Coaching Management 13.2

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Coaching Management BASEBALL PRESEASON EDITION 2005 VOL. XIII, NO. 2 $5.00 Individualizing Practice Sport-Specific Strength Plan NEED A BOOST? How to Build a Baseball Booster Club NEED A BOOST? How to Build a Baseball Booster Club

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BASEBALL PRESEASON EDITION 2005

Transcript of Coaching Management 13.2

Page 1: Coaching Management 13.2

Coaching ManagementB A S E B A L L P R E S E A S O N E D I T I O N 2 0 0 5

VOL. XIII, NO. 2 ■ $5.00

■ Individualizing Practice

■ Sport-Specific Strength Plan

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NEED A BOOST?How to Build a BaseballBooster Club

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CONTENTS Coaching ManagementBaseball EditionPreseason 2005

Vol. XIII, No. 2

COACHING MANAGEMENT 1

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COVER STORY

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STRENGTH & CONDITIONING

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LOCKER ROOMBulletin Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2NCAA Division I start-date plan slowed... Serving the game to disadvantagedyouth ... Clearer high school balk rules... Putting home games on the Web ...Helping college umpires manage con-tests ... Keeping track of bad sports.

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a series of pitch count limitscovering pitchers from agesnine to 18, as well as warningsabout preventable circumstan-ces that can lead to overuseinjuries.

For high school-age pitchers,the recommended limits are100 pitches per game; 150pitches per week; 1,500 pitchesper season; and 3,500 pitchesper year. Those figures do notinclude pitches thrown duringdrills or practice, or throws

USA BaseballCounts PitchesConcerns over long-term injuryfrom overuse have promptedUSA Baseball to release a setof recommendations on howto safely utilize developingarms. The document includes

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ous arm injuries from overuseare on the rise among youngpitchers. Dr. Frank Jobe, inven-tor of the Tommy John elbowsurgery, also expressed hisopinion in a USA Baseball state-ment, saying that overuse,inadequate conditioning, andpoor biomechanics wereresponsible for many injuriesto youth and high school-agepitchers.

The recommendations cautionthat pitchers should not throwcurveballs, sliders, or otherbreaking pitches competitivelyuntil the age of 13-15 (depend-ing on physical development),when the bones in the armhave matured. Also, to controlpitch volume, pitchers shouldnot play for multiple teamsduring the same season.Pitching practice after pitchedgames is strongly discouraged,as is returning to pitch in agame where a player hasalready left the mound.

“I think part of the reason forthese guidelines is the problemwe see with youth leagues andtravel leagues, where therereally should be stricter re-straints,” says Jon Bennett,Head Coach at Granville (Ohio)High School and President ofthe Ohio High School BaseballCoaches Association. “Some-times as early as age 10 allthe way through high school,they’re playing 60 games in 40days during the summer, andthat’s often where a pitcher isthrowing too much.”

Regarding the pitch count rec-ommendations, Bennett saysthey can be valuable forcoaches, but that total pitchesthrown is only one factor indetermining how best to usepitchers. “The physical condi-tion and strength of a player,whether he plays another posi-tion on his days off from pitch-ing, his accuracy, how restedhe is, and the weather condi-

from other positions. The rec-ommendations also note thatpitchers in this age groupshould go at least three monthsof the year without playingbaseball or engaging in otherstressful overhead activities,including softball, competitiveswimming, and football (for

tions all play into how much akid should be throwing,”Bennett explains. “And forseason and yearly totals, youhave to consider how manygames are involved. Somestates are playing a maximumof 20 games in the high schoolseason, while others are play-ing 40. The counts can beuseful as a guide, but youshould look at everything.”

D-I Start DateStill In DebateA proposed plan to changethe start and length of theNCAA Division I baseball sea-son appears to be a minimumof two seasons away, possiblythree. Unanimously approvedby the Championships/Comp-etition Cabinet in September,the proposal sits before theManagement Council, whichwas slated to make a decisionthis past November butdecided to hold off address-ing the issue until the 2005-06 legislative cycle. As aresult, a decision can’t befinalized until April 2006.

The four-part proposal featuresa Feb. 1 uniform start datefor spring practices and aMarch 1 start date for compe-tition, pushes back the CollegeWorld Series one week alongwith regionals and super-regionals, and provides a 45-day window in October andNovember for fall practices. Ifapproved in 2006, somecoaches worry that it wouldleave little time to readjusttheir 2007 schedules.

“The current proposal has animplementation date of the2007 season, but we’resurveying programs aroundthe country right now to seeif that is feasible,” says Den-nis Farrell, Commissioner ofthe Big West Conference andChair of the NCAA BaseballIssues Committee. “There is apossibility that we’ll have towait until 2008 to implementanything.”

USA Baseball responded to a study that found pitch volume to be afactor in injuries to young pitchers by releasing a set of pitch-countguidelines. Above, Central Connecticut State Assistant Coach JimZiogas takes Mark Peterson out of a 2004 NCAA regional game.

quarterbacks), to allow the bodyadequate rest and recoverytime.

Drs. Barry Goldberg and Fred-erick Mueller of the USA Base-ball Medical & Safety AdvisoryCommittee conducted a pre-liminary study in early 2004and found inadequate rehabil-itation after injuries and a lackof formal conditioning, as wellas pitch volume and type, tobe factors that increase injuryrisk. They also found that seri-

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More information on overuse injuries among young pitchers is available from USA Baseballon the Web at: http://www.usabaseball.com/med_position_statement.html.

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Coaches Can HelpServe the GameReports of the death of base-ball among young people inurban areas have been great-ly exaggerated. Since startingin Los Angeles in 1989, Reviv-ing Baseball in Inner Cities(RBI) has spread to 185 citiesaround the country, and isbringing baseball and softballto more than 100,000 boysand girls each year. Run byMajor League Baseball inpartnership with the Boys &Girls Clubs of America, RBIhas expanded its focus to cre-ate rural and suburbanleagues, along with bringingprograms to military basesand Indian reservations.

“We’re looking to increaseminority participation at alllevels of the game, both onand off the field,” says TomBrasuell, Vice President ofCommunity Affairs for MLB.“Kids who want to play base-ball and softball can’t alwayspurchase the equipment theyneed. So we provide that fund-ing, along with an educationalcomponent that includes bothacademics and life skills.”

Start-up leagues qualify for a$5,000 grant from MLB, whichspends over $1 million on theprogram each year to startprograms and expand existing

ones. Along with providingopportunities to play baseball,the program hosts an annualRBI World Series, with champi-onships for junior boys (13-15years old), senior boys (16-18years old), and girls’ softball(15-18 years old). RBI also offersclasses in college and jobpreparation, time management,life skills, drug/alcohol/tobaccoeducation, and HIV/AIDS pre-vention.

The leagues typically operatefrom May through August,though some chapters havedeveloped additional programsthat run year-round. HarlemRBI, one of the oldest andmost successful leagues, cur-rently serves 450 boys andgirls, starting with a summerT-ball program for seven- andeight-year-olds and a summerbaseball and literacy camp fornine- to 12-year-olds. Theiryear-round program serves13- to 18-year-olds, with base-ball and softball teams foreach age group.

NCAA recruiting guidelinesmake it difficult for collegecoaches to become regularlyinvolved with a particular RBIprogram, and though most RBIleagues would welcome highschool coaches, the positionsare generally unpaid. But Berlinencourages coaches at everylevel to help start RBI leaguesin new cities and towns and

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with examining competitiveequity, which has been a long-standing bone of contentionbetween warm-weather andcold-climate schools.

“We drew up a proposal thatwe thought would have thebest chance to pass, taking intoconsideration the factors of

Because it is a four-part pack-age, it is hard for every coachto agree on every part of theproposal. But the BaseballIssues Committee is adamantabout keeping the proposalintact, saying that they won’tconsider altering any individualcomponents of the overallplan.

Arizona’s John Hardy steals as Arkansas’ Brett Hagedorn takes thethrow in the 2004 College World Series. An NCAA proposal for auniform Division I start date would delay the CWS one week.

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The most controversial partaddresses the College WorldSeries, which the committeeoriginally wanted to delay twoweeks, but settled on movingback one week. “If you movedit too late in the summer it wasgoing to have a number oframifications, includingconcerns about extended stu-dent-housing,” says Farrell. “Ifyou didn’t move it at all, itwould have compacted theseason, which would have a lotof negative ramifications forscheduling and overall timing.”

The proposal was drawn up bythe Baseball Issues Committee,which includes threeinstitutional administrators, acoach from the Division I Base-ball Committee, two adminis-trators representing theChampionships/CompetitionCabinet, and four conferencecommissioners, and is charged

economic, academic, and com-petitive equity,” says BobTodd, Head Coach at The OhioState University and the onlycoach on the committee.“Eighty percent of the schoolseligible for the NCAA tourna-ment are affected by coldweather and don’t really havea clear opportunity to compete.To move the College WorldSeries back would be advanta-geous to nearly every school.

“Would the advantage remainwith the warm-weatherschools?” continues Todd. “Ab-solutely, but we have to showpeople around the country thatwe are trying to equalize thecompetitiveness of the sport.”

Former Major Leaguer John Young presents the 2004 JuniorRBI trophy. Major League Baseball’s Reviving Baseball InInner Cities Program welcomes input from scholastic coaches.

For more information, see:www.ncaa.org and search“baseball start date.”

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work with area Boys and GirlsClubs to create mentoringrelationships with local RBIcoaches—volunteers who maylack extensive experienceteaching a sport.

“We’d like college coaches toknow that there are resourcesfor players in inner cities, andthat there are plenty of kidscapable of excelling at thecollegiate level,” says RichBerlin, Executive Director ofHarlem RBI, whose leagueplans to open a new baseballfield this summer. “We’d likehigh school coaches to knowthat we consider ourselvespartners with them. Our job isto develop young people.”

Under NFHS rules for 2005, umpires will receive more detaileddirectives in watching for balks while pitchers attempt to holdrunners on base. The rules more closely match those of pro ball.

For more information onReviving Baseball in InnerCities, go to www.mlb.comand click on “MLB in theCommunity.”

For more information aboutthe 2005 rules changes, see:www.nfhs.org.

NFHS AddressesBalks, FacemasksStarting with the upcominghigh school season, there willbe new rules governing balks,faceguards, and coaches’ uni-forms.

“These are all good rules,” saysGreg Brewer, Chairman of theNFHS Rules Committee, “butthe balk rule is the one that willaffect the game the most.”

The committee has repeatedlydiscussed balks over the lastfour years, and under the newrule, a pitcher trying to hold arunner on base may turn hisshoulders toward a base onlyif he is in the set position withhis foot on the pitching rubber.Turning his shoulders during thewindup, after bringing his handstogether, or after the stretchwill now be called a balk.

“In changing the rule, thecommittee wanted to put highschool rules in line with collegeand professional baseball,” saysBrewer, who is also the Assis-

tant Director of the AlabamaHigh School Athletic Associa-tion. “This way, coaches at thehigh school level will be ableto teach the same rules astheir peers in summer leagues,colleges, and pro baseball.And high school athletes willnot have to learn one rule toplay at our level and a differentrule to play at other levels.”

The committee also respondedto the creation of a newNOCSAE standard for baseballbatting helmets equipped withfaceguards or facemasks. Now,athletes who wear faceguardson their helmets must chooseguards that meet the NOCSAEstandard. “It’s a safety issueas well as a liability issue,” saysBrewer. “If an injury occursdue to the wearing of animproper faceguard, it couldlead to a lawsuit.”

Though the committee dis-cussed the possibility of face-guards becoming standardequipment for all baseballplayers, as they will be nextseason for softball players,there was little expectationthat faceguards will becomewidely used on the baseballdiamond. Brewer knows of nohigh school teams that usethem consistently, and EliotHopkins, NFHS Assistant Dir-ector and liaison to the Base-ball Rules Committee, hasrarely seen them used, andthen mostly in cases whereathletes are trying to protectexisting injuries.

“It’s been an unwritten rulethat faceguards aren’t popu-lar, and that it’s not cool towear them,” says Hopkins.“We’re trying to change that,and we want baseball cultureto give athletes the permissionto use these faceguards. Themembers of the committeehave given young people theokay to use faceguards forthat added level of security.

“If an athlete wants to wear afaceguard, coaches shouldencourage him,” continuesHopkins. “This is one more way

for coaches to help youngpeople participate. If we canhelp a young person feel morecomfortable at the plate, and ifwe can keep him participatingin the game, we all win.”

In another change, the commit-tee ruled that while coachesare allowed to wear streetclothes in the dugout, if theyenter the field of play, theymust wear their team uniform.The only exception is when acoach needs to go on thefield to check an injured ath-lete. “Previously, wearing uni-forms was only mandatory inthe coaching boxes,” saysBrewer, “but now it appliesto any time the coach leavesthe dugout. This new rule is agesture toward the integrity

of the game and the traditionof professionalism among theparticipants.”

Streaming Out of SamfordThis season, fans of SamfordUniversity’s baseball team cansee every ball and strike ofthe team’s home games, evenif they can’t make the trip toBirmingham, Ala. to attendthe contests. All of the team’shome games, as well as mostfootball, women’s soccer, vol-leyball, and men’s and wom-en’s basketball home games,are available via the Interneton a pay-per-view basis. Itadds up to one of the mostextensive webcast offerings incollege sports.

The benefits of offering sport-ing events over the Web aremanifold, according to Justin

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broadcasts over the Web, andMaxvu receives a share of therevenue collected from view-ers. The athletic department’sonly regular expense is what itpays the student workers whoset up and run the camera.

Firesheets finds that playersand coaches aren’t the onlyones enthused about the opp-ortunity for exposure via thisnew medium—it’s appealingto advertisers, too. “We’venoticed a lot of the companieswant to be involved justbecause it’s something newand different,” he says. “Theyare not going to reach thou-sands of people, but they likebeing able to say they’re partof helping this new mediumbecome mainstream. And ourathletic department feels thesame way—we’re really proudto be on the leading edge ofthis new technology.”

Firesheets, Director of Broad-cast Operations at Samford.“Our coaches have foundthat one of the biggest bene-fits is in recruiting,” he says.“Let’s say we’ve got a kidfrom Colorado who mightwant to play here, but he’snot sure it’s the right choicebecause it’s 800 miles fromhome—this might help sealthe deal for him because momand dad know that they canstill watch him play. Maybehaving that expanded recruit-ing appeal helps push the pro-gram to another level. We’veseen this help bring kids in forseveral sports.”

“Samford has a lot of biggerConference USA and South-eastern Conference schoolsnearby, and doing webcastsput us on a more level play-ing field with them in termsof letting friends and family

team or all-sport season pass-es. And while parents andfriends of Samford athletesmake up most of the audience,the athletic department reachesout to opposing teams’ fansas well. At the start of the sea-son, opponents receive infor-mation to distribute in pressreleases and among players,and Firesheets says the serviceis especially popular with fansof teams from long distancesaway.

The behind-the-scenes workinvolved in webcasting is min-imal once the initial set-up iscomplete. No production roomis needed because there is typ-ically only one camera, andplay-by-play audio is providedby Firesheets or by feeding inthe local radio broadcast whenavailable. Samford partnerswith Maxvu Sports Broad-casting Network to stream the

of the players follow theteam,” says Tim Parenton, for-mer Head Baseball Coach atSamford and now an AssistantCoach at the University ofFlorida. “Our kids really liked itbecause it gave them a littlebit of the exposure you’dexpect at bigger schools.”

Prospects can check out ahome event before they makea campus visit. Samford coachescan tell interested high schoolathletes to go online and watchtheir Bulldog team compete,and while not the same asbeing there in person, it canbe a valuable foot in the doorfor the program. “A playercan see what our atmosphereis like, plus they see that wegive exposure and publicity toour teams,” Firesheets says.

Viewers pay between $6 and$10 per event, and specialrates are available for individual

COACHING MANAGEMENT 7

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violates the NCAA ban ontobacco use during a contest,but the NCAA Rules OversightPanel, recently created tobetter coordinate playing rules,objected to the change. Somepanel members had concernsover how fair and enforceablethe change would be, accord-ing to Halpin.

The major on-field rule add-ressed for 2005 concerned theforce-play slide rule. The RulesCommittee added a diagramto more clearly explain therule, which differs from that inprofessional baseball in thatrunners must slide in a straightline toward the base and notinterfere with the infielder.

security before, during, andafter the game.

The committee also changedits ejection policy to state thatthe ejected person must leave“sight and sound” of the con-test. The committee wasbriefed on situations whereejected coaches still coachedafter leaving the field or dug-out. The committee declinedto provide illustrating examples,thinking the policy was clearenough, though Ty Halpin,NCAA staff liaison to the com-mittee, says in many casesbeing out of “sight and sound”may mean going to the lockerroom, team bus, or somewhereclearly away from play.

One idea the Rules Committeeraised as a point of emphasisfor 2005 didn’t become arules change. The committeeproposed ejections for headcoaches if one of their players

NCAA PromotesGame ManagerA game administrator to helpumpires with off-field matters,and a specification regardingejected players and coachesare among changes to NCAAbaseball rules for 2005. Butthrowing out the head coachwhen a player violates thetobacco-use ban is not.

The NCAA Baseball RulesCommittee added Rule 3-10,which recommends hometeams designate a gameadministrator who is to makehimself or herself known to theumpires and visiting coachbefore the game begins. Theadministrator is then to assistwith crowd control, weatherdecisions, ejections, and simi-lar issues. The host school isalso asked to provide umpireswith a dressing room and

Texas Head Coach Augie Garrido talks over a call with anumpire during the 2004 College World Series. In 2005, umpireswill have game administrators to help them.

