Any coach could write this column. OK, maybe not as good as I’m going to write this column. But you’ll soon get my point.
In the summer of 2013, it may have been my ninth year of coaching, but I was a rookie coach on the showcase circuit. My 15U Stars team went 4-3 in pool play at the Perfect Game event down in East Cobb, and I was asking around to see what our seed would be in elimination play, and what time we were going start our run to a national championship that next day. Then I was told there were about 1,500 teams down there, and roughly 1% advanced to elimination play.
OK, that’s not completely true. I was a bit more dialed in than that. But, wow, needing to essentially go undefeated to be one of the 32 teams to advance to elimination play? That’s pretty cool. And hard.
A couple days later, one of my coaches on that trip, Fairfax High School assistant Walt Lancman, was with me when we saw a team see its run end in the Sweet 16 on one of those trick backpick plays. The poor baserunner was standing there, and it was like the scene in Top Gun where Hollywood tells Goose, ‘Where’d he go?’ … ‘Where’d whooooo go?’. By the way, that team, the San Diego Show, sold it like no team has ever sold a trick play.
Anyway, to the point of this column. And to my reasoning behind saying that any coach could write this column.
I’m very proud of where those kids from that team are today.
Jack Cunningham was just named the WCAC Player of the Year. His partner in crime, Devon Adams, was a first-team WCAC selection. ‘JC’ is heading to Boston College to play next year. ‘D-Bomb’, as another assistant, Steve Salva, dubbed Adams, will play at ODU. Those two guys were inseparable that summer. And from what I've heard, that remains the case today.
Salva’s son, Will, is a junior teammate of Cunningham and Adams at Paul VI, the youngest guy we had on the team, and will make a Division I coach very happy when he commits to his program in the coming months. A fourth PVI kid, Kevin Kelly, was also with us that summer. He’ll be getting guys out at JMU next year.
All those PVI kids are looking to send Jeff Nolan out in style, and are playing St. John’s in the WCAC semis as I write this column.
Another assistant on my staff that summer was Kenny Burch. Yes, the son of legendary O’Connell coach Al Burch. His kid, Corey, a Roanoke College commit, is looking to help O’Connell win its first WCAC title since 2001. He was like 3-years-old then. You’re due, Knights.
Caleb Barnes, a lefty and one of the top players at Briar Woods this spring, is among The Official Kamide Top 10 Favorite Players I’ve Ever Coached. A dirtball. A gamer. Coachable. All those phrases coaches use when describing their kinda guys, that’s Caleb. I told his pops once that summer, ‘Give me nine Caleb Barnes’, and I’ll go win a state championship’.
So I guess the question then for coach Jason Price and the Falcons is, ‘Do you have eight more Caleb Barnes-type guys this spring?’ If so, I’ll see you on June 11 at the 5A state final. Save room for me on the dogpile.
Austin Gerber, currently a senior righty at Patriot, next year a freshman pitcher at Radford, was quiet, but an awesome competitor. He was nails down at East Cobb and all summer, and I don’t think he said more than five words all season. Joe Raccuia is getting a stud of a kid and guy who will help the Highlanders on the mound. His pops was a pro soccer player. That being said, Gerbs, you chose the right sport.
Tyler Johnson, a left-handed stick who looked like a linebacker but was just a big teddy bear, just had a great freshman season down at Lynchburg, hitting .293. Probably with the grin on his face all spring. His Kettle Run teammate, Jason Alvarez, is a pitcher out at Shenandoah now.
Ty Pavlock, last year’s 4A Conference 22 Player of the Year, and his Fauquier teammate, Travis Croson, will also be playing their college ball at Shenandoah. And possibly the smartest guy on the team, Yorktown’s Joe DiConsiglio, is heading to UVA next year. He won’t be playing there, but we’ll all probably be working for him someday.
In a nutshell, it was a ball of an eight weeks. Kenny, Steve, Walt, great guys and baseball minds, were a joy to work with. Walt, the king of Chicago sports fans, dragged me to some Windy City-themed Italian Beef joint a handful of times in East Cobb. I’ve never seen so many photos of Walter Payton. We won a Sports at the Beach event in Rehoboth Beach, got to a championship game at the Dynamic Baseball’s tourney in Tidewater before losing to The Plankster (also known as Riverside coach Sam Plank) and his Diamond Elite group in a great game, even beat another Stars team to win a tourney in Fredericksburg (I won’t call out the former Toronto Blue Jay and current Potomac School head coach who was coaching that team!). I hit about 500 fungoes at the Stars’ showcase event at the VSC complex, and didn’t complain once about the blood blister that formed on my favorite tying thumb.
Every time I got a kid thrown out at the plate, I’d look down the foul line and see Pete Adams and Ned Barnes on their lawn chairs, laughing, reaching in their cooler for another soda or bottle of water, or whatever was on the menu that day, and all I could do was shrug my shoulders. Kenny once played human shield for me because some coach from a team from Jersey thought he was the Don of Sign Stealing (I’m guessing North Jersey, and that his name was either Tony or Vinny). I think we changed the signs so many times that game our catcher knew about 50% of the pitches that were coming at him.
I even had the team over for a BBQ at my folks’ beach house in Bethany the weekend of our Sports at the Beach tourney, and I think the boys only dropped my mom’s favorite Vespa twice before going off looking for chicks.
In wrapping this column, I’ll say again how proud I am of that group of kids, what they’ve accomplished, and what lies ahead. And for those four PVI guys, go get Coach Nolan a title. Nobody deserves one more than that guy.
