How do you teach young players to love baseball? “Once they learn how to play it’s hard to teach them to unlove it,” says Lehman assistant coach Dave King. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
At the conclusion of Lehman’s three-day June baseball camp 60 young players showed up for instruction and encouragement on the values of learning baseball at an early age, loving the game, and the promise that game will always love you back.
Sidney, OH – It was hotter than smoke, and you could cut the humidity with a knife.
Miserable!
And yet, sixty youngers from ages 8 to 14 showed up Wednesday for the final day of Lehman Catholic’s three-day June baseball camp for instruction from Lehman coaches Mark Brunswick, Dave King, Kurt Barhorst…and a handful of Lehman upperclassmen from this spring’s baseball team.
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There was palpable excitement among the kids, many who carried bats and backpacks, water and wipes…whatever it took to learn baseball in the muggy conditions. Split up between four different stations on the Lehman varsity field, Brunswick, Barhorst and crew went through some short drills to reinforce the past two days learning of how to catch, throw, hit, and pitch.
“You can make them want to be here,” said Brunswick, a hall of fame coach with previous experience at Bellefontaine and Marysville. “You can make them fall in love with baseball,” he said of the sixty.
“What you’ve got to do is stress baseball fundamentals and make it fun for them in the process. At an early age you can make them fall in love with baseball if you have the right person to help kids learn. And once they learn you hope that they develop a passion for the game.”
Passion is obviously missing in many communities across the state, those who once boasted of a robust Little League, ACME ball, or American Legion team. Now those opportunities are gone, leaving many kids without instruction and opportunity aside from ‘select’, or ‘elite’, or travel baseball that are either exclusionary, or too expensive.
Lehman baseball coach Mark Brunswick teaches bunting skills on Wednesday, the final day of Lehman’s three-day baseball camp.
But, if you can get them early, make it fun, and allow kids to not only learn at their own pace, but from each other, yes…many learn to love baseball and prefer it over football and basketball.
“By far it’s my favorite sport,” says Lehman junior Cole Bostick, who also plays soccer in the fall. “When I was six years old my parents got me a wiffle ball and bat, and a machine that tossed pitches, and I’d play for hours in the yard, just hitting. My dad worked with me a lot, and he’s still my biggest supporter…my favorite coach.”
Bostick was one of Brunswick’s varsity starters invited to take part in teaching younger kids what he literally had just learned for himself. He was patient, appreciative of the process, and mindful, no doubt of his own experience.
“This is a great Lehman community,” he added, to explain how the three day camp was important in getting kids off on the right foot. “There are so many great connections here, a lot of teamwork, and this is the perfect age to get them started. If you have the right coaches it makes it easier to learn to love baseball. And if you don’t love the game you’re probably not going to play when you’re older. You gotta’ love the game.”
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Success?
Well the youngsters looked the part, dressed in their favorite MLB team colors, many sporting chic sunglasses even on an overcast day. They say, of course, that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
“But anything that you can do, whatever it takes,” said an Baltimore Orioles scout at the recent Big Ten Tournament in Omaha. “Baseball might be unique for the fact that while it’s a team game it’s also one of the best activities to teach individual skills – throwing, catching, hitting. And kids are visibly motivated when they have some success. They become hungry to learn more.”
Kurt Barhorst (background) oversees kids learning skills around second base.
Hence, the passion for baseball that Mark Brunswick talks about.
The youngest son of legendary, and five-time state champion coach Lou Brunswick (at Coldwater), he grew up in that environment of being hungry to learn.
“There are still some coaches who do this (teach) pretty well,” he says. “But you’ve got to love working with kids. It’s a passion. That’s what made my dad successful…he enjoyed working with kids. He had the passion for it because he enjoyed seeing them learn. But do we have enough of that in the younger generation of coaches? I don’t know. The future will tell, but it concerns me.”
Brunswick, Jim Hardman, Rick Gold, Bruce Cahill and Tom Randall (all area coaches) represented a generation of men who enjoyed the full attention of players from the time they were old enough to swing a bat. Before there was the internet, or video games, Hardman would hold ‘baseball school’ Monday through Friday in Piqua, from 10 am ’til 2pm, open to all and anyone who just wanted to shag fly balls and field ground balls during batting practice off a pitching machine.
Kids could learn at their own pace, and one by one he would see them gain those skills, improve daily, and show up the next day for more. He did it for six weeks each summer from the time school was out until workouts for fall football began. And he attracted the kids…lots of kids!
Former OHSAA executive Jerry Snodgrass looks on approvingly as kids learn to love baseball.
“It’s the only way you learn baseball…it’s how you learn to love the game,” says 625-win hall of famer Dave King, who’s an assistant now at Lehman.
“You have to play the game,” he insists, echoing the words of Cole Bostick. “And you have to be exposed to camps like this. And if they become exposed to camps like this one…who knows what they might do? The great thing about baseball is the skills that they learn here they can take to other sports.
“But they do learn and they retain. I do a three-day check on the grip that I teach for pitching, and after three days they’re still using that four-seam grip, even though their hands are different sizes. Not one of them has changed the grip that I taught them on Monday.”
So kids are hungry to learn baseball, even with the slightest of suggestion.
A significant visitor paid a call on Wednesday, as former OHSAA executive director Jerry Snodgrass stopped by to address the campers when they broke at noon to go home. Snodgrass has always been a big advocate of baseball, of kids learning new skills, and the benefits of competition.
“It’s good to see so many here,” he said. “It’s good to see veteran coaches invested in the future of baseball, and it’s good to see the older kids [helping the young ones]. It’s how you learn.”
“It’s not just a baby-sitting service for two hours,” Dave King concluded, sharing his own reality for baseball.
“Because these kids like the game if they’re given a chance. And once you learn…it’s harder not to like it.”
“Kids like the game if they’re given a chance. Once you learn…it’s harder not to like it,” says Dave King (above)
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