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COACHING MANAGEMENT 9

In other changes, the commit-tee:

■ Clarified what happenswhen a base coach assists arunner on a home run. Onlythe assisted runner will becalled out. Other runners areallowed to score.

■ Prohibited logos or insigniasnot related to college baseballon umpires’ uniforms, an issuemostly confined to early-seasonnon-NCAA tournaments.

that making people aware ofunsportsmanlike behavior willchange it,” he says.

For coaches, the program pro-vides a way to raise the sports-manship issue with players in aconcrete, definable way. How-ever, since the program tabu-lates bad behavior by coachesas well as athletes, somecoaches feared that they wouldno longer be able to questionan official’s call without riskinga conduct foul. But most Divi-sion III coaches have foundthose fears to be groundlessand now embrace the program,according to Mitrano.

“In the heat of a contest,” hesays, “a coach may not realizea student-athlete has receiveda conduct foul, but with thisprogram, a coach can see whena student-athlete is trendingtoward a sportsmanship prob-lem. That allows the coach toopen a dialogue with a player.”

Don Guido, Head BaseballCoach at Empire 8 memberUtica College, sees the initia-tive as a much-needed effort.“In my own program,” he says,“I’ve had two ejections in thepast two years—two incidentswhere players just lost theirheads. Individual programscan educate their athletes onhow to conduct themselveson the field—and we do—butgetting them to follow throughwith that every single time inthe heat of a game is a toughchallenge.

“Having a conference- anddivision-wide program hashelped,” Guido continues.“When the whole league isdoing it, it’s much easier toenforce. It allows our playersto see that it’s not just UticaCollege, but it’s everywhere,and it’s not just a side note.It’s a main emphasis.”

Keeping track taps athletes’and coaches’ desire to be thebest. “Allowing institutions tosee where they rank has moti-vated schools to work harder

to come out betterin the rankingsthe next year,”Mitrano says.“And having datawill give us a base-line and allow usto measurewhether steps weare taking to im-prove sportsman-ship are actuallyworking.”

Woody Gibson,Head AthleticDirector at HighPoint Universityand Chair of theNCAA Committeeon Sportsmanshipand Ethical Con-duct, agrees.“When we talkabout sportsman-ship issues withconferences,we’re often asked,‘What evidencedo you have thatsportsmanship isa problem?’ Gib-son says. “Thisprogram is thebeginning of pro-ducing annualdata that conferences andinstitutions can look at toexamine the trend. Institutionscan see how they compare toother institutions or to theirown figures from a year ago,rather than speculating onwhat’s happening.”

Following a change for 2003-04,Mitrano hopes the program willhelp schools deal with sports-manship problems continually,not just at the end of eachyear. Schools now report con-duct fouls to their leagueoffice within three businessdays, rather than once eachyear. “Now that we’re doingit in real time, schools cannotice trends with individualstudent-athletes or teams,”Mitrano says. “If a student-athlete has a significant num-ber of conduct fouls, the coachcan see that he needs tointervene.”

The new system appears to beworking. Compared to 2002-03, when schools reportedannually, Empire 8 schools in2003-04 reduced yellow andred cards in men’s and wom-en’s soccer by 20 percent,technical fouls in women’sbasketball by 50 percent, andtechnical fouls in men’s bas-ketball by 35 percent whileeliminating all ejections.

The program also worksbecause it makes programsmore accountable to theiradministration, Mitrano says.An institution’s report is avail-able to its athletic director andpresident, and if a conduct fouloccurs, the athletic directorsigns off on the form before itgoes to the conference office.“Athletic directors often arenot aware of how frequentlyunsportsmanlike behavior maybe taking place,” Mitrano says.

More information onplaying rules is at:www.ncaa.org/news/2004/20040830/awide/4118n11.html.

The Empire 8 conference developed a sys-tem of tracking unsportsmanlike penaltiesamong its teams. Above, Utica Collegepitcher Justin Richards delivers during a2004 Empire 8 game.

Keeping Score onSportsmanshipHow does your team stack upagainst other teams in yourconference on sportsmanship?Teams in Division III can nowanswer that question basedon numerical data, thanks toan initiative by the Empire 8,a league in New York state.

Three years ago, the Empire 8coined a special term—conductfouls—for infractions involvingunsportsmanlike or unethicalbehavior by players or coaches,and began requiring its mem-ber institutions to report themto the conference office.

Last year, Empire 8 Commis-sioner Chuck Mitrano receiveda grant from the NCAA tobring the program to all ofDivision III. D-III institutionswere not required to partici-pate, but 80 percent did sovoluntarily. This year, the pro-gram is being piloted amongselect Division I and II schools,with the hope that it willeventually be made availableto all three NCAA divisions.

The program’s primary objec-tive, according to Mitrano, isto reduce unsportsmanlikebehavior simply by putting aspotlight on it. “We believe

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CM: In your third game at the 2004College World Series, your team blewa five-run lead in the seventh inningand dropped into the losers’ bracket.That could have been devastating, butyou came back to win it all. How didyou talk to your team after the loss?Kinnison: I harbor no illusion that I’ve gotmagic words that can instantly motivateand restore a team. My approach all yearlong was just very realistic. I told them,‘The team that just took that game fromus is the same team we’ve got to go outand play tomorrow. If we’re going to getto the finals, we’ve got to beat them,and every person on this club is individu-ally responsible for getting ready to dothat.’

You’d been to the College WorldSeries twice as a player, twice as anassistant, and several times as a headcoach. How sweet was it to finallyovercome that last hurdle?For all coaches who win a national cham-pionship, it’s an accomplishment that,after everything is over and you havesome time to reflect, you feel greatabout—that sense of having gotten thejob done. But much more important forme was what we had accomplished forthe program. I thought about the guys Iplayed with as a student here, and howthose teams fell short, and I thoughtabout all the good ballclubs we had takento the World Series in the last few years,and how committed those players were.So the greatest sense of satisfaction forme was knowing that we had done it andnow all those people could share in thesuccess. I called it a program win. That

meant so much more to me than what Ihad done as a head coach.

What did you learn from your experi-ences playing for Delta State in theCWS?All eight teams in the World Series aregoing to be very good, and it’s the teamthat plays the best during that shortperiod that wins. I’ve also learned, as I’velooked at our team and the teams thathave beaten us, how a mental edge andthe ability to focus are so important when

you’re at such a high level of competition.The confidence factor is tremendous.

How do you communicate those lessonsto your teams today?It’s an every day process. Of course, WorldSeries competition is different from anon-conference mid-week game, but Itell them it shouldn’t be that much differ-ent. It’s about learning to deal with pres-sure, performing under pressure, andgetting in a comfort zone where you’re incontrol of what you’re doing. I look at

AQ&Mike KinnisonDelta State University

ABCA NCAA Division II Player of the Year Jud Thigpen (above) helped lead Mike Kinnison’s Delta State University Statesmen to the 2004 national title.

When the Delta State University Statesmen wonthe school’s first ever NCAA Division II baseballchampionship in 2004, victory had been a long

time coming for the program andHead Coach Mike Kinnison. Hehad been to the College WorldSeries twice as a player for DSUin the 1970s, twice more as anassistant coach for the team dur-ing the 1994 and 1996 seasons,and several times as a headcoach. But he had never finishedon top.

This year’s championship cappeda 54-11 season in which the

Statesmen collected their third South Centralregional crown in four years, their second consec-utive Gulf South Conference championship, andtheir eleventh consecutive GSC West Division title.Kinnison was honored as the 2004 ABCA/RawlingsNCAA Division II Coach of the Year and the SouthCentral Region Coach of the Year—an awardhe’s won in three of the past four seasons. Sincetaking over as Delta State’s head coach in 1997,his overall record of 370-96 (.791 winning pct.) isthe best in the GSC. When he’s not coaching, heis also a math instructor at the university.

In this interview, Kinnison talks about maintainingand improving a successful program, what he looksfor in players, and the state of D-II baseball.

COACHING MANAGEMENT 11

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our 2004 championship club, and the traitthat stands out the most is a tremendousamount of poise. That came from theplayers having confidence in theirabilities and knowing what they could do.

When you received the 2004 champion-ship trophy, you went into the standsand handed it to David “Boo” Ferriss,who coached at DSU for 26 years.What do the players get out of havingsomeone like that still involved withthe program?

He played in the 1940s, with players likeWilliams and DiMaggio. It’s priceless tobe able to connect with someone whocan share the history of the game andhelp you appreciate it. When he played,when he pitched in the World Series, it

wasn’t all about the walk-off home run orgrabbing individual headlines. It was ateam game, and the spirit and the valuesof the game were great, and they playedjust because they loved baseball. Ourplayers love hearing about that.

How do you approach recruiting,knowing that most top high schoolprospects overlook D-II programs?I understand that as a D-II coach, I’m goingto be told ‘no’ a lot more than ‘yes,’ andI’ve learned not to let that dull my enthu-

siasm for recruiting. With so many probaseball teams now doing extensivescouting, and D-I programs with the facil-ities and revenue that they have, it’s veryhard to get cream-of-the-crop freshmen,regardless of your team’s tradition and

how much you win. So I look at ours asmore of a developmental program. Someof our high school players do play earlyon, but most often it’s a maturing process,a weaving into the mix, that pays dividendsdown the road. We need the right blend—filling immediate holes with talentedjunior college players, and balancing thatwith high school players who are with usfor the long haul. I always want my seniorclass to have some guys who have beenwith the program for four or five years.They’re the ones who get to know me thebest, know the values of the program thebest, and emerge as the best leaders.

But I feel like NCAA competition and ourcollege athletics atmosphere are real sell-ing points for us over junior colleges. Andif a young man turns us down to go to ajunior college program, we respect thatdecision and keep the door open to re-recruit him two years later.

What is the most important attributethat you look for in recruits?We’re kidding ourselves as coaches if wedon’t say that talent is the most importantthing. We’re always after that guy whocan do the things you can’t teach. But I

12 COACHING MANAGEMENT

“Sometimes I think the players we see today ... don’thave that burning desire to be the best. That’s a real sepa-ration point for me in recruiting. If they don’t have that,I’m not sure I can instill it while they’re in my program.”

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look deeper for that guy we call “theballplayer.” He’s got a certain degree ofathleticism, talent, and skills, but he alsohas that competitiveness, a passion forthe game, and the ability to be coached.I’m not going to take a player on talentalone—I want the complete makeup thatwill allow him to maximize that talent.

Sometimes I think the players we seetoday put limitations on themselves, orsee themselves as having a ceiling. Thereare things they do well, but they don’thave that burning desire to be the best.That’s a real separation point for me inrecruiting. If they don’t have that, I’m notsure I can instill it while they’re in myprogram.

Does being a math instructor everinfluence your coaching?Working in the classroom definitely helpsme coach. To be a math teacher, youhave to be very organized and have a planevery day. You’ve got a certain amountof time to teach and you don’t want towaste any of it, and it’s the same thing atpractice. Before I go on the field, I knowexactly what I want to do and how Iwant to get it done. Just like the practice

Q A&group workouts, and 4-on-1 workouts,but there isn’t enough time to work withour whole team before the season starts.

And we would love to see the start datepushed back, but I feel like there’s verylittle chance of that in D-II. We don’thave the revenue and the funding tokeep our teams on campus beyond theschool session, so we’re forced to keepan early February start date. Last year,some D-II programs even played theirfirst game at the end of January. To me,that’s too early.

After winning a national championship,how do you prepare for next season?We’re not resting on any laurels. As soonas you win one, you immediately beginto hear about winning another. I don’twant to get into a rut of saying we cando everything we did last year, becausewe don’t have the same players. It’s adifferent ballclub, with different person-alities and different talent, so I’m tryingto take a fresh approach. But there aresome things I do want to stay the same.The work ethic, the discipline, the othervalues of the program, those are thingswe never want to change.

field, the classroom will expose you veryquickly if you aren’t prepared.

What do you see as the biggest prob-lems in D-II baseball right now?We have only 32 teams in eight four-team regionals, and no teams areallowed to compete out-of-region. Divi-sion I has 64 teams, with some beingsent to out-of-region in super regionals.In D-11, many players go unrewarded forquality seasons.

Another issue is scholarship limitations. It’svery hard to build a program with depthwhen you only have nine scholarships.Even with the maximum allotment, we’rerecruiting every year with something likethree scholarships and that’s very hard todo. I think we need to continue to openmore doors to student-athletes that allowthem to get non-athletic aid.

I’m also concerned about the restrictionson the time we can be with our athletes.We all feel, every year, like we start theseason without being fully prepared,because we haven’t had enough time towork. We have 24 practice days in the fallin D-II, along with some skill workouts,

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competing for the championship andstaying at home. And by supporting ath-letes at both of Northampton’s highschools, Baldwin’s booster club made animpact on the entire community.

Without a baseball booster club,Baldwin wouldn’t have had the funds tobuy the other things his team needed:new uniforms, indoor pitcher’smounds, toss nets, and a batting cage.He wouldn’t have had the time to planan end-of-the-season baseball banquetfor his players and their parents, and hewouldn’t have had the money to createa separate freshman squad.

Baldwin began his booster club withthe simple goal of raising $800 for newjerseys. Since then, he’s kept expandinghis vision, and Northampton’s baseballbooster club can now raise $2,500 in agood year. With most of it providing newopportunities for his freshmen, it’s dra-matically improved his program. Andeven though his club’s goals are moremodest than those at other high schools,colleges, and universities, the strategiesfor starting a baseball booster club aresimilar across all levels of the game.

Making a PlanThe first step in starting a baseball

booster club is creating a detailed plan.Eli Herrera, Head Coach at the Univer-sity of Texas-Brownsville/Texas South-most College, encourages coaches tobegin by committing their thoughts topaper. “Writing down my ideas was defi-nitely a help,” says Herrera, whose 23-page proposal for a booster club helpedhim land his current position threeyears ago. “I used that plan when I inter-viewed here, and when I got the job, Iput in a lot of extra time at night to keepdeveloping my ideas.”

Herrera’s proposal began with a mis-sion statement: “The booster club is avolunteer-driven, non-profit organiza-tion committed to serving and unitingthe UTB/TSC baseball community. Thebooster club will support UTB/TSCBaseball by generating community spir-it, promoting community involvement,soliciting donations, raising funds, andalso recognizing the baseball program’s

needs. The booster club will foster anenvironment of academic achievementin a fair, professional, ethical, and lawfulmanner.”

The proposal defines the require-ments and benefits of club membership,and outlines five levels of members, rang-ing from “Active Volunteer Members,”defined as parents of current players,invited to join without making a dona-tion, to the “Scorpion Grand Elite,” com-prising members who have contributed atleast $300 to the program. Along with set-ting a calendar of meetings and a list ofofficers, Herrera’s proposal has sectionson donation opportunities and NJCAAcompliance, including specific rules ofbehavior for booster club members.

The next step, especially for a coachnew to a school, is discussing the pro-posal with department administratorsand seeking the advice of colleagues atschool. “The most important thing is toget other people involved,” says Her-rera. “Because if you have no staff tohelp out, you’re liable to bury yourselfin work and lose sight of your real pur-pose, which is to teach the students.”

Arriving in Fort Worth in the summerof 2003, Jim Schlossnagle, Head Coachat Texas Christian University, started hisbaseball program’s booster club byscheduling a meeting with his athleticdirector. “I wanted to create an organiza-tion that could act as both a fundraisingarm of our team and an interest-generat-ing vehicle to expand the reach of ourprogram,” says Schlossnagle. “But first, Ineeded to get permission.”

Convincing his athletic director waseasy. But Schlossnagle went into themeeting looking for more than a simpleyes-or-no answer. He needed to learnhow the rules for fundraising at TCUdiffered from those at the University ofNevada-Las Vegas, where he was headcoach the previous two seasons. “Beforestarting a booster club, every coachneeds to make sure they understand thefundraising approach of their institu-tion,” says Schlossnagle. “Each school

Kenny Berkowitz is an Assistant Editor atCoaching Management.

WO YEARS AGO, after North-ampton (Mass.) High Schoolbought new metal bats, HeadBaseball Coach Mark Bald-win got some bad news. Thestate association was requir-ing teams to use wood bats inplayoff games, and theschool’s baseball budget wasalready tapped out.

“That decision took us by surprise,”says Baldwin. “We had always used woodbats in practice, but we didn’t haveenough to make it through the tourna-ment, and neither did the local voca-tional high school. So we turned to ourboosters, and they bailed us out. Not

only were we able to buy the wood batswe needed, but we were also able to lendthem to the vocational school.”

Just four years earlier, both programswould have been out of luck. But in 1999,Baldwin started a baseball booster club,and like many other high school and col-lege teams, Northampton’s Blue Devilshad a source of money to supplementwhat they received from their school. Inthis case, it made the difference between

TBY KENNY BERKOWITZ

The baseball boosters at Northampton(Mass.) High School have supplied bats,new uniforms, a batting cage, and more.Above, Northampton completes a forceout against South Hadley.

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COACHING MANAGEMENT 15

COVER STORY

A great booster club can mean better facilities, newer equipment, and more opportunities for yourteam. Take this advice from coaches who have made booster clubs work for their programs.

Texas Christian University’s baseball program has benefitted from a booster club started by Head Coach Jim Schlossnagle.

NEED A BOOST?

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has its own rules, and it’s important notto do anything that will detract from theinstitution. I had rules to abide by atUNLV, and I have rules to abide byhere. But they’re very different rules.”

At the high school level, many stateassociations have specific rules govern-ing booster clubs. At Burkburnett(Texas) High School, Head Coach MikeLeach relied closely on guidelines issuedby the University Interscholastic League(UIL), the sanctioning body for Texashigh school sports, when he formed abooster club eight years ago. “Here inTexas, we have seven pages of rules andregulations that we need to follow involv-ing the booster club,” says Leach. “Theyspecify the role of superintendents,schools, coaches, parents, and athletes,and everyone needs to abide by them.”

