the second team, and was built with the goal of being very competitive at the A level. All of your boys should be very proud of the team and excited to compete at a high level within this division. Many of your boys have looked at the roster and used terms like ‘stacked’; that’s great, I just want to make sure they use fun & excited as well!
With 10u last year, many of us had our first introduction to tournament baseball. This year, at 11, the competition rises and we focus even more on excellence. This is also the last year of in house baseball at Orono; next year is full time travel. Your boys will hopefully cherish this last in house experience and fight for bragging rights amongst all their buddies. It really is the last year to play against their friends on a regular basis. As a coach, and an OBA Board member, I love our in house program and will never do anything to put people in a position to choose one over the other. When it comes to tournament baseball, our goal is to compete to win, maintaining honor and respect at all times. I strongly believe that you can win with honor and lose with dignity, and will work very hard to ensure we do both.
While I haven’t used the term stacked, I look at the kids we have playing together and am excited and optimistic for our tournaments and our opportunity to play into the post season. Many of your kids I know, or have helped coach before, and in addition to being great baseball players they are all great kids. Please help me instill the right attitude and perspective with them about competition, winning, and losing. I am excited to coach not to win a game on a Saturday on the bluff in Burnsville, but make a small contribution to all of us having fun, learning, and growing each and every day. Competition is a part of life and something we all need to learn how to do well, regardless of outcome.
We have an indoor practice in the morning, and I am already looking to schedule regular practices and scrimmages. I have contacted Mound, Wayzata, and Edina looking to line up scrimmages with their 11A teams. I want to make sure we take full advantage of the (too short) baseball season. Many of these opportunities will be on weekends and I understand conflicts arise. As long as we all stay connected, we’ll have a great time, and ensure we field a competitive squad. Let me know if the amount of time we look to spend together as a team creates issues for your family or doesn’t align with what you believe to be the goal of tournament baseball.
Many of you know Steve Yockey. In addition to being OBA President, he is also a great baseball coach and his son Nick is playing with us. I am so happy to have him helping us out on and off the field. I will also look to additional folks to volunteer in different ways as we get rolling. From practices, to tournament weekends, to ‘safety’ meetings J I want to ensure parents are engaged and enjoying the season as much as the boys.
The tournament schedule is already posted on the baseball website. In a nutshell, we are in tournaments the weekends of May 13, June 3, and June 17. Please do all that you can to guard these weekends to ensure we field our most competitive team in the tournaments.
Orono Baseball attempts to qualify for two different state tournaments, MYAS and Gopher State. Both tournaments are in July and after the holiday weekend. Let’s hope we have the opportunity to keep playing!
As an association, we use an application called SportNGIN (pronounced engine) for managing the season. I would encourage all of you to familiarize yourself with the website. If you have a smartphone, please download the SportNGIN app and sign in as you would on the web. If you then follow the Orono 11A red team, you will receive immediate notifications on practices, scrimmages, and anything else we need to get the word out on. I used the app for our first practice tomorrow and I can see some of you already have discovered the RSVP function!
At the end of the year, my sole hope is that we look back and these three things happened:
I can always be reached at (612) 810-6506 and via email at srt@outlook.com. I hope to see many of you tomorrow. I am very excited for this season of baseball. Especially if that makes it stop snowing!
Steve
Tag(s): 11A