New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Fun & Games
Coaches use friendly competitions to keep players loose, engaged
A couple of days after taking over the Norwalk baseball program in January of 2020, Ryan Mitchell told his team practices were going to be different.
Gone were the days of just shagging fly balls, getting in the box and taking swings.
“Baseball is a beautiful game, but if you are not mentally able to focus for durations of time, it can lull you to sleep a little bit,” Mitchell said. “Asking them to shag fly balls for a half an hour while other groups have batting practice, they can tune out and miss chances to get better.”
Mitchell decided his players would compete every day.
“The need to recognize that iron sharpens iron,” he said. “If you want to be the best team you have to want to be the best individual.
“How do you that? Beating the guy next to you.”
The second-year coach — whose first season was limited by the pandemic — created games for his players to compete in during practice.
“There is at least one competition in practice every day,” he said. “(The players) need a little bit more and you try to give it to them.”
In one game, Mitchell splits the team into three or four groups, sometimes two. One group hits and the others are in the field. Each team bats twice — nine outs each time — and needs to score 15 runs, but they can lose runs by making errors in the field. Any group that doesn’t reach the runs goal has to run after practice.
“It gets intense, these kids don’t want to run a mile after a twohour practice,” he said. “It really brings out that competition.”
The competition has translated on the field. Norwalk is 8-5, tied for its best start since 2017.
Competitions and added energy are becoming more common in practices across the state.
Over the past decade, Amity coach Sal Coppola has had his team compete in the Breakfast League. The team is split into four groups before the start of the season and compete in live batting practice at the end of each
practice. The team which scores the most runs wins four points that day, second place earns three and down the line the scoring goes.
“They want to win, they want to win more than anything,” Coppola said. “Maybe more than regular games because they are competing against their buddies.”
Since the creation of the Breakfast League, No. 6 Amity has won four Class LL titles and made five championship games.
Coppola said that there is a ton of friendly trash talk between the teams.
“We expect that, and we love it,” Coppola said. “It’s part of what builds the pressure of a game situation. That’s the best type of batting practice we can do.”
The longtime coach and his assistant coaches are former Division I pitchers, so the hitters have their work cut out for them. Especially if they try to just hit home runs.
“If we see them swinging for the fences, I’ll make sure they strike out,” Coppola said with a laugh.
Amity senior Sebastian Holt, who is committed to play at the University of Maine, is batting over .500 for the Spartans and is one of the best players in the state. But he hasn’t been as successful in the Breakfast League.
“(Coach) Coppola dices me up a little bit,” Holt said. “JuJu (Stevens) likes to talk trash, Mac (Burke) likes to talk trash because they’ll have big day and I’ll single once and strikeout once.
“They’ll give me a lot of crap for it.”
A couple of seasons ago, Travis LaPointe created a Sunday scrimmage between starters and reserves and the coach’s pitch for the No. 2 Hand team.
“I love this game because for the guys who are reserves and don’t get a lot of playing time, I truly get to see them compete,” LaPointe said. “Most chirping comes from coach (Kyle) Heins. He chirps every single guy here, equally.”
LaPointe said he uses players in games based on what he sees during the Sunday scrimmage. It keeps everyone on the team ready if called upon.
“It feels good to know that if anything ever happens to anyone, anyone can step in and we will be fine,” Hand senior Anthony DePino said.
LaPointe likes the competition. He likes to keep every player on his roster involved.
“The key word is fun,” he said. “We try to give our guys a reason to want to be here every day.”
At Ridgefield, the team holds relay races during conditioning and different types of hitting games during batting practice.
The Ridgefield catchers play a target game. Stuffed animals are placed in chairs on bases and the catchers try to hit the stuffed animals. Most target hits win.
In Seymour, coach Jeff Gilbert plays a game he learned from former coach Bob Kelo called “crazy bases.”
The team is split into two with one batting and one in the field. The hitting team puts the ball in play, runs through first base and continues 90 more feet into right field before running to second base. The defensive team’s challenge is to throw the ball to every player on the field before the runner reaches second base.
Once the player from the hitting team crosses into foul territory — leaving the field — the next pitch is thrown. The faster the player gets off the field, the less time the defense can set itself.
Up in Killingly, Ben Desaulnier blasts music throughout practice.
“I try to make practices fun,” he said. “The more fun you can have and the more fun you can bring to the table. The kids respond to it.”