A major question regarding sport-specific booster clubs is their effect onTitle IX compliance. Generally, athletic

departments must provide equal levelsof support for both men’s and women’sprograms. Girls’ teams may need anincrease in support commensurate withwhat the boys’ team’s boosters provide.

This is why it’s essential to bring inyour administrators at the earliest stagesof the process. Some may want toinclude softball in the new club, or starta separate softball booster organization.Others may insist that money raised bybaseball boosters go into a combinedathletic department pot, which istapped by each sport as needs arise.Either way, administrative input will becrucial, as will making anyone else whomight get involved understand the gen-der-equity ramifications and what has tobe done about them.

Written policies will help makebooster clubs more accountable to theathletic department, school administra-tors, and district school boards. Clarify-

ing these rules can also protect you asthe head coach from liability in case ofan accident at a booster-organized func-tion. At the same time, creating thesepolicies gives coaches and athletic direc-tors an opportunity to shape the boost-er club to fit the needs of the team anddepartment, and to focus on the largerpicture of how your booster club will fitinto the school’s educational mission.

Creating OrderAs part of creating a plan, it’s impor-

tant for high school coaches to devise aframework for their booster clubs. AtBurkburnett, Leach begins his boosterclub meetings in September, meetsthrough the fall and spring, and doesn’tstop until June. With meetings sched-uled every two weeks, it takes more thanjust pep talks to keep his boostersgoing—it takes organization.

“As the coach, you need to create anorganizational structure,” says Leach.“You need a president to lead the cluband a group of officers to do most ofthe work. The president and I will oftentalk about the agenda beforehand, butafter the first few meetings of the year,it’s likely that I won’t say anythingunless I’m asked. I’m happy to be there,but someone else takes the lead.”

By working with an organization,Leach can delegate tasks to the boostersand concentrate on coaching the team.A secretary keeps the minutes of eachmeeting, a treasurer records donationsand expenditures, and other memberstake responsibility for designing Bull-dog T-shirts, marketing Bulldog mugs,contacting potential donors, staffingcompetitions, and planning fundrais-ers. They even organize the team’s end-of-the-year banquet, where officers arechosen for the following year.

“Of course, as the head coach, I’mstill responsible for making sure thateverything the booster club does is doneright,” says Leach. “So I always keep myadministrators informed, get my paper-work in on time, and make sure not togo over budget.”

At Northampton, Baldwin uses amuch simpler organizational structure,coordinating fundraising with four orfive members. “We meet a couple oftimes a year to plan how to approachpotential donors for our advertising pro-gram,” says Baldwin. “At the first meet-ing, we brainstorm about who’s going to

COVER STORY

16 COACHING MANAGEMENT

etting goals that are too lofty foryour club can quickly discourageyour boosters, and setting goalsthat aren’t ambitious enough caneasily cause your membership tolose interest. The key is to find the

right balance. At Northampton (Mass.) HighSchool, Head Baseball Coach Mark Baldwinpurposely set modest goals that could beachieved with only a handful of volunteers.

“The ideal size of your booster club dependson the goals you’re trying to accomplish,”says Baldwin, who usually has a core of fouror five hard-working boosters. “I chose tocreate a small group of people committedto work toward some very specific things.Partly, that’s because our needs weren’t verylarge. And partly, it’s because I wanted asmaller, more manageable group to fit ourgoals.”

Baldwin began his booster club with a simple,specific agenda: He wanted to raise enoughmoney to buy new jerseys. Over the next sixyears, his wish list has steadily grown, but hisstrategy for setting goals is still the same.

“If you want to keep your boosters focused,keep your expectations realistic and tangi-ble,” advises Baldwin. “The more specificyour goals are, the easier it will be to finddonors. When we were looking to start afreshman team, we told our potential donors,

‘This is something the school can’t afford onits own, and it creates a new opportunity forkids who wouldn’t otherwise be able to par-ticipate.’ That was a very persuasive message,because people could see that their moneywas going to a very specific cause: improvingthe experience of young athletes.”

At Butler University, Head Coach Steve Farleyjump-started his booster club with a wish listthat balanced short- and long-term goals.“Along with our big-ticket items, we createsome small, simple goals that will be easy toaccomplish,” says Farley. “We want to givepeople the instant gratification of seeinghow they’ve helped. So we send them photosand put pictures on our Web site and plaquesaround the field. That spurs interest in someof the bigger projects that are still a year ortwo away.”

In 14 years, Butler’s boosters have raisedhundreds of thousands of dollars, which haveresulted in a new irrigation system, a newpressbox, an upgraded concessions stand,and a team trip to Australia. Farley still hasdozens of items on his wish list, including anew indoor practice facility, and keepsadding to the list with input from athletes,alumni, and boosters.

“There are a lot of potential donors outthere,” says Farley, “and they’d love tohelp, if they only knew what you wanted.”

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do what and then divide the responsibil-ities for making contact. Then we meetagain to see how much progress we’remaking and talk about whether there’sanyone else we’d like to target.”

The structure works well for Bald-win, who takes hands-on responsibilityfor much of the fundraising. LikeLeach, he’s careful to make someoneelse responsible for accounting. “Wehave an on-staff accountant who’s incharge of student activities,” says Bald-win. “Any money that’s collected goes tothe accountant, who puts it in a safe.There’s a very clear accounting of every-thing, and that takes pressure off me.

“Ultimately, anything we spendmoney on has to be approved by theprincipal,” continues Baldwin. “We’renot doing anything in secret—therecords are there for anyone who wantsto see. That keeps everything on the up-and-up, and lends additional credibilityto what we do.”

Getting SupportAfter high school, as coaches cast

wider nets for support, they can con-centrate on getting help from the peo-ple around them—in their department,school, and college—to shape a set ofeffective, realistic goals, and determinehow a booster club can help reachthem. What kind of help do want yourbooster club to provide? What role doyou want your boosters to play?

“Coaches need to ask themselves whatthey’re trying to achieve with their boost-er club,” says Schlossnagle, whose TCUbooster club easily surpassed his goal ofraising $50,000 during its first year. “Thedifference between the amount youneed to operate at your level and whatthe school provides is the amount youneed to raise, whether you choose to dothat through the booster club or with aseries of fundraising events.

“The second thing you need to do isassess your marketplace and determinehow you’re going to meet those needs,”continues Schlossnagle. “Trying to raisemoney in a small town is going to be dif-ferent from raising money in a big city.Given your marketplace, have you set

an achievable goal? Have the stakehold-ers already bought into your program,or do you need to bring them in? Whatkind of help do you need? Are therepeople in the community who can helpyour program by donating money? Arethere people who can help by providingservices?”

Schlossnagle found support fromTCU’s long-established athletic boosterclub, which has years of fundraisingexperience in greater Fort Worth. Her-rera recommends talking with yourschool’s business faculty for help in bothstarting and staffing a baseball boosterclub. “Let the chairperson see that thereare opportunities for his or her studentsto get involved in marketing your boost-er club,” says Herrera, who is pursuingan MBA. “The baseball booster programis an ideal way for business students togain some experience while they’rehelping out your team.”

When establishing his booster club 14years ago at Butler University, HeadCoach Steve Farley worked closely withthe school’s alumni office, which helped

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COVER STORY

identify potential donors for the baseballprogram. “For me, the key was talkingwith the alumni office, which has a data-base of former players, including infor-mation about where they live and work,”he says. “I was able to send out a massmailing to all those folks, saying, ‘I’m thenew coach, and this is my vision of thefuture.’ Before they were ready to buyinto it, the alumni needed to know theywere going to be a part of somethingextraordinary. And with their help, wewere able to turn the program around.”

Going PublicOnce you’ve created a plan that has

the support of your department andadministration, the next step is toexpand your efforts into your schooland community. At Burkburnett, Leachbegan with his athletes. “In team meet-ings, I announced that we were going tostart a baseball booster club and askedthe players to let their parents know,”says Leach. “Then I put a notice inschool publications and sent informa-tional letters to the parents asking them

to contact me if they were interested inhelping out.”

The approach resulted in a handfulof telephone calls, giving Leach a chanceto talk about his plans for the upcomingseason and to personally invite the par-ents to the booster club’s first meeting.Then, at that first get-together, he madesure to start the season on a positivenote, reminding the parents of thebooster club’s primary purpose.

“Right from the beginning, I set aclear tone for the meetings,” says Leach.“I told them, ‘This is not a gripe session.If you want to tell me that your son isn’tplaying enough, you can tell me atanother time. Our meetings are aboutpromoting baseball and earning extramoney for our program.’”

Blake Boydston, who began thebooster club at Plano West (Texas)High School six years ago, agrees on theimportance of keeping parents focusedon the whole program. “You’ve got tobuild a foundation of parents who areinterested in working for the entire pro-gram, not just for their own sons,” saysBoydston, former Head Coach at PlanoWest and currently a Physical EducationTeacher at nearby Rose Haggar Ele-mentary School. “When you have agood group of parents like that, it’s a loteasier to start a booster club. They wantto help others, and that’s exactly thekind of parents you need: people whoare willing to work hard, take the initia-tive, and make the baseball programtheir own.”

Thanks to the efforts of a smallgroup of parents, Plano West’s boosterclub quickly took root, setting up a Website, selling advertisements in the com-munity, organizing fundraisers, andraising $15,000 in its first year. Over thenext four years, the boosters raisedmoney to build a brick backstop behindhome plate, construct a green backdropbehind the center field wall, install twonew batting cages, add three newpitcher’s mounds, plant bushes aroundthe outfield fence, and buy at least oneset of new uniforms every year.

“It was great for the morale of theteam,” says Boydston. “Every time we’dget new bats or new equipment, it feltlike Christmas all over again.”

But sometimes, smaller is better,especially for avoiding the pitfalls ofboosters who are more interested intheir son’s playing time than in raising

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money for the whole program. Beforebroadcasting the start of his booster clubto the entire community, Baldwin firstrecruited four or five core members, tar-geting the parents of his most consistentstarters. “I chose to create a small groupof people committed to working towardsome very specific things,” says Baldwin.“Partly, that’s because our needs weren’tvery large. And partly, it’s because Iwanted a smaller, more manageablegroup to fit our goals.”

Once the core group of boosters wasformed, they passed the word to others,and as the club grew larger, Baldwincontinued to recruit and maintain acore of four or five hard-working par-ents each year. “I sought out the parentsof athletes who I knew were alwaysgoing to play,” says Baldwin. “I didn’twant to hear people say, ‘I raised all thismoney for you, why isn’t my Johnnyplaying?’ So I started with the mother ofour best pitcher and said, ‘How can weraise $800?’ And she said, ‘We can do itin a couple of days.’ And son of a gun, itreally was that easy. Instead of raising$800, we raised $1,300, which wasenough to buy uniforms plus a fewother things we needed.”

At South Georgia College, HeadCoach J. Scott Sims tried to start hisbaseball booster club with alumni, andquickly learned that he needed to focusmore attention on his athletes’ parents.“We did get some alumni involved, andwe have had some continued supportfrom them,” says Sims. “But at a juniorcollege, the parents of your currentplayers are always going to be the mostactive members of your booster club.And it doesn’t have to take a lot of per-suading, because most of them havealready been in a similar situation attheir son’s high school, and they under-stand that baseball doesn’t get themoney that other sports get.”

Building CommunityWorking at a junior college, Sims has

drawn parents to his booster clubthrough personal contacts, letters, teamcookouts, and word of mouth. Andbecause he can’t depend on his ath-letes’ parents to stay active for morethan two years, he’s found another wayto create a steady core of boosters:reaching out to the community.

“Anything you can do to bring com-munity to your field,” says Sims, “is ulti-

mately going to help your program.” Inpast years, his booster club has raisedmuch of its money by selling local adver-tisements on the outfield fence, and theathletic department has helped increasethe ads’ visibility by opening the baseballfield for a wide range of communityevents, including high school games,summer league games, baseball camps,and summer concerts. The programhosts its own event as well, consistentlydrawing community members to its 100-inning game, an intra-squad fundraiser

with one pitch per at-bat, where athletesgather pledges from friends, family, andlocal residents.

“The key to maintaining continuityon your booster club is getting yourcommunity involved,” says Sims. “Youneed to find the people who live intown, whether or not they’re alumni.Find the parents who have been activein the high school booster club and tryto get them involved in your program.Talk to fans when they come to yourgames, or when you see them around

COVER STORY

COACHING MANAGEMENT 21

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the community, at the bank, on the golfcourse. Develop those relationships.”

“You’ve got to get people involvedwho aren’t necessarily parents,” agreesBurkburnett’s Leach. “The best advice Ican give is to get the people who justlove baseball, even if their kids aren’tplaying on your team.”

Leach looks for potential communityboosters among businesspeople, sum-mer league coaches, and parents of for-mer athletes, and has found a small,steady core of boosters to provide stabili-ty to the club from one year to the next.“If you can get community membersinvolved in your booster club,” saysLeach, “you can get the community feel-ing proud about the facilities where theirchildren are playing and where theirfuture children and grandchildren willplay. If you can get the community feel-ing proud, you can get their support.”

To expand community support forhis booster club, Leach takes advantageof opportunities to attend local func-tions. “As the coach, you can’t just sitback and expect people from the com-

22 COACHING MANAGEMENT

COVER STORY

■ How to obtain administrative approvalbefore beginning projects.

■ How to plan, publicize, and conductmeetings.

■ How to administer funds and maintainrecords.

■ How to elect officers, ideally one pres-ident, one secretary, one treasurer,and three vice-presidents, one foreach season.

■ How to take, distribute, and file min-utes of the booster club meetings.

■ How to communicate with the publicand local school board.

■ How to demonstrate sportsmanlikeconduct toward athletes, coaches,officials, and spectators.

■ How to keep the educational goals ofcompetition at the forefront of allinterscholastic athletics.

T E X A S L E A G U E R U L E S

The complete UIL booster club guidelines for 2004-05 can be found on the Webat: www.uil.utexas.edu/admin/booster.html.

In Texas, the University Interscholastic League has an extensive set ofguidelines for organizing booster clubs at member high schools. While the rules obvi-ously apply only in Texas, the list of policies that the UIL asks each booster club andathletic department to follow is a good starting point for thinking about what kinds ofquestions a booster club plan should seek to answer. The UIL guidelines ask eachbooster club and athletic department to develop its own written policies governing:

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munity to come forward,” says Leach.“People aren’t going to help unless theyknow what you need.

“It’s important to get out into thecommunity and let people know whatyou’re doing,” continues Leach. “Go tolocal activities and promote your pro-gram through local clubs—for exam-ple, I’ve spoken at the Rotary Club andthe Lions Club. Never turn down one ofthose invitations, because it’s anotheropportunity to promote your program.It’s your responsibility to let them knowwho you are and what you’re trying toaccomplish.”

At Northampton, Baldwin doesn’tjust reach into the community by him-self—he brings the whole team withhim, resulting in some of the boosterclub’s largest donations. “When LittleLeague does its indoor tryouts, our play-ers volunteer to help out,” says Baldwin.“They come in shifts, wearing their uni-forms and hitting grounders to the littlekids. And because the person who runsthe Little League is also in charge of thelocal police association, that’s created athree-way partnership between theschool, the Little League, and thepolice association, which is now one ofour donors. By contributing to the com-munity, we’ve found people who arewilling to help us out as well.”

Maintaining RelationshipsGoing before the larger community

speaks to the final piece of booster-club

building: maintaining relationships.The objective is to maintain the supportthat’s necessary to keep things goingyear after year.

Many coaches have athletes go out inpublic to represent the program, suchas by volunteering in soup kitchens orhosting fun events for younger chil-dren. Some teams keep themselves visi-ble by organizing events such as homerun contests, alumni games, or dinnersbuilt around watching the World Series.

Finally, remember to thank donors,

recognizing them as an integral part ofyour program. “You have to continue tonurture the relationship, so yourdonors feel they have had a hand inyour success,” says Schlossnagle. “Theyhave to feel like a part of the team.”

As you make plans, aim high, addsFarley. “We ask each of our players toaim for the highest level possible, and ascoaches, it’s important for us to do that,too. In booster clubs, as in everythingelse, aim for that bigger vision of whatyou want to achieve.” ■

COACHING MANAGEMENT 23

COVER STORY

For more information about lia-bility, see “Your School Corp-oration’s Relationship With ItsBooster Clubs: Ways of Resolv-ing Potential Conflict,” by attor-ney Timothy S. Shelly, at:www.warrickandboyn.com/art-boosters.htm.

For information on Title IX com-pliance regarding booster clubs,see an article from our sistermagazine, Athletic Management,at: www.momentummedia.com/articles/am/am1302/booster.htm.

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Bradley’s strategy has worked. In hisseven seasons as Head Coach, he hascompiled a 174-145 record and cap-tured four Ivy League titles, equalingthe number that Princeton’s baseballteam had won in the previous 52 years.In recent years, the Tigers have defeat-ed such top 25 teams as the Universityof North Carolina, the University of Vir-ginia, and Old Dominion University,beating future first-round major leaguedraft pick Justin Verlander in theprocess. The program has also pro-duced 12 major league draftees, includ-

hen Scott Bradley tookthe job as Head BaseballCoach at Princeton Uni-versity, he had a talk withhis brother about thechallenge of structuring

effective practices. Bob Bradley, thewinningest coach in Major League Soc-cer history, offered a simple piece ofadvice: “Never let your players feel likethey’re wasting time.”

It’s a problem as old as baseballitself: How can you design practices soyour athletes don’t spend a lot of timewaiting to take their turn? How can youget the most out of every practiceminute?

INNOVATIVE PROGRAMS

For Scott Bradley, the answer camein creating a system that treats his stu-dent-athletes as individuals, emphasiz-ing small group practices over full-teamworkouts, and working the bulk of hissessions with two or three players at atime. Yes, there are still all-squad prac-tices, which are held primarily on week-ends. Yes, some things can be practicedonly as a team—for example, cut-offthrows, double plays, and pick-offs. Andyes, team chemistry needs to be built.But for Bradley, the key to developinghis players lies in teaching each of themthe basics of offense and defense, whichcan easily be done one-on-one to fitaround his athletes’ class schedules.

Steve Eschenbach is a freelance writer inMillburn, N.J.

By structuring individualized practices to fit athletes’needs, Princeton Head Coach Scott Bradley allows them to succeed on the field and in the classroom. BY STEVE ESCHENBACH

PRIVATE PRACTICE

W

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COACHING MANAGEMENT 25

ing Chris Young, who took the moundfor the Texas Rangers on Aug. 24,becoming Princeton’s first major lea-guer in 21 years.

Bradley’s system of individual andsmall-group practices isn’t easy. For onething, it takes a greater time commit-ment from the coaches, who must makethemselves available throughout theweek. It also takes athletes who are high-ly self-motivated, both on and off thefield. But at Princeton, it’s worked very,very well—well enough to warrant an in-depth look at what a more time-sensitivepractice approach looks like.

Making It WorkOne reason Bradley likes his practice

“environment”—a term he prefers to“system”—is that Princeton is a toughplace to be an athlete. An intellectualpowerhouse that US News and WorldReport ranks as tied with Harvard forfirst among American universities,Princeton offers no formal athleticscholarships, and its academic pressuresintensify the time demands on his stu-dent-athletes. Furthermore, Bradleymust structure his offseason workoutswithin Ivy League guidelines, which arestricter than those of most NCAA Divi-sion I conferences.

Working with those challenges,Bradley has created an environmentthat emphasizes small-group and indi-vidual practices. He expects his coachesand players to think of the team as agroup of interchangeable parts and tobreak down the game into a series ofsmall tasks. The toss to second base forthe double play becomes, in Bradley’swords, “above the waist, over the base.”You make the throw, you make the play.

“We’re teachers. We’re teaching base-ball skills,” Bradley says of his coachingstaff. “It’s not like hockey, where youhave to have your lines, cohesiveness.Baseball doesn’t work that way. I can takemy shortstop and work on double-playfeeds all day long and I can stick a net atsecond base and have him throw a ballinto the net. Or I can take a second-base-man and make feeds to him so he can

practice taking feeds that are high andlow. The parts aren’t interrelated. Youdon’t need all the parts at once.”

At the initial team meeting, Bradleybegins by explaining his approach to hisstudent-athletes. He recognizes that aca-demics come first, and expects playersto work out whenever time allows. Hesets down general guidelines for howoften players are expected to show upeither on the field or at Princeton’s ded-icated baseball- and softball-only indoorpractice facility.

As players receive their class sched-ules, they sign up for “non-mandatoryindividual sessions,” following theguidelines of the Ivy League. Out of sea-son, players are limited to two hours ofmandatory practice a week. In addition,the league imposes “no-contact peri-ods” where players cannot engage inany team activity. Conditioning work isscheduled by Princeton’s strength andconditioning staff and, because it’s dic-tated by availability of the facilities, ismore regimented than baseball skillinstruction.

“In terms of the baseball skill work,the kids have their time slots and if it fitsinto their schedule, a lot of them end upcoming at the same time every week,”Bradley says. “But it’s always flexibleenough that kids know that if they havepapers due or they have somethinggoing on, they can always rescheduleand come the day before or the day afteror a different time that particular day.”

He tells them to check their e-mailseveral times a day because if the weath-er permits, he’ll be out on the field, hit-ting flies—or available to work withplayers in some other way. That coaches’flexibility is the key. “We’re always here,we’re always around,” Bradley says. “It’seasy for us to be flexible. It’s not as easyfor the kids to be flexible. For example,say a pitcher is scheduled to throw at 4o’clock. But if he wakes up that morningand sees that somebody’s coming to givea guest lecture at 4 o’clock, he e-mailsme in the morning and says he wants togo to the lecture at 4 and can he get histhrowing in at noon.”

On weekends, the Tigers practicetogether as a team, and during the week,Bradley and his three-person staff sched-ule small-group and individual practices.They run practices for groups as small astwo or three players, working from ninein the morning until six in the evening,

At Princeton University, middle infieldersdon’t need a catcher to practice taking thethrow on a stolen-base attempt. All theyneed is a coach. Head Coach Scott Bradleysays the approach gets more work done.

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and sometimes later. To accommodatepitcher Chris Young’s late-afternoonclasses, for example, Bradley worked one-on-one during evening practices, makingthe most of his major league experienceas a catcher on the New York Yankees,Chicago White Sox, Seattle Mariners, andCincinnati Reds.

Bradley tweaks individual schedules,“holding hands” for athletes untilthey’ve gotten used to scheduling them-selves. He believes that players shouldn’tgo more than two to four days withoutworking out. And he’s always open to animpromptu session. “If I’m doing paper-work in my office and a player wantssome batting practice, I’ll give him thebatting practice,” he notes.

Practice sessions generally lack a setform, and workouts flex to fit the needsof the athletes who are present. Forexample, he’ll have all his middleinfielders practice double plays, shiftingfrom one side of second to the other.Interchangeability is improved by anemphasis on the “above-the-base, over-the-waist,” break-it-down approach.

Bradley takes a position himself if nec-essary, but he’ll also use other players outof position, which he believes is goodpractice. Catchers taking grounders indouble-play work, for instance, is goodfor their hands, while playing shortstophelps them understand what’s requiredto take a throw on a stolen-base attempt.Likewise, he’ll group pitchers on a long-toss drill with outfielders fielding flies.

Bradley believes the ideal size for apractice is two or three players and twocoaches, but will accommodate one toseven players for a session of an hour toan hour and a half. If that happens, heand his assistants will typically break upthe assembly into smaller groups. As faras pitchers, Bradley and his assistants areformer catchers, which means they’rewell prepared to work one-on-one withtheir hurlers without having to schedulea catcher. “And that’s a great way toteach,” Bradley says. “You can stand onthe side and watch, but until you actual-ly get back and catch guys, you don’treally know what their command is likeand what they need to work on.”

One problem stems from the sched-ule’s fluidity. As exams, project dead-lines, and other academic obligationscome up, it’s easy for Bradley to losetrack of how many times each player iscoming to practice. But if he does, hisplayers will generally police each other.“An upperclassman, or any player forthat matter, will usually let another play-er know if he should be getting downand working out more often,” saysinfielder Sal Iacono. Pitcher RossOhlendorf, a fourth-round pick in the2004 Major League draft, notes that“Coach Bradley notices if people aren’tworking hard or are missing more prac-tices than they should. Most of the playerswho don’t show up don’t play.”

Changing With the SeasonsAs at other college programs, Prince-

ton’s workouts evolve over the course ofthe year. In the fall, Bradley holds 12team practices, the maximum allowedby the Ivy League. During this time,Bradley tries to hold as many intrasquadgames as possible, where he can evalu-

INNOVATIVE PROGRAMS

26 COACHING MANAGEMENT

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ate his athletes individually and assesswhat skills each player needs to workon. His goal is to have each player eval-uate his own needs and focus on devel-oping those skills. They’re taught totake the initiative in identifying areasthat need improvement.

“During this period, we want players tobecome their own coaches,” Bradley says.That means primarily two things: learninghow to adjust during competition andhow to know what to work on. “We wantthem to become familiar enough withtheir strengths and their weaknesses, withthe mechanics of their swing or with theirdelivery if they’re pitchers,” says Bradley.“If they make a mistake, we want them tothink, ‘Yeah, I pulled off that one,’ or

‘Boy, I picked my head up,’ or, as a pitch-er, ‘I overthrew that.’

“And then in practice,” Bradley con-tinues, “the kids will come down andsay, ‘I want to take a bunch of extraground balls today because my rhythmwas off,’ or ‘I felt like I was pulling offthe ball, so let me work on hitting theball the other way.’ Most of the timethey tell us what they want to work on.”

During the fall and through Feb. 1,Ivy League rules limit skills practice andconditioning to six hours a week, withno more than two hours of coach-directed skills practice. So here Bradleyuses his two hours to work on areasidentified during the fall season.

“There are no secrets here,” Bradleysays. “We work on the nuts and bolts ofbaseball. We use the same drills that Lit-tle Leaguers do.” For pitchers, Bradleyuses a mix of mound work, long toss,and the towel drill, where pitchers max-imize efficiency in their delivery bythrowing a towel instead of a baseball.For hitters he wants to “slow it down”with tee work, soft toss, and dry swings.“We want to make players aware of theirswing,” he says, and uses video to rein-force his lessons on the diamond. Afielder might do something as simple as

throwing a tennis ball against a con-crete wall, then fielding the rebound.

On Feb. 1, when practice can beheld six days a week, Bradley startswarming up for the spring season, work-ing slowly for the first two weeks as hisathletes recover from their final examsin January. He tries to get outfieldersoutside as soon as possible to practiceflies, and he tends to work with infield-ers as a group, giving them lots ofgrounders and working on double playsand similar multi-player work.

When the season starts, the focus shiftsto “making sure guys feel good aboutthemselves for games,” Bradley says. Play-ers decide what they want to work on. Forexample, he has “hit ’til you’re happy” ses-

sions, where he throws batting practice towhoever wants it, for however long theywant it. “It’s not easy, but former catchershave a reputation for being able to throwbatting practice,” he says. “If players arehitting for 40 minutes, they might hit off atee for 20 minutes and I might throw tothem for 20 minutes. If we ever have a daywhere we coaches need a rest, we’ll set upmachines.”

Coaching AdjustmentBecause practice time has been

divided into so many small sessions,Princeton’s approach requires someadjustments on the part of Bradley andhis coaching staff. The coaches cope byfocusing on players’ individual timeneeds, their love of the game, and theirincreased time efficiency.

“It’s not work,” Bradley says. “We areself-proclaimed baseball rats, and thereis nothing that all of us love to do morethan get out of the office to go one onone or go two on one or throw some-body batting practice or throw some-body ground balls.

“When we started this, we didn’t real-ly strategize with coming up with suchan elaborate system,” he continues. “Wejust have this facility all the time, so we

started off by telling the kids, ‘We’rearound tomorrow. Come down whenyou can.’ And all of a sudden guys camedown spread out throughout the day. Ilooked at my assistant coaches and said:‘We got so much accomplished. Let’skeep doing it. Why should we try topractice for two hours when we canhave players here throughout the day?’”

For Bradley himself, a typical daybeings when he reaches his office at 9a.m. He checks field conditions, weatherreports, and e-mail. If conditions aregood, he’ll send a team e-mail saying,“The coaches and I will be at Clarke Fieldat 3 p.m.” In bad weather, his programholds indoor practices at the athleticdepartment’s Pit facility, which is sharedwith the softball team. Between players’requests for practice sessions, Bradleytakes care of paperwork, recruiting, andadministrative duties, monitoring his e-mail regularly in order to keep up withplayers’ schedules. The only thing thattakes priority over player practices aremeetings with university officials.

Recruiting calls and paperwork maysometimes be postponed until night-time in order to better accommodateplayers’ needs. Bradley’s preparationfor practices is fairly minimal, such aswatching a video just before a sessionwith a player working on his swing.Bradley comes to most practices, butwill sometimes let his assistants take thelead in coaching their athletes. It’s a daydefined by scheduled practices andimpromptu sessions if conditions allow,with administrative work filling in thegaps, and e-mail keeping the wholething running.

Happy PlayersPlayers seem to like the way Prince-

ton’s baseball team works. Ohlendorfsays, “The informal practice schedulehelps us keep up with our schoolworkand enjoy playing more—as opposed togetting burnt out from feeling we arespending too much time at practice.”Iacono agrees. “Knowing that you have acoach who gives you every opportunity totake care of your academic requirementsis a real relief,” he says.

Iacono believes the schedule has apositive effect on recruits as well. “In mycase it made me more likely to go toPrinceton, because it lessens the anxietyof starting the college experience,” hesays. Ohlendorf agrees that informal

INNOVATIVE PROGRAMS

COACHING MANAGEMENT 27

“When we started, we didn’t strategize ...such an elaborate system. I looked at myassistant coaches and said, ‘We got so muchaccomplished. Let’s keep doing it. Why shouldwe try to practice for two hours when we canhave players here throughout the day?’”

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28 COACHING MANAGEMENT

INNOVATIVE PROGRAMS

practices help with recruiting, thoughin a more indirect manner. “The play-ers on our team really like CoachBradley’s flexibility and are happy to beplaying for him,” he says. “This happi-ness comes through to the recruits.

“I think that this system works verywell for baseball,” continues Ohlendorf.“Small groups seem to make practicerun more efficiently, because there is lessstanding around.” Iacono agrees. “Thereare many times when an organized full-team practice would make getting yourwork done impossible,” he says.

Princeton Athletics Director GaryWalters says that Bradley’s coachingmeets the university’s goal of emphasiz-ing academics. Bradley says his systemhelps him get to know players betterthan full-team traditional practices andthe “my-door-is-always-open” approach.“You really get to know your players bythrowing batting practice or hittinggrounders,” he says. “I enjoy the con-versations as much as the playing.”

Bradley admits the approach has lim-itations. In high schools, for instance, alack of uncommitted time for coacheswould probably make it impractical forthem to keep their schedules as flexibleas he does. But partial implementationcould free up some time, allowing ath-letes more time to be students as well.Few programs have a facility that’s justtheirs, or shared with only one otherteam, Bradley admits, and that’s almosta necessity for following his approachfully. But at most colleges, Bradley seesno intrinsic reason why at least the prin-ciple behind his system and some of itsparts can’t be adapted.

Bradley’s approach seems to pay offacademically. Virtually all of Bradley’splayers graduate, many in difficultmajors. Part of the $1.65 million con-tract Young negotiated with the Pitts-burgh Pirates, with whom he originallysigned, required the team to fly himfrom Princeton to the Pirates’ FallLeague sites, so that he could continueworking on his degree.

And in another sign that Bradley’sstrategy has succeeded both on and offthe field, pitcher Thomas Pauly returnedto the Princeton campus after signing asix-figure contract with the CincinnatiReds to continue his work on a chemicalengineering degree. “I tell recruits,” saysBradley, “that they don’t have to give uptheir dreams to come here.” ■

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or 28 of the past 29 years,the Ithaca College baseballteam has been selected toparticipate in the NCAADivision III playoffs. It has

advanced to the College World Seriesnine times and won national champi-onships in 1980 and 1988. Althoughthere are many reasons for the pro-gram’s success, one of them has been aconsistent strength and conditioningprogram.

As a small school located in centralNew York state, where the winters arevery long, there are some limitations to

what we can do in our program. Ourweight training facilities are not large,training outdoors cannot realisticallyhappen until the beginning of April,and staying consistent with the DivisionIII philosophy, we believe in makingsure our athletes don’t spend too muchtime on their sport.

At the same time, we work hard notto be too restricted by our limitations.

We maximize our sessions with an exer-cise program that is quite specific to ourestablished goals—one that uses theleast amount of time and space possibleto produce well-conditioned athletes.

The Components The primary activities in baseball—

batting, fielding, throwing, and run-ning—involve dynamic, total body

COACHING MANAGEMENT 29

Kent Scriber, EdD, is a Professor and the Program Director for the Athletic Training EducationProgram within the Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences at Ithaca College. He has servedas an athletic trainer with the baseball team for more than 30 years. Chris Hummel is a ClinicalInstructor in the same department and works as an athletic trainer with the baseball team.

STRENGTH & CONDITIONING

A well-planned strength and conditioningprogram has helped the Ithaca Collegebaseball team be a perennial winner in theNCAA Division III ranks.

FBY DR. KENT SCRIBER & CHRIS HUMMEL

A Consistent Path

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movements, so our program focuses onmultiplanar, functional exercises. Ourprimary goals are increasing strength,power, cardiovascular endurance, anddynamic flexibility. Our baseball-specif-ic goals are to increase agility, speed,and quickness. (Note that we will dis-cuss training position players only in

this article—our pitchers have a sepa-rate program.)

Preventing injuries is another goal ofthe program. We focus on preventinginjuries that occur around the elbow jointand the shoulder complex and to thequadriceps and hamstrings, which aremost common among baseball players.

To accomplish these goals, our pro-gram has four main components: car-diovascular conditioning, core strength-ening, upper and lower body weightlifting, and plyometrics. Our dailywarmup is also an important part of theprogram.

Conditioning: Our baseball athletesperform cardiovascular conditioningthree days a week. They go throughseven cardio stations, which are nor-mally two minutes in length with two-minute rests between stations. The aimis to increase heart rate and ultimatelyimprove aerobic capacity.

The stations we use are: bike, stair-climber, upper body ergometer, tread-mill, stairs, jump rope, and sprints.Body blade, wrist, or shoulder exercisesare added if time permits. If you havethe available space and equipment, youmight add change-of-direction drillsand partner sport cord drills.

Why do baseball players need thistype of conditioning? In general, wefeel that all athletes should partake incardiovascular training for general fit-

L I F T I N G P R O G R A M

STRENGTH & CONDITIONING

30 COACHING MANAGEMENT

UPPER EXTREMITY LIFTING:

LOWER EXTREMITY LIFTING:

Ithaca College base-ball players typicallyperform three setsof 12 repetitions foreach exercise duringpreseason training.

■ Incline bench press■ Upright row ■ Bench press ■ Lat pull down

■ Bentover row ■ Hammer curl ■ Triceps extension ■ Shoulder series

■ Squats ■ Calf raises ■ Hamstring curls

■ Knee extensions ■ Cleans

TABLE 1

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ness. A well-designed cardiovascular training program fendsoff fatigue and should improve performance and preventinjury over the long run of the playing season, when gamesare often scheduled daily.

Weight lifting: To build a strength base and preventinjuries, baseball athletes perform standard weight liftingtwice a week, often on the days they are doing their cardioconditioning. One day per week emphasizes upper extremi-ty lifting exercises, while the other day emphasizes the lowerextremity exercises. (See “Lifting Program” on page 30.)The upper body lifting focuses on the muscles around theelbow joint and the shoulder complex, while lower bodywork targets the quadriceps and hamstring muscles.

Core Training: Our baseball athletes strengthen theircore one day a week through trunk plyometrics with variousmedicine ball rotational exercises. The exercises we useinclude: Russian twists, crunches, leg lifts, V-sits, firehydrants, med-ball drops, med-ball crunch passes, med-ballside bends, and ceiling kicks. The use of stability balls canalso be incorporated.

Plyometrics: Our plyometrics program is critical in pro-viding our athletes with the small advantages that can addup when they are on the playing field. The benefits of theseexercises include: first step quickness in fielding and basestealing, overall throwing strength, lateral quickness, andinjury prevention.

To ensure our program is effective, we allow for a slowprogression and at least two days for recovery between ses-

sions. We emphasize warming up thoroughly beforehandand technique over quantity. We break our plyometric workinto upper extremity and lower extremity routines, eachdone once a week. Volume is limited to 100 to 120 contactsper session. (See “Plyometrics” on page 32.)

In developing our plyometric drills, we try to make themas functional as possible. For example, rather than just run-ning sprints in a straight line, we might have them runsprints around the bases. This requires the players to dohigh intensity running drills that mimic what they do in agame situation. We do the same with throwing and catchingexercises.

Warmup: Before we begin any session, we take five to 10minutes to perform a dynamic warmup. This warmupensures each athlete is ready to perform the skills for thatsession, as well as helping increase flexibility and preventinjuries. Some of the exercises we do include: jogging, skip-ping, side-stepping, lunge walks, arm circles, monster walks,butt kicks, cariocas, and backward runs.

Progression: We typically begin with 30-second sets andprogress to 60-second sets as form improves. However, we donot exceed 120 repetitions or touches per session. We insiston proper form before letting athletes advance.

STRENGTH & CONDITIONING

We typically begin with 30-sec-ond sets and progress to 60-second sets as form improves.However, we do not exceed120 repetitions or touches persession.

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Putting It All Together To fit all the components into a

schedule that allows for proper rest, wegroup the sessions into six topics thenfit them into a monthly calendar. Thetopics are:

■ Lower extremity plyos ■ Upper extremity plyos ■ Core strengthening ■ Lower extremity weight lifting ■ Upper extremity weight lifting ■ Cardiovascular conditioning Due to the high intensity and fatigu-

ing nature of plyometrics, we utilize a48-hour rule when scheduling plyomet-ric sessions. For example, lower extrem-ity plyometrics and lifting are done atleast 48 hours apart. The same principleapplies for the upper extremity. On theoff days we train for cardiovascular fit-ness or target core strength.

With the science in place, our nextstep is figuring out a schedule thatworks with our facilities. Because weshare facilities with other sports andactivities at the school, we can’t have aconsistent weekly schedule as most larg-

STRENGTH & CONDITIONING

P L Y O M E T R I C SUPPER BODY:

LOWER BODY:

■ Chest pass: > Standing > Kneeling > Sitting

■ Overhead throw/ retro ■ Single-arm throw ■ Plyo-wall push ups ■ Chop and throw:

> Waist > Knee > Ankle > Between feet

■ Jump rope (patterns) ■ Squat/tuck jumps ■ V-grid jumps ■ Power skips ■ Explosions (Theraband):

> Side to side > Front to back > X jumps

■ Zig-zag jumps/bounds ■ Dot drill ■ Restart jumps/bounds

TABLE 2

For our upper extremity plyometricexercises, we use medicine balls toenhance power and speed, as well asprevent injuries that affect throwingathletes. We typically use two- tothree-pound balls for throwing-catch-ing activities and eight -to 10-poundballs for bilateral throwing activities orrotational trunk movements. If avail-able, the use of a mini-trampoline canalso be helpful.

We use the following lower extremityplyometrics to improve agility, power,and quickness. We start with lowheights and speeds and progress asform improves.

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Xvest can be used in your strength, conditioning,speed, agility, plyometric and sport specific drills ortraining. You will see dramatic improvements in speedand power as well as conditioning and strength.

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32 COACHING MANAGEMENT

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er schools do, and we must improvise abit. (See “Conditioning Calendar” onpage 34.) However, as long as weadhere to the basic training principles,we can still obtain gains in strength,power, and flexibility.

We aim to limit all strength and con-ditioning sessions to no more than 30minutes, six days per week during thepreseason. During weight lifting, core

training, and plyometric sessions, ath-letes can choose three to four exercisesfrom the list. Then, each day, additionalexercises can be added if time allowsand the athletic trainer feels they wouldbe helpful. For example, during coretraining days, agility exercises such as abox drill or jumping rope can be added,or sprinting drills can supplement plyo,core, or cardio workouts.

Putting all the pieces together alsoentails educating athletes about theprogram. We introduce the players tothis program and review the goals at thebeginning of each season. The follow-ing four points are discussed thorough-ly with the players:

■ Proper rest and diet along withexercise are essential to your develop-ment as a baseball player.

■ It is extremely important to strict-ly adhere to the guidelines set for theexercise program in order to maintainproper balance between exercise andsport—before and during the compet-itive season.

■ It is very important to perform eachexercise with proper technique and lis-ten to your body to ensure you are notdoing more harm than good.

■ If you experience pain, or feel youcan’t properly perform an exercise,stop and tell the athletic training staffimmediately.

Once the athletes are familiar withthese principles, various exercises aredemonstrated and the players practiceeach skill while being monitored by theathletic training staff for proper form.We reiterate frequently the need for

them to tell us if they are in pain whenperforming an exercise.

In-Season Program Once the season begins, our primary

goal is to maintain the athletes’ levels ofstrength and conditioning. Therefore,our in-season plan is a modified versionof the preseason program. The maindifferences are that intensity and fre-

COACHING MANAGEMENT 33

STRENGTH & CONDITIONING

It is extremely important to strictly adhere to the guidelinesset for the exercise program in order to maintain properbalance between exercise and sport—before and during thecompetitive season.

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quency are decreased, all work is doneon the ball field, and the plyometricupper extremity exercises are eliminat-ed. Because of the intensity of plyomet-ric training, there is generally notenough time for muscle recovery ofupper extremities between the exercis-es and an upcoming ball game.

For our lower body plyo workout, toemphasize agility (vs. power) wedecrease the intensity and increase thespeed of the jumps, skips, and otherdrills. Core training days are kept thesame. Cardio days are modified so theycan be done on the field: Various run-ning drills that maintain an increased

heart rate for a minimum of 15 minutesreplace the cardio stations from theweight room. Athletes still come to theweight room for lifting sessions duringthe season, but we either have them liftless weight or decrease the number ofrepetitions.

From the preseason to the in-season,we feel the key to our program isthat it is easy to follow, doesn’ttake a lot of time, and focuseson the most important aspectsof training baseball players.Another strength is that there isvariety, which stimulates the ath-letes and results in better pro-gram compliance.

We have found this pro-gram easy to implement andwell received by our coachingstaff and players. It has alsobeen convenient for us to mon-itor and allows for modifica-tions as situations arise. ■

This article previously appeared in theDecember 2004 issue of CM’s sister pub-lication, Training & Conditioning.

34 COACHING MANAGEMENT

STRENGTH & CONDITIONING

C O N D I T I O N I N G C A L E N D A R

DAY 1: Upper extremity plyos

DAY 2: Cardio

DAY 3: Lower extremity plyos

DAY 4: Cardio & upper extremity lifting

DAY 5: Off

DAY 6: Core work

DAY 7: Cardio & lower extremity lifting

DAY 8: Upper extremity plyos

DAY 9: Cardio

DAY 10: Cardio & upper extremity lifting

DAY 11: Lower extremity plyos

DAY 12: Cardio

DAY 13: Lower extremity lifting

DAY 14: Core work

TABLE 3

Here’s a sample two-week schedule for preseason conditioning:

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Guide to Nets & Cages

Beacon Athletics

Circle No. 201

Beacon Athleticswww.beaconathletics.com800-747-5985See ad on page 19

PRODUCTS:Indoor Tensioned Batting CageThis indoor batting cage goesup in 10 minutes. With itsunique three-pulley system, thecage can be raised andtensioned as needed. Custom NettingBeacon Athletics designs andmanufactures custom nettingsystems to meet the individualneeds of its customers.

Beacon Outdoor Batting CageThis cost-effective, heavy-dutybatting cage comes in single-and double-sided versions. Tuff Pitchers “L” ScreenThis L screen is the toughestin the business. It’s 8’ high x8’ wide, and made with heavy-duty #72 knotted nylon net.

Primary Advantages:Beacon’s batting cages and netting systems are custom-made tofit customers’ specific needs. Since the company has expertswith real experience, it can provide free consultation andguidance in product selection, ensuring that you get the rightproducts to meet your needs.

Recent Installations:Verona Area Schools, Verona, WI; Illinois Institute of Technology,Chicago, IL; Wyoma Little League, Lynn, MA; Notre Dame HighSchool, Lawrenceville, NJ; Turpen High School, Cincinnati, OH.

Vantage Products Intn’l

Circle No. 203

Vantage Products Intn’lwww.vpisports.com800-244-4457See ad on Inside Front Cover

PRODUCTS:Big Bubba Pro Batting CageThis cage (pictured) is thechoice of high school,collegiate, and professionalbaseball programs. It is 18’wide x 22’ deep x 12’ high.Protective ScreenHeavy-duty 1 1/2-inch squaregalvanized steel is covered

with slip-on #36 poly nettingfor quality and durability. Thescreen is 7’ wide x 7’ high.Batting Tunnel NetThis “no sag” net system fea-tures heavy-duty polyethylene.It is 100 percent waterproof,and 12 stock sizes are avail-able for immediate shipment.

Primary Advantages:VPI’s nets are hung on the square like a tennis net, which virtu-ally eliminates sagging. The company now offers the Big BubbaProfessional Portable Batting Cage, a premium choice for all lev-els, at considerable cost savings. The heavy-duty aluminum con-struction, easy portability, and collapsible design make it theperfect backstop for any field. A unique dolly assembly with 16-inch pneumatic wheels at the rear makes one-person maneuver-ing easy. The unit is 10’ wide x 22’ deep x 12’ high, andcollapses to just 5’ high for easy storage.

M.A.S.A., Inc.

Circle No. 200

M.A.S.A., Inc.www.masa.com800-264-4519See ad on pages 12 & 22

PRODUCTS:Pitching L-Shaped ScreenThe framing is constructed of1/2-inch heavy gauge steel tub-ing, with easy assembly.Pro Model Backstop Batting CageFlo-coated steel constructionmakes this giant backstopextremely durable. Use thequick-lift crank for easytransportation.

Pro Series Batting TunnelThis pro industry work horse isconstructed from #36 nylon witha 320-lb. breaking test.Batco Batting CageThe unique design of this prod-uct surpasses all other cagesin portability and storage. Itweighs just 45 lbs.

Primary Advantages:M.A.S.A. has improved and expanded its selection, offering youfive grades of netting to meet the demands of every level of play,with prices to meet any budget. Regardless of which grade youchoose, rest assured that you will be getting the highest quality.

Recent Installations:Scott County School District #1, Austin, IN; Madisonville NorthHigh School, Madisonville, KY; Highland High School, Palmdale,CA; Reynoldsburg City School, Reynoldsburg, OH; SpringfieldNorth High School, Springfield, OH.

JKP Sports (JUGS)

Circle No. 202

JKP Sports (JUGS)www.jugssports.com800-547-6843See ad on page 37

Cage #1This product, ideal for highschool and college baseballteams, is the most widely usedbatting cage in the world. It mea-sures 70’ long x 12’ high x 14’wide.Cage #2Perfect for fastpitch softball,Cage #2 can also be used byyouth league teams. It measures55’ long x 12’ high x 14’ wide.

JUGS Instant ScreenThis screen folds down to acompact 36-inch circle andweighs less than 14 lbs. Whenexpanded, it is 7’ high x 8’ wide.JUGS Galvanized Steel BattingCage FrameEvery piece of pipe in the JUGSBatting Cage Frame is made ofindustrial-gauge galvanized steel,for years of trouble-free use.

Primary Advantages:Make an educated choice when purchasing your batting cage net.Only JUGS’s Dura-Tech batting cage nets are made with 100-percentDura-Tech advanced high-tenacity nylon. JUGS has eight standardsizes of batting cage nets in stock at all times. The company pridesitself on offering the best selection and lowest prices possible.

Recent Installations:Ripken Baseball Camps; Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR;Linfield College, McMinnville, OR; Fresno State University, Fresno,CA; U.S. Olympic Training Facility.

COACHING MANAGEMENT 35

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Guide to Nets & Cages

36 COACHING MANAGEMENT

Cages Plus

Circle No. 205

Cages Pluswww.cagesplus.com866-475-9148See ad on page 41

PRODUCT:Portable Batting Cage with L ScreenHeavy-duty netting in 50’, 60’, and 70’ lengths make this agreat product for indoor or outdoor use. The cages come with anL screen.

Primary Advantages:The cage is portable and can be assembled by two people in 20-30 minutes, or by a team in just minutes. It includes an extrahitting station. The high-quality nylon will last for years, and theprice is hundreds less than the competition. Cages Plus hasbeen providing great products and excellent customer service forthe past seven years.

Recent Installations:Marion High School, Bloomfield Hills, MI; Hartford High School,White River Junction, VT; Pacific University, Forest Grove, OR;Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC; Halfway High School, Halfway,MO.

TLI Sports

Circle No. 204

TLI Sportswww.tlisports.com866-356-2922See ad on page 46

PRODUCTS:Protective ScreensThese heavy-duty aluminum Lscreens are available in 8’ x 8’and 8’ x 12’ sizes. Both areequipped with easy-rollingwheels.Backstop NetsTLI Sports will supply andinstall cable or pole backstopnet systems to protect yourspectators.

Batting Cage NetsTLI Sports will also supply andinstall complete batting cages,including nets, poles, concreteslabs, and turf.Barrier NetsThese nets can be installed atany angle necessary for crowdor property protection.

Primary Advantages:TLI Sports can help with all your netting projects, from design tosupply to installation. The company has a wide variety of nets toaccommodate any application, and customized systems areavailable to ensure a top-quality, professional result.

Recent Installations:Disney Wide World of Sports, Orlando, FL; Minnesota Twins, FortMyers, FL; Pittsburgh Pirates, Bradenton, FL; Ripken Stadium,Aberdeen, MD; Maitland Little League, Maitland, FL.

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Windproof Rain CoversBanish Stakes & SandbagsWind Weighted™ baseball tarps havesteel chain in the edge hem all the wayaround. That means wind cannot getunder them. No stakes or sandbags areever needed. The tough, industrial-gradevinyl-polyester fabric is treated againstboth UV and mildew. With the optionalinstaller device, two people can install amound or a base cover in less than 30seconds. Patents are pending.

Hundreds of teams now enjoy the bene-fits of Wind Weighted tarps, including:

Anderson University, Anderson, INBenet Academy, Lisle, ILBrenham H.S., Brenham, TXCal Poly-San Luis Obispo, CACoppell H.S., Coppell, TXL.A. Dodgers, Dodgertown, Vero Beach, FLLangley H.S., McLean, VALowndes H.S., Valdosta, GALynn University, Boca Raton, FLMandeville H.S., Mandeville, LAMentor H.S., Mentor, OHMesa College, Grand Junction, CONantucket H.S., Nantucket, MAN.Y. Yankees, Legends Field, Tampa, FLPenn State University, University Park, PAPermian H.S., Odessa, TXSt. Joseph’s College, Rensselaer, INU.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MDUniversity of California, Berkeley CAUniversity of Colorado, Boulder, COUniversity of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MNUniversity of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NMUniversity of Tennessee, Knoxville, TNUniversity of Washington, Seattle, WAVirginia Military Academy, Lexington, VAWashington State Univ., Pullman, WAWestern Kentucky Univ., Bowling Green, KY

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Guide to Nets & Cages Catalog Showcase

SPI Nets

Circle No. 206

SPI Nets866-243-6387www.spinets.netSee ad on page 45

PRODUCTS:Premium Batting Cage NetsSPI Nets’ premium cages offertop quality, lots of features,and the best prices available. Deluxe Practice ScreensSPI Nets’ practice screens areamong the highest qualityscreens in the business, atvery competitive prices.

Custom NettingSPI Nets can fully customizeyour nets to meet your exactspecifications at an affordableprice.

Primary Advantages:SPI Nets offers a full range of nets for your training needs. Thequality and excellent pricing is matched only by SPI’s incompara-ble service. The company’s products and customer service arecarefully monitored to assure that you receive maximum valuefor your dollar.

Recent Installations:SPI Nets are used all over the United States by youth, highschool, college, and professional facilities.

38 COACHING MANAGEMENT

Power Systems, Inc.800-321-6975, WWW.POWER-SYSTEMS.COM

Since 1986, Power Systems has been a leading sup-plier of sports performance, fitness, and rehabilitationproducts and programming. The company prides itselfon being the one resource for all your training needs.The 2005 catalog has a new look, with better graphicsand photos. It includes sections on core strength,medicine balls, speed, plyometrics, agility, strengthequipment, strength accessories, and fitness assess-

ment. The catalog features hundreds of new products and dozens ofproducts available exclusively from Power Systems. The company haseven lowered some of its prices, enabling the customer to get premiumproducts for less. Call or visit the company Web site for your free copy.

Circle No. 208

Beacon Athletics800-747-5985, WWW.BEACONATHLETICS.COM

Beacon Athletics offers training,conditioning, and athletic field equipmentto improve the performance of athletesand the fields they play on. The compa-ny's goals are improving fieldperformance, athletic training and condi-tioning, safety, and facility appearance,and reducing field-maintenance costs.Call to speak with a Beacon expert orvisit the company Web site.

Circle No. 207

Does Your Grass Need Plastic Surgery?

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Guide to Infield Mixes & Soil Additives

Check out www.AthleticBid.com to contact these companies.

Diamond Pro800-228-2987www.diamondpro.com

Infield ConditionerThis vitrified clay prod-uct can be applied toskinned areas to enrichcolor, prevent raindelays, reducecompaction, andimprove safety.

Calcined Clay Topdressing and ProfessionalTopdressingThese calcined clay products are used as con-ditioners on the infield. The professional gradehas a more uniform particle size, and thestandard topdressing has a larger particlesize.

Mound/Home Plate ClayThis richly colored, screened clay is easy touse. It binds into holes and low areas forgreater durability and consistency.

Warning Track MixSeveral mixes are available, for creating asafe, well-drained warning track surface.

Customers: Texas Rangers; Kansas CityRoyals; Atlanta Braves; Little League WorldSeries, Williamsport, PA; Rosenblatt Stadium,Omaha, NE.

Circle No. 210

The Moltan Co. (Red Diamond)800-264-5826www.moltan.com

Red Diamond RBI Conditioner® A 100-percent naturalearth professionallysized infield condition-er. It improves mois-ture management,playability, and safetywhile providing unri-valed coloration to anyskinned infieldsurface.

Red Diamond RBI Drying Agent®A 100-percent natural earth professionallysized drying agent. It rapidly improves surfacesafety and stability while providing unrivaledcoloration to any skinned infield surface.

Red Diamond CC Conditioner® A professionally sized calcined clay condition-er. It improves surface performance and safe-ty by reducing compaction and improving thedrainage of any skinned infield surface.

Red Diamond CC Drying Agent®A professionally sized calcined clay dryingagent. It rapidly improves surface safety andstability to keep skinned infields and turfareas playable in wet conditions.

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Profile Products, LLC800-207-6457 www.profileproducts.com

Turface® Quick DryEliminating puddles andstanding water,Turface® Quick Dry ridsinfields of muddy, slip-pery conditions. Apllyand rake in for it towork over and over.

Turface® ProLeagueWith its smaller particle size, Turface®ProLeague creates the ultimate standard for field-ing and sliding surfaces while providing infieldswith Major League safety and performance.

Turface® MVPImproving drainage and reducing compaction,Turface® MVP reduces ball hops and injuries andabsorbs its weight in water, allowing for quickplay after the rain.

Turface® ProLeague and Turface® MVP on turfWhen applied to turf, Turface® ProLeague andMVP products help eliminate rain outs throughexcellent water absorption and reducedcompaction in turf.

Customers: Seattle Mariners; ArizonaDiamondbacks; Boston Red Sox; BaltimoreOrioles.

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COACHING MANAGEMENT 39

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Guide to Infield Mixes & Soil Additives

Southern Athletic Fields800-837-8062www.mulemix.com

Mar Mix Infield MixMar Mix is a natural sand/silt/clay blend thatis screened and formulated to percolate

water. It is redin color andmakes for anexcellentchoice on anyfield. It’s usedby profession-

als, colleges, universities, high schools, andparks and recreation departments.

MuleMix Field ConditionersThese calcined clay field conditioners reducecompaction and provide moisturemanagement. Sure Dry, 516, and 816 canhelp keep games on schedule.

Red Diamond RBI ConditionerThis natural red infield conditioner is notdyed. It reduces compaction, manages mois-ture, and is professional-sized. A drying agentis also available.

Customers:Houston Astros, Houston, TX; Louisville Bats,Louisville, KY; Birmingham Barons, Hoover,AL; University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS; TheOhio State University, Columbus, OH.

Circle No. 215

Mar-Co Clay800-950-2555www.marcoclay.com

Mound ClayThis processed clayis available dry ormoisturized. Its bond-ing ability makes ituseful for buildingand maintainingpitcher’s mounds andbatter’s boxes, and

for binding sandy materials.

Clay Track SurfacerThis baked clay product is used for warningtracks, running tracks, and pathways. It pro-vides proper texture and color to alert play-ers when they approach a fence orstructure.

Diamond Clay ConditionerThis baked, crushed, and uniformlyscreened clay is designed to amend heavyclay fields. It provides the correct drainage,texture, and color for any size ballpark.

Infield ClayThis controlled blend of clay, sand, andaggregate is available in three standardmixes and two particle sizes. It’s designedto maximize safety, playability, and drainage.

Circle No. 213

Pro’s Choice800-648-1166www.proschoice1.com

Soilmaster®This thermally opti-mized soil condition-er absorbs excesswater, managesmoisture, andreduces compactionon infields.

Soilmaster® SelectThis premium soil conditioner features small,uniformly sized granules that make it the per-fect infield topdressing.

Rapid Dry®This drying agent quickly absorbs water andimproves soil consistency to keep your fieldin top playing condition, even after rain.

Pro Mound®This unique and durable blue gumbo packingclay forms a solid surface that allows playersto establish footing in the mound and the bat-ter’s box.

Customers:St. Louis Cardinals; Milwaukee Brewers; FloridaMarlins; Chicago White Sox; Detroit Tigers.

Circle No. 214

Check out www.AthleticBid.com to contact these companies.

Stabilizer Solutions, Inc.800-336-2468www.stabilizersolutions.com

StabilizerStabilizer is a natural soil binder thatproduces a firm, resilient playing surface byreducing dust and retaining moisture.

Hilltopper Mound and Home Plate ClayHilltopper combineslasting polymers andnatural clays tomake your moundand home plateareas flexible andstable. No water isneeded—just tampand play.

Stabilizer Pro Gold Infield MixStabilizer Pro Gold adds life and resiliencywhile reducing dust and mud. It creates a long-lasting surface that requires little maintenance.

Hilltopper Infield MixThis revolutionary infield surface is dustless,waterless, and mudless. It substantiallyreduces maintenance and down time.

Customers:Philadelphia Phillies; Pittsburgh Pirates; CalState-Fullerton; University of Arizona;University of Kansas.

Circle No. 216

Everything You Need for aGreat Baseball FieldPartac Peat/Beam Clay® supplies fieldmaintenance products to Major League,minor league, collegiate, high school,and recreational fields all over theUnited States. With such a wide selec-tion of products, it’s no wonder that somany teams turn to Partac.

Here are some of the top-quality prod-ucts the company now offers:

BEAM CLAY Baseball Diamond Mixis a premium infield mix that providesa firm, consistent playing surface withgreat drainage and color.

BEAM CLAY Regional Infield Mixesare blended at bulk plants nationwideto meet the unique needs of everystate and climate.

BEAM CLAY Pitcher’s Mound Mix isan extra-firm mound clay available inred, orange, brown, and gray. Moundand Batter’s Box Bricks are also avail-able, offering a convenient way to cre-ate a first-class facility.

Hilltopper® Infield Mix

Hilltopper® Mound & Home Plate Clay

Pro Mound®

Perma-Mound® and Safe “T” Mats

Pro’s Choice® Soilmaster®

Pro’s Choice® Rapid Dry®

Diamond Pro® Red and Gray InfieldConditioners

Red Lava Dust and Red Brick Dust

Stabilizer®

Diamond Dry®

Partac Peat Corp./Beam ClayKelsey Park, Great Meadows, NJ [email protected]

WWW.BEAMCLAY.COM

Company News

Page 43: Coaching Management 13.2

Guide to Infield Mixes & Soil Additives

Check out www.AthleticBid.com to contact these companies.

Partac/BEAM CLAY®800-247-BEAMwww.beamclay.com

BEAM CLAY®BaseballDiamond MixThis premiuminfield mix pro-vides a firm,consistent play-

ing surface with great drainage and color.

BEAM CLAY Regional Infield MixesThese mixes are blended at bulk plantsnationwide to meet the unique needs of everystate and climate.

BEAM CLAY Red InfieldConditioner/TopdressingThis product improves drainage, relieves com-paction, and enhances color, giving your fielda professional look.

BEAM CLAY 3/16” Red Warning TrackThis premium long-lasting product is burgundy-red in color and is crunchy yet firm for greatdrainage. It is made with BEAM CLAY binder.

Customers:New York Yankees; New York Mets;Philadelphia Phillies; San Diego Padres;Toronto Blue Jays.

Circle No. 219

Country Stone260-837-9049

Infield Topdressing& ConditionerAchieve a bettercolor contrast,improve drainage,and break up com-pacted areas byapplying and work-ing in REDFIELD’sinfield lavatopdressing.

Warning Track MixImprove the look and properties of your fieldby applying REDFIELD’s lava warning trackmix. It’s excellent for aesthetics, drainage,and stability.

Customers:Philadelphia Phillies; Cleveland Indians;Pittsburgh Pirates; Swing of the Quad Cities,Davenport, IA; Bethel College, Mishawaka, IN.

Circle No. 217

Game-On888-593-0395www.hayditegame-on.com

Game-On Soil ConditionerUse Game-On to reducecompaction of your infieldsurface. Game-On willincrease drainage andhelp prevent rainouts.

Game-DryGame-Dry is a unique prod-uct that soaks up wetspots and puddles. It canalso be worked into the

surface to help condition the soil.

Game-On RedGame-On Red is the perfect product to use asa topdressing. Your field will have the brick-red color of professional fields.

Game-On Warning TrackThis warning track product is durable and willnot break down quickly. It is available in grayor red.

Customers:Cuyahoga Community College, Cleveland, OH;Buchholz High School, Gainesville, FL; PikeHigh School, Indianapolis, IN; WestervilleCentral High School, Westerville, OH;Mendota High School, Mendota, IL.

Circle No. 218

COACHING MANAGEMENT 41

Circle No. 132

Circle No. 133

Page 44: Coaching Management 13.2

YOUR “ONE-STOP SOURCE”FOR AMERICA’S LEADING

BASEBALL SURFACES & SUPPLIES!

THE PROFESSIONAL’S CHOICE. . . SINCE 1922

Premium & Standard in 6 Colors!

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REGIONAL INFIELD MIXES ANDRED WARNING TRACKS FOR

EVERY STATE & CLIMATE FROMBULK PLANTS NATIONWIDE!

PLUS INFIELD CONDITIONERS:IF TOO HARD AND POORLY DRAINING!

THE REDDER, LESS DUSTY, MORE UNIFORMINFIELD CONDITIONER & DRYING AGENT

FOR CONSISTENT INFIELD CUSHIONIN WET OR DRY WEATHER!

DIAMOND PRO®

IMPROVES DRAINAGE & ENHANCES COLOR!IF TOO SOFT & DUSTY!

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FOR FIRM, YET RESILIENT, PLAYING SURFACES

TO QUICKLY DRY INFIELDS!The Original & Most Absorbent is Now

OVER 200 OTHER INFIELD PRODUCTS!

WALL PADDING • WINDSCREEN • RAIL PADDINGTAMPERS • DRAG MATS • RAKES

HOLLYWOOD® BASES • FIELD MARKING MACHINESBATTING PRACTICE COVERS • RAIN COVERSPERMA-MOUND™ PADS • MOUND BRICKS

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PERMANENT FOUL LINES & MUCH MORE!FOR INSTRUCTIONS & BROCHURESwww.BEAMCLAY.com800-247-BEAM

908-637-4191 / FAX 908-637-8421PARTAC PEAT CORPORATION

KELSEY PARK, GREAT MEADOWS, NJ 07838

“The best infield mix I’ve ever used.” — GEORGE TOMA

Circle No. 134

P R O D U C T S D I R E C T O R YCIRCLE COMPANY PAGE CIRCLE COMPANY PAGENO. NO. NO. NO

246 . . . . Adroit Technologies (hitting drills) . . . 48

247 . . . . Adroit Technologies (professional swing). . 48

248 . . . . Aer-Flo (Bunt Zone Infield Protector) . . . 48

221 . . . . Aer-Flo (Wind Weighted Tarps) . . . . . . 43

223 . . . . Bannerman (Ballpark-47) . . . . . . . . . . 43

222 . . . . Bannerman (Diamond Master). . . . . . . 43

207 . . . . Beacon Athletics (catalog) . . . . . . . . 38

201 . . . . Beacon Athletics (nets and cages) . . . 35

224 . . . . BetterBaseball. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

205 . . . . Cages Plus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

236 . . . . Challenger Industries (baseball turf) . . 45

237 . . . . Challenger Industries (DURAPlay) . . . 45

217 . . . . Country Stone (Redfield) . . . . . . . . . 41

210 . . . . Diamond Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

225 . . . . Earth & Turf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

270 . . . . eFundraising.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

226 . . . . Fair-Play Scoreboards (BA-7120). . . . 43

227 . . . . Fair-Play Scoreboards (MP-30) . . . . . 43

218 . . . . Game-On Field Conditioner . . . . . 41

268 . . . . Gatorade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

266 . . . . Goldner Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

240 . . . . Hoosier Bat Company . . . . . . . . . . 46

231 . . . . Jaypro (batting cage). . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

230 . . . . Jaypro (bleachers). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

202 . . . . JUGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

267 . . . . K&K Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

200 . . . . M.A.S.A. Products . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

213 . . . . Mar-Co Clay Products . . . . . . . . . 40

250 . . . . Markwort (practice glove). . . . . . . . . . 48

249 . . . . Markwort (Speed Sensor) . . . . . . . . . . 48

251 . . . . Master Pitching Machine . . . . . . . 48

219 . . . . Partac/Beam Clay . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

253 . . . . PIK Products (Grand Slam). . . . . . . . . 48

252 . . . . PIK Products (Swift Stik) . . . . . . . . . . 48

254 . . . . Pitcher’s Mate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

228 . . . . Plus5 Field Marker (Imerys) . . . . . . . 43

256 . . . . Power Systems (Baseball Power Program). . 49

208 . . . . Power Systems (catalog) . . . . . . . . . 38

255 . . . . Power Systems (Power Throw Balls) . . . 49

214 . . . . Pro’s Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

229 . . . . ProMow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

211 . . . . Red Diamond (Moltan Co.) . . . . . . . . 39

245 . . . . Russell Athletic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

215 . . . . Southern Athletic Fields (infield mix) . 40

232 . . . . Southern Athletic Fields (product line) . 44

206 . . . . SPI Nets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

262 . . . . Sports Attack (Hack Attack) . . . . . . . . 51

263 . . . . Sports Attack (Track Attack) . . . . . . . 51

264 . . . . Sports Sensors (Glove Radar). . . . . . . 51

260 . . . . Sports Sensors (Swing Speed Radar) . . . 50

257 . . . . Sports Tutor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

233 . . . . Sporturf. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

216 . . . . Stabilizer Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

241 . . . . Stalker Radar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

204 . . . . TLI Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

269 . . . . TPX Top 96 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

242 . . . . TurboStats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

212 . . . . Turface (Profile Products) . . . . . . . . . . 39

235 . . . . Turfco (Edge-R-Rite) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

234 . . . . Turfco (Mete-R-Matic XL) . . . . . . . . . . 44

203 . . . . Vantage Products Int’l. . . . . . . . . . 35

244 . . . . WSI Sports (MICROTECH) . . . . . . . . . 47

243 . . . . WSI Sports (PRO WikMax Slider) . . . . . 47

258 . . . . Xvest (Don Chu) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

259 . . . . Xvest (Fire Fighter model) . . . . . . . . . . 50

261 . . . . Zingbat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

A D V E R T I S E R S D I R E C T O R YCIRCLE COMPANY PAGE CIRCLE COMPANY PAGENO. NO. NO. NO.

105 . . . . Aer-Flo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

147 . . . . Bannerman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IBC

110 . . . . Beacon Athletics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

111 . . . . BetterBaseball. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

133 . . . . Cages Plus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

114 . . . . Challenger Industries . . . . . . . . . . 23

118 . . . . Diamond Pro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

132 . . . . Earth & Turf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

142 . . . . eFundraising.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

103 . . . . Fair-Play Scoreboards . . . . . . . . . . . 7

122 . . . . Game-On Field Conditioner . . . . . 33

101 . . . . Gatorade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

139 . . . . Goldner Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

125 . . . . Hoosier Bat Company . . . . . . . . . . 36

127 . . . . JUGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

120 . . . . K&K Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

106 . . . . M.A.S.A. Products (catalog) . . . . . . . 12

113 . . . . M.A.S.A. Products (Fence Cap) . . . . . 22

135 . . . . Mar-Co Clay Products . . . . . . . . . 44

130 . . . . Markwort Sporting Goods. . . . . . . 39

124 . . . . Master Pitching Machine. . . . . . . . 36

134 . . . . Partac/Beam Clay . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

119 . . . . PIK Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

145 . . . . Pitcher’s Mate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

109 . . . . Plus5 Field Marker (Imerys) . . . . . . . 19

112 . . . . Power Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

131 . . . . Pro Style (Adroit Technologies) . . . . . . 39

107 . . . . Pro’s Choice Field Products . . . . . 13

141 . . . . ProMow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

104 . . . . Red Diamond R.B.I.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

116 . . . . Redfield by Country Stone . . . . . . 26

140 . . . . Seating Services, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . 47

143 . . . . Southern Athletic Fields . . . . . . . . 49

136 . . . . SPI Nets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

108 . . . . Sports Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

137 . . . . Sports Sensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

123 . . . . Sports Tutor (HomePlate) . . . . . . . . . 34

128 . . . . Sporturf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

129 . . . . Stabilizer Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

146 . . . . Stalker Radar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

138 . . . . TLI Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

117 . . . . TPX Top 96. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

144 . . . . TurboStats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

148 . . . . Turface Athletics . . . . . . . . . . . . . BC

102 . . . . Turfco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

100 . . . . Vantage Products Int’l. . . . . . . . . IFC

149 . . . . White Line Equipment Co. . . . . . . 22

115 . . . . WSI Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

121 . . . . Xvest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

126 . . . . Zingbat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Page 45: Coaching Management 13.2

Baseball Field

Aer-Flo, Inc.800-823-7356WWW.AERFLO.COM

Wind Weighted™ baseball/softball tarpsare virtually windproof. These patent-pend-ing covers for the mound, home base, and

bullpenshave a steelchain in theiredge hem,so they stay

down in windy conditions. No stakes orsandbags are necessary. The installerdevice allows installation in 25 secondsby only two people. The tough, waterproof14-oz. vinyl-polyester fabric is treatedagainst UV and mildew exposure. WindWeighted tarps and installers take thedrudgery out of the game.

Circle No. 221

Bannerman Ltd.800-665-2596WWW.SPORTSTURFMAGIC.COM

Restore your diamond’s luster in 20 min-utes or less. Bannerman Ltd.manufactures groomers that will level and

care forbaseballdiamonds,warningtracks, andwalkingtrails. The

B-DM-6 Diamond Master® has fivegrooming tools, including: Ripper Blade,Rake, Leveler, Roller, and Finishing Brush.Options available: Extension Wing BrushKit, Hydraulic Tractor Top Link, 50-gallonWater Tank with spray nozzle, Long Tine“Fluffing” Rake, and New HighwayTransport Kit.

Circle No. 222

When your players’ safety comes first,look to Bannerman Ltd, manufacturers ofgroomers that are used to shape, level,

and care forbaseballdiamonds.The B-BP-4Ballpark-47(shown) andthe B-BP-6Ballpark-67

models have five tools: ripper blade, rake,leveler, roller, and brush. Available acces-sories include: a wing brush kit, a top linkkit, a 50-gallon water tank kit with spray

nozzle, and the new highway transport kit.Circle No. 223

BetterBaseball800-997-4233WWW.BETTERBASEBALL.COM

BetterBaseball is a total baseball supplyhouse, specializing in nets and battingcages that are custom-cut to any size youwant. The company provides quick, friend-

ly customerservice.BetterBaseballsupplies every-thing, includingbases, plates,mounds, gear,and hardware,

and it can all be found atBetterBaseball.com or by calling the com-pany.

Circle No. 224

Earth & Turf Products, LLC888-693-2638WWW.EARTHANDTURF.COM

Earth & Turf Products has announced therelease of its Model 24D TruFlow™, apush-type topdresser for dry, flowablematerials, including calcined clay on base-

ball fields. It fea-tures a threecubic-foot capacity,an eight-inch (diam-eter) dispersaldrum, a spreadingpattern 24 incheswide, and anadjustable front

gate opening. This topdresser has a sim-ple, four-wheel design, with 4.80/4.00-eight drive tires, and 4.00-six transporttires.

Circle No. 225

Fair-Play Scoreboards800-247-0265WWW.FAIR-PLAY.COM

It’s always a great day at the ballpark withthe Fair-Play model BA-7120 scoreboard.Wide, bright amber LED digits track the

scoreinning-by-inning,togetherwith balls,

strikes, and outs. Easy to operate and vir-tually maintenance-free, this scoreboard is

ideal for high school and college programsalike. Pair your scoreboard with team andsponsor signage for a fan-pleasing presen-tation. Catch the spirit of Fair-Play—calltoday for a free catalog.

Circle No. 226

Fair-Play makes scoring a game as easyas watching one with the new MP-30scoreboard controller. This sleek

handheldcontrollerincludes asimple touchpad to con-

trol scores, innings, balls, strikes, andouts. Pair our handheld controller with asolid performer like the BA-7200scoreboard and play ball. Call today for afree catalog.

Circle No. 227

Imerys800-552-9671WWW.PLUS5LINEMARKER.COM

The PLUS 5® field marker is nowavailable from Imerys. This marker is pre-ferred by coaches and groundskeepers for

its brighter white linesand ease of use. It’sgood for turf and harm-less to skin and cloth-ing. PLUS 5 is licensedas the official markingmaterial of the National

Federation of State High SchoolAssociations. Call Imerys today or goonline to learn more.

Circle No. 228

ProMow, Inc.877-477-6669WWW.4APROMOW.COM

Your field of dreams can be like the “bigleagues” in less time than ever. It takesless than 20 minutes to cut a football

field size area withProMow. It’s idealfor use with yourexisting field main-tenance equipmentbecause low horse-power is required.The reel cut is thechoice ofprofessionals,

because it results in greener, healthierturf. ProMow is ideal for all types of sportsfields. You can see the difference.

Circle No. 229

COACHING MANAGEMENT 43

Check out www.AthleticBid.com to contact these companies.

Page 46: Coaching Management 13.2

Baseball Field

Jaypro Sports, LLC800-243-0533WWW.JAYPRO.COM

Jaypro’s Powder-Coated Bleachers arelightweight, strong, and stable, with optionsof galvanized steel, all-aluminum, and pow-

der-coated.They areavailable inthree, four,or five rows.

The powder-coat finish makes the bleachersmore durable, attractive, and scratch-resis-tant. Other bleacher companies offercustom coloring only on the seats—Jayprooffers a range of colors for both the seatsand the understructure. Pick your team’scolor combination to give a uniform look toyour playing field, gymnasium, or stadium.

Circle No. 230

Jaypro’s Little Slam batting cage offersheavy-duty construction and a full line offeatures. Designed for collegiate and high

school use, itmeasures 17’6” wide x 12’deep x 12’high. The cageis constructedof two-inch

heavy wall aluminum and easily folds andcollapses to a height of just five feet. Itincludes a climatized nylon net and a rico-chet cushion to reduce rebound and framedamage. The Little Slam can be transport-ed easily on three pneumatic turf wheels.

Circle No. 231

Southern Athletic Fields800-837-8062WWW.MULEMIX.COM

Southern Athletic Fields (SAF) specializesin a wide variety of quality products. Some

of these prod-ucts include:infield mixes,mound and

packing clays, soil conditioners/calcinedclays, drying agents, infield topdressing,warning track materials, and field-mainte-nance accessories. SAF is your one-stopsource for athletic field needs.

Circle No. 232

Sporturf800-798-1056WWW.SPORTURF.COM

Sporturf was founded in 1976 and reignsas the oldest owner-operated turf manufac-

turer in the world. The turf industry hasseen many changes, but Sporturf providesthe stability and experience you demand.

Sporturfmanufac-tures AllSport, a

synthetic turf made with monofilamentpolypropylene yarn designed to withstandsteel spikes. The company also offers ringsof turf to surround home plate areas, cus-tom logos for synthetic fields, batter’s boxarea mats, field covers and protectors, andseveral other types of synthetic turf forbaseball facilities.

Circle No. 233

Turfco Manufacturing763-785-1000WWW.TURFCO.COM

The Turfco Mete-R-Matic® XL tow-type top-dresser offers increased hopper capacity tocover larger turf areas on sports fields. It

combinesTurfco’s patent-ed Mete-R-Matic chevronbelt design andground drivesystem to

ensure even distribution of topdressingmaterials, regardless of moisture contentor vehicle speed. As a result, the Mete-R-Matic XL is the easiest to use, most con-sistent large-area topdresser available.With a hopper capacity of 2.25 cubic yards(1.72 cubic meters), it can carry a load ofup to 6,000 lbs.

Circle No. 234

Unlike traditional rotary edgers, the TurfcoEdge-R-Rite’s unique oscillating blade cutsturf without throwing debris, making it

cleaner and saferto use in high-traf-fic areas. It elimi-nates spade orshovel edging andleaves a profes-sional-lookingedge. The right-

angle blade edges baseball diamonds, golfcourse bunkers, and flower beds.Additional blades can be added to edgesidewalks, curbs, and driveways, and tomake cuts for drainage or install all sortsof edging. Depth control can be easilyadjusted up to four inches. The Edge-R-Riteis built with a solid-steel frame and a trac-tion-assist drive.

Circle No. 235

44 COACHING MANAGEMENT

Circle No. 135

Page 47: Coaching Management 13.2

Baseball Field

Challenger Industries, Inc.800-334-8873WWW.CHALLENGERIND.COM

Challenger offers the new TT33 baseballfield turf. The latest in synthetic turf tech-

nology, it’sgreat for cov-ering theentire field,foul ballareas, or just

the infield. The company also offers the“Permanent” home plate mat, with inlaidbatter’s box lines and home plate. Withthis product, you’ll no longer need to re-paint season after season. The new“Permanent” home plate mat will bemade with the same high-quality athleticturf as before, complete with a 5-mm ure-thane cushion.

Circle No. 236

DURAPlay home plate baseball and soft-ball mats, from Challenger Industries, canbe used anywhere a home plate area is

needed.Whether cover-ing the batter’sbox for protec-tion or estab-lishing a home

plate area indoors or out, these durablemats create batter’s boxes that are idealfor either sport. Pre-cut mats are availablefor fungo/on-deck circles, pitchingmounds, and single batter’s boxes.Synthetic turf products are also available,for batting cages, dugouts, or the wholefield, and installation is available as well.Contact Challenger for more information.

Circle No. 237

SEATING SERVICES800-552-9470 WWW.SEATINGSERVICES.COM

Seating Services, manufacturer of qualitystadium chairs, has introduced theCardinal Model Series 3500 tip-up chairfor use in settings with narrow row

spacing—as narrowas 27 inches. Theseblow-molded chairsare gravity tip. Theyhave no springs orpins, which savesmoney in threeways: The chairs areless expensive tomanufacture, install,

and maintain. They are designed for instal-lation on concrete or steel/aluminumgrandstands. Seat widths can range from18-22 inches. Many available colors andoptions make these an excellent way toseat more fans in a limited space.

Circle No. 238

COACHING MANAGEMENT 45

Check out www.AthleticBid.com to contact these companies.

Untitled-1 1 8/25/04 9:51:28 AM

IT’S A DOPPLER RADAR DOUBLE PLAY!Developing Hitting and Throwing Skills HasNever Been So Convenient or Affordable!

GLOVE RADAR ® is the ideal aid for developingthe throwing skills of infielders, outfielders,pitchers, and catchers. Use it for training,tossing, warming-up, or just having fun!

Easily attached to virtually any baseball orsoftball glove, GLOVE RADAR’s accurate to within1 mph of radar guns costing considerably more.Its low cost, compact design, and remarkableversatility make GLOVE RADAR ® thesmart choice for teams and individual players.

From the inventors of the Glove Radar,®the NEWSwing Speed Radar™ determines your optimumswing speed for your best distance, quicknessand bat control/ball contact. You can determineswing and bat characteristics that achieve thebest results. The Swing Speed Radar ™ featuressimple one-button operation and a large LCDdisplay. Rugged, compact design makes itconvenient to carry and use.It’s not how hard you swing,but how well you swing!

Works great for golf, too!For more information, call toll-free: 1-888-542-9246.Or, visit our websites at: www.swingspeedradar.comor www.gloveradar.com

SPORTS SENSORS, INC.P.O. BOX 46198CINCINNATI, OH 45246-0198

Untitled-2 1 1/27/05 4:18:14 PM

Circle No. 136Circle No. 137

Page 48: Coaching Management 13.2

Team Equipment

Hoosier Bat Co.800-228-3787WWW.HOOSIERBAT.COM

Hoosier Bat Co. makes an all-ash bat,used by many major and minor leagueplayers, and a patented three-piecewood bat, the Woodforce 2000, that’s

now NCAA-approved.With ash in

the handle, hickory in the sweet spot,and maple on the barrel end, this batprovides a solid sweet spot that will notflake, while retaining the same look andfeel as a traditional all-ash bat. All ofHoosier’s bats are made from qualitywood and crafted to exacting standards.

Circle No. 240

Stalker Radar888-STALKERWWW.STALKERRADAR.COM

The ultra high-performance Stalker Sportradar gun precisely measures the speedof a baseball as it leaves the pitcher’s

hand, andalso readsthe speed asit crosses theplate. Thesespeeds candiffer by up to12 mph. TheStalker Sport

is three times more powerful than anyother sports radar gun, and can accurate-ly clock pitches from over 300 feet away.A new double-capacity battery handle isavailable, providing up to 40 hours ofuse between charges. All Major LeagueBaseball teams use the Stalker Sport.

Circle No. 241

TurboStats Software800-60-STATSWWW.TURBOSTATS.COM

TurboStats Software has released Version12.0 for Baseball/Softball, whichcombines the same proven stat tracking

technology used byover 10,000 teams,with innovative newfeatures like spraycharting, stats bycount, and pitching his-tory reports. Coaches’jobs are made easierby combining apractice planner, score-

book page designer, league scheduling,computerized batting orders, and a drag-n-drop lineup card designed with live gamescorekeeping on a Palm OS. With Version12.0, coaches can now view stats by pitchcount, pitch type, and location and caneven print color coded spray chart-

Check out www.AthleticBid.com to contact these companies.

46 COACHING MANAGEMENT

turbolink151.indd 1 1/28/05 10:37:59 AM

Medals, Pins & Patches

• Custom designs created by you• Any size – any shape• Up to 5 colors on medals, price includes drape ribbon, event card and poly bag• Stock medals for speedy delivery

800-251-2656In TN: 615-244-3007Fax: 615-244-5937

[email protected]

231 Venture CircleNashville, TN 37228

Something for everyone!

• Up to 7 colors on custom patches, patches 50%-100% embroidered• No setups or die charges• Minimum order 100 pieces• Delivery in 3-5 weeks

Custom & Stock Items

goldner 129.indd 1 9/24/04 11:37:47 AM

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Page 49: Coaching Management 13.2

Team Equipment

diagrams. The statistical information canbe manually entered or imported directlyinto the Palm OS. TurboStats alsoreleased Version 6.0 of ScoreKeeper thatnow includes pitch charting along with livegame scorebook style data entry andspray charting. TurboStats ScoreKeeperhas been helping teams win champion-ships for several years since it has beenintroduced and is endorsed by KenGriffey, Sr. In addition, TurboStats hasalso released a new scouting tool calledTurboScout, which creates batter vs.pitcher and pitcher vs. batter reports forall pitch types, locations, and outcomes.TurboScout retails for $69.95.

Circle No. 242

WSI Sports651-994-9945WWW.WSISPORTS.COM

PRO WikMax Slider™ is made with themost advanced fabric available on theplanet today. PRO WikMax™ wicks mois-

ture away far better than any other prod-uct, period. The comfortable four-waystretch fabric provides custom fit to every-

one.Thesuperdura-

bility of PRO WikMax will actually help pro-tect the skin from abrasions, and it willlast a lifetime. A built-in second layer onthe hip offers extra protection.

Circle No. 243

Check out the new MICROTECH™ fromWSI, the global leaders in moisture man-agement. This product comes in 15 differ-

ent colors and is available for less thanhalf the price of Under Armour. WSI’steam program includes custom orders.Picture this: your team colors with yourteam logo, plus a free coach’s shirt. Youcan get all this at a team price that’s less

than half the price of Under Armour. Youcan’t go wrong with WSI.

Circle No. 244

Russell AthleticWWW.RUSSELLATHLETIC.COM

While your players are warming up beforethe game, this lightweight Russell AthleticBatting Practice Pull-Over will keep them

cool and dry, with itsmoisture-wickingstretch fabric. Madewith 86 percent poly-ester and 14 percentstretch, this new2005 style is softand comfortable,and allows for

increased freedom of movement. It alsofeatures mesh inserts for increasedbreathability, and notched ends so playerscan wear it inside of or over theiruniforms.

Circle No. 245

Check out www.AthleticBid.com to contact these companies.

COACHING MANAGEMENT 47

“THE REEL MOWER”Mowers for home, sports and commercial

8318 Clinton Park Dr., Fort Wayne, IN 46825Phone: 260-482-6699 • Fax 260-482-6688

877-477-6669www.promow.com

• Cut your mowing timeby 2/3!

• Manicured results• Zero turn radius• Floating reels follow the

contour of turf• Suturing cut of the grass

promotes a healthy, lush lawn• Environmentally friendly,

less gas, oil & exhaust• Low hp requirements• Low maintenance• Easy to sharpen yourself• Mow up to 5 acres per hour

CALL FOR SPECIALS

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seatingservices129.indd 1 9/24/04 12:12:14 PM

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Page 50: Coaching Management 13.2

Practice Aids

Adroit Technologies, Inc.866-317-0141WWW.ASTUTEED.NET/PROSTYLE

The new video by John Mallee, TeachingHitting Drills Pro Style, is an exceptionalcollection of drills put together in a superbteaching sequence to help hitters reach

their full potential.The video begins withMallee explaining theseven progressivesteps he uses toteach hitters to mas-ter his hittingconcepts. Then hedelves into a numberof key hitting topics,such as early strideseparation, top-hand

pronation, and fungo drills. This videoshould be required viewing for hitters andhitting coaches at all levels.

Circle No. 246

In his new video by Adroit Technologies,entitled Teaching the Professional SwingPro Style, former major leaguer and cur-rent hitting coach John Mallee outlines an

instructional programthat teaches battersto be mechanicallysound. Key areascovered includestance, weight trans-fer, stride separation,pre-swing movement,body posture duringthe swing, approachto contact, and

follow-through. The video can be an effec-tive tool for coaches and players at anylevel.

Circle No. 247

Aer-Flo, Inc.800-823-7356WWW.AERFLO.COM

The Bunt Zone™ Infield Protectordoubles as the perfect target-training sys-tem for bunting practice. It uses three

color-codedzones:Yellow is thebunt-for-hittarget area;green is thesacrifice bunt

zone; and red is the bad bunt zone.Players get instant feedback at every prac-tice. Tough 9-oz. vinyl-polyester mesh sur-vives spike traffic. The Bunt Zone (patentspending) provides maximum turf protection

while improving team bunting skills.Ground staples are included.

Circle No. 248

Markwort Sporting Goods800-937-4824WWW.MARKWORT.COM

The Markwort Speed Sensor 9” Baseballprovides an easy, accurate way tomeasure pitch speeds up to 120 mph.Just press start, throw the ball, and the

LCD indicatordisplays thespeed in mphupon impact. It’sthe same officialsize and weightas a regulationbaseball, andcan be used as

a training aid for any age or skill level.GripSense technology begins to record thespeed automatically the moment the ballis released. This ball is not designed forcontact with bats or other hard surfaces.

Circle No. 249

Markwort’s Original Practice Glove teach-es the fundamentals of fielding the ballproperly. It promotes two-handed play by

forcing the ath-lete to be cen-tered on theball. It alsohelps developa quick transi-tion fromcatching tothrowing. Thisnine-inch

leather glove doesn’t bend, doesn’t havea pocket, and won’t repel the ball.

Circle No. 250

Master Pitching Machine, Inc.800-878-8228WWW.MASTERPITCH.COM

The “Iron Mike” pitching machinefeatures a throwing arm that lets the bat-ter see a full wind-up before the ball ispitched, allowing him or her to betterdevelop the fundamental skills used when

facing a live pitch-er. That capabilitymakes the “IronMike” the preferredpitching machine ofprofessional andamateur playersand coaches. Allmachines are self-feeding, include a

remote control, and carry amanufacturer’s warranty.

Circle No. 251

Swift Stik877-845-7845WWW.SWIFTSTIK.COM

Swift Stik is the fastest way to improveyour swing. This easy-to-use, lightweighttraining bat is great for baseball and soft-ball, letting you take hundreds of extraswings. You’re guaranteed to get fast

results. Swift Stik improves hand-eye coor-dination, builds muscle memory, helpsincrease bat speed, and teaches the hit-ter to hit the “sweet spot.” Swift Stik isendorsed by professional hitting instructorMike Epstein and University of TennesseeBaseball Coach Rod Delmonico. It is avail-able in 34” and 30” sizes and has apatented, adjustable foam sweet spot.Swift Stik is packaged with an instruction-al video and four golf ball-sized Wiffle®balls. This product should be used onlywith tennis, Wiffle®, or soft foam balls.Visit the company’s Web site for testimo-nials.

Circle No. 252

Grand Slam Pitching Machine800-GRAND SLAMWWW.AGRANDSLAM.COM

Grand Slam is the most effective pitchingmachine on the market for developing ahitter’s hand-eye coordination. Its reservoirholds up to 100 golf ball-sized Wiffle®balls and fires a pitch every eight

seconds. Eachpitch is guaran-teed to hit thestrike zone, butin varying loca-tions. Standing16-20 feet fromthe GrandSlam, a hitter

can experience pitches of over 90 mph.The pitch speed is adjustable. The GrandSlam is great for indoor and outdoor prac-tice and is safe to use. Powered by adurable blower motor, the Grand Slam willlast for years, because there are no mov-ing wheels to wear down. The productincludes 48 golf ball-sized Wiffle® ballsand comes with a three-month satisfactionguarantee.

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48 COACHING MANAGEMENT

Page 51: Coaching Management 13.2

Practice Aids

Pitcher's Mate270-586-6186WWW.PITCHERS-MATE.COM

Used by college and pro teams, Pitcher’sMate offers a reversible life-size target,featuring a 5’10” baseball batter and a

5’4” soft-ball bat-ter. Thistargethas apass-

through, four-section strike zone.Constructed of tough material and astainless steel frame, the target weighsonly 28 lbs. and is easy to set up andmove. Use it indoors or outdoors for seri-ous off-season throwing practice.

Circle No. 254

Power Systems, Inc.800-321-6975WWW.POWER-SYSTEMS.COM

Develop dynamic strength through the fullrange of the throwing motion with weightedPower Throw Balls™. These durable ballsare official baseball size and are availablein three weights: 7 oz., 14 oz., and 21 oz.

As conditioningprogresses, grad-ually increase theweight of the ballto meet your train-ing challenge.They can also beused for upper-

body rehabilitation. Power Throw Balls arecolor-coded by weight and consist of arugged vinyl shell and filling. Softball sizeis available as well. An instruction manualand VHS or DVD are also available.Contact Power Systems for more informa-tion on other products and programs.

Circle No. 255

The Baseball Power Program, exclusivelyfrom Power Systems, is a 12-week train-ing program designed to bolster the per-formance of baseball athletes. Thepackage includes equipment to develop

the speed,agility, andexplosivenessneeded to excelin this verycompetitivesport. The pro-

gram includes: a Pro Agility Ladder™, a 6-lb. Power Med-Ball™, a Lateral Stepper™,a VersaDisc™, a large Power Chute™, aPower Throw-Ball™ set, a nylon carry bag,the Power Program Manual, and yourchoice of a VHS tape or a DVD. The videoshows the proper way to use theequipment, and the training manual takesyou step by step through the program.Contact Power Systems for more informa-tion on other products and programs.

Circle No. 256

Check out www.AthleticBid.com to contact these companies.

COACHING MANAGEMENT 49

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Circle No. 142

• Mar Mound Clay• Infield Mixes• Field Conditioners• Drying Agents• Warning Trac• Infield Topdressing• Various Field

Accessories

800.837.8062www.mulemix.com

SouthernAthletic Fields...

...your complete sourcefor all athletic field

needs!

Circle No. 143

Page 52: Coaching Management 13.2

Practice Aids

Sports Tutor800-448-8867WWW.SPORTSMACHINES.COM

The HomePlate machine from Sports Tutoris the first programmable pitching machinedesigned for both batting cage and on-field

use. The HomePlatemachine can simulatealmost any pitcher youare likely to face. It canthrow a 90-mph fastball,followed by a 75-mphcurve, followed by achange-up, followed by aslider, with only sevenseconds between pitch-es. You can store up to

eight different pitches in each of eight dif-ferent programs. The programmed pitchescan be thrown sequentially (for specific hit-ting drills), or randomly (to simulate gameconditions). HomePlate models start at$2,995.

Circle No. 257

Xvest800-697-5658WWW.THEXVEST.COM

“I have found the Xvest to be an excellenttool for providing overloads in plyometric,strength training, conditioning, and rehabili-

tation programs. Thefit and adaptabilityare excellent. TheXvest allows freedomof movement anddoesn’t interfere withany of the agility,bounding, or runningprograms that I writefor a wide variety ofathletes, collegiateand professional.

The Xvest has proven itself in myprograms. Thank you for all your efforts andhelp in improving my capability as astrength and conditioning specialist.”—Donald A. Chu, Ph.D., PT, ATC, CSCS,author of Jumping Into Plyometrics.

Circle No. 258

Xvest has a new weight configuration, andit’s heavy: 84 pounds of heavy. The newXvest, known as the Fire Fighter model,was developed especially for fire fightersand their rigorous training. It has the samebasic design as the original Xvest, butinternally it has a new weight configuration

that allows for 84pounds of weight.Because of the ability toadjust weight like theoriginal Xvest, everyonefrom body builders to mil-itary personnel is buyingthem. For more informa-tion on all the Xvestmodels, call the compa-ny or visit its Web site.

Circle No. 259

Swing Speed Radar™800-589-3805WWW.SWINGSPEEDRADAR.COM

The new Swing Speed Radar™ fromSports Sensors, Inc. is a small,inexpensive microwave Doppler radar veloc-

ity sensor that mea-sures the swingspeed of baseballand softball players.The Swing SpeedRadar helps playersto develop optimumbat speed fordistance, quickness,and bat control forconsistent ball con-

tact. The Swing Speed Radar provides real-time velocity feedback that assists players,coaches, and instructors in measuring per-formance improvement and trouble-shoot-ing swing mechanics. This product is alsogreat for golfers.

Circle No. 260

Zingbat™866-ZINGBATWWW.ZINGBAT.COM

Zingbat™ has introduced the new “trainer”series of the Zingbat line. This economical-ly priced version of the regular “pro” series

Zingbat is ideal foryouth players. The newtrainer allows the batterto learn basic swingmechanics. The “com-posite Zingbat trainer”comes in one lengthand weight (30 inches,17 ounces), while the

aluminum “pro” series can be customizedto meet specific length and weight require-ments. Call today for a free instructionalCD or video.

Circle No. 261

Check out www.AthleticBid.com to contact these companies.

Great Products andSupport Make forSatisfied Customers“We have purchased one softball tensionbatting cage and two baseball tension bat-ting cages in the past three years. These

cagesgive usthe oppor-tunity toturn asmallarea into

a multipurpose area. Every night, we canturn a small exercise room into a hittingarea with two cages. At the end of thenight, we take down the cages and theroom is ready for any activity.”

Joe RedaAthletic Director/Baseball CoachBloom Township High School, IL

“The reason I like Beacon Athletics thebest is that they seem to be constantly try-ing to find new and innovative products. Anexample of this would be the streamlinerinfield marker. This marker does a greatjob, is easy to use, and needs very littlemaintenance. We have always been veryhappy with the products and services pro-vided by Beacon Athletics.”

Paul KlinzingPark Supervisor/City Forester

Monroe Parks & Recreation Department

“Since starting with the Reds in 2001,Beacon Athletics has been extremely bene-ficial to us, providing excellent products andtechnical support. The staff has many yearsof experience dealing with baseball fieldson all levels. I never hesitate torecommend the products and expertise ofBeacon Athletics to others in the industry.”

Doug Gallant, Head GroundskeeperCincinnati Reds

Beacon Athletics2224 Pleasant View Rd., Ste. 6, Middleton, WI [email protected]

WWW.BEACONATHLETICS.COM

Testimonial

50 COACHING MANAGEMENT

Page 53: Coaching Management 13.2

Practice Aids

Sports Attack800-717-4251WWW.SPORTSATTACK.COM

The Hack Attack Baseball PitchingMachine features an exclusive design thatallows the hitter to see the ball clearly allthe way through the feeding motion, accel-

eration andrelease, justlike from a livepitcher. Thisvisual armaction signalsthe hitterwhen to strideand the angle

of release, giving him a live arm sense oftiming and location. The Hack Attack willthrow unmatched right- and left-handedmajor league fastballs and breaking pitch-es, including curveballs, sliders, sinkers,and knuckleballs. All this is accomplishedby simply changing the speed of the wheelswith three dials, eliminating time-consumingadjustments of the throwing head. Itinstantly switches to fungo work, pivoting in

any direction and with real game-like spin,simulates grounders, long fly balls, deepline drives, towering infield flies, andpopups for your catcher.

Circle No. 262

Sports Attack has introduced the TrackAttack Vision Training Machine, a qualityyear-round major-league training tool for hit-ters. Track Attack uses soft, limited-flightpitching machine balls that are 20% small-er than a baseball. It is a valuable hitting

stationbecause itforces the hit-ter to track andfocus on thecenter of theball, and keephis head downcausing thefront shoulder

and hips to stay in. Use it on an indoor oroutdoor surface, gym surface, or at home.A ball feeder is also available.

Circle No. 263

Glove Radar800-589-3805WWW.GLOVERADAR.COM

Turn any ball glove into a radar speed gunwith Glove Radar®, featuring improvedsensitivity, from Sports Sensors, Inc. It’s

the ideal aid for devel-oping the throwingskills of infielders, out-fielders, pitchers, andcatchers. Glove Radaris easily attached toeither a baseball orsoftball glove and isworn by the receiver of

the ball—or multiple partners—in non-game situations. It utilizes Doppler radar,like conventional handheld radar speedguns. It is not an impact sensor or timer.Glove Radar “sees” through the glove andmeasures the speed of the ball as itapproaches the glove. Unlike most radarspeed guns, a long-range capability is notrequired—Glove Radar performs accuratelyat any throwing distance.

Circle No. 264

COACHING MANAGEMENT 51

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Untitled-1 1 9/14/04 4:35:20 PM

Circle No. 144 Circle No. 145 Circle No. 146

Page 54: Coaching Management 13.2

More Products

Goldner Associates, Inc.800-251-2656WWW.GOLDNERASSOCIATES.COM

Goldner Associates has been a leadingsupplier of medals, pins, and patches for40 years. The company can create cus-

tom designsin any size orshape, andstock itemsare also avail-

able. Looking for an item with your teamlogo? As a top-50 distributor, Goldneroffers a full line of promotional products,including team caps and t-shirts, trophiesand awards, fundraising items, give-aways, and much more.

Circle No. 266

K&K Insurance260-459-5933WWW.KANDKINSURANCE.COM

K&K Insurance is dedicated to providingcustomized insurance programs foryouth and adult sports activities, ranging

from week-end recre-ationalleagues toworld-class

competition in a wide variety of sports.K&K’s innovative coverage, riskevaluation, and claims handling results inprograms designed to meet the needs ofathletes, officials, spectators, and admin-istrators involved in amateur and profes-sional sports.

Circle No. 267

Gatorade800-88GATORWWW.GATORADE.COM

After years of extensive research, scien-tists at the Gatorade Sports Science

Institute have developedGatorade Endurance Formulafor athletes’ longer, moreintense workouts and com-petitions. GatoradeEndurance Formula is a spe-cialized sports drink with afive-electrolyte blend contain-ing nearly twice the sodium(200 mg) and three timesthe potassium (90 mg) of

Gatorade Thirst Quencher to more fullyreplace what athletes lose in sweat whenfluid and electrolyte losses become sub-stantial.

Circle No. 268

TPX Top 96508-655-9696WWW.TOP96.COM

Top 96 is adding a dozen or more invita-tional baseball showcase events for highschool ballplayers throughout the UnitedStates to its schedule. These will model

the organi-zation’sNewEnglandshowcase,now enter-ing its 12th

year. Each two-day event presents the top144 players in an area. College coachesand pro scouts can see young players inboth pro-style workouts and simulatedgames. Events are planned in northernand southern California, Connecticut,Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts,Michigan, New York City, upstate NewYork, Pennsylvania, South Carolina,Florida, and Tennessee. Go online tolearn more or to apply.

Circle No. 269

eFundraising866-825-2921WWW.EFUNDRAISING.COM

Try eFundraising’s On-line FundraisingProgram, a new way to raise moneyquickly and easily. With your free, person-alized Web site, complete with amagazine store, your supporters can pur-chase magazine subscriptions on-line and

40 percentof each pur-chaseamount willgo back toyour group.Simply enterthe site andsend e-mailsto friends

and family across America, inviting themto visit your on-line store and buy, renew,or extend their magazine subscriptions tohelp support your group. They’ll save upto 85 percent off the newsstand price onover 650 magazine titles while you earn40-percent profit.

Circle No. 270

Superior Productsfor a Well-Maintained FieldDiamond Pro® professionalgroundskeeping products are used bythousands of professional sports teams,schools, municipalities, and youthleagues across the country.Professionalism, superior products, andoutstanding customer service are just afew of the many reasons Diamond Prohas reached this level.

“Diamond Pro gives me first class qualityand look.”

Jeff KershawLouisiana State University

“Diamond Pro has helped in building oneof the best infields in baseball.”

Trever VanceKansas City Royals

“We play 31 games over nine days, rainor shine. Diamond Pro fulfills thatcommitment.”

Jim ScottLittle League Baseball, Inc.

Diamond Pro professional groundskeep-ing products deliver long-lastingperformance and quality while enhancingthe look and feel of a well-maintainedathletic field.

Diamond Pro1341 West Mockingbird LaneDallas, Texas [email protected]

WWW.DIAMONDPRO.COM

Testimonial

52 COACHING MANAGEMENT

Page 55: Coaching Management 13.2

41 Kelfield Street, Rexdale, Ontario, Canada M9W 5A3CANADA 1-800-325-4871 USA 1-800-665-2696www.sportsturfmagic.com

New to the Bannermanfamily of groomers is the B-MG-6 Master Groomer. Thisbrush unit is the “Quick andSlick” answer to working in lightto heavy topdressing and otherturf building materials down tothe base of the grasses, thatyou’ve only dreamed of, untilnow. For use on greens, tees,fairways, and all types ofsportsturf surfaces both syntheticand natural.

When the safety of your players comes first, look toBannerman, the leading Groomer manufacturer for over 24 years,to shape, level, and care for your baseball diamonds, warningtracks, and walking/bike trails. The B-BP-4 Ballpark-4® (shown) andthe B-BP-6 Ballpark-6®, B-DM-6 Diamond Master® (shown) modelshave five standard tools, including: Ripper Blade, Rake, Leveler,Roller, and Brush. Accessories available include: Wing Brush Kit, TopLink Kit, 50-gallon Water Tank Kitwith spray nozzle, and NEWHighway Transport Kit. Restoreyour diamond’s luster in 20 minutesor less with one of the industry’sleading groomers.

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Page 56: Coaching Management 13.2

MOST PLAYERS PREFER TO LAND ON TURFACESerious competitors at every level—from major

leagues to city rec—want the freedom to perform totheir fullest. And that’s exactly what Turface® delivers,through wet springs and dry summers onmore fields across America than any otherbrand. For over 40 years nobody’s done it better.

Become part of Turface Athletics anddramatically improve your playing surface—

guaranteed. You’ll get a broad range of infield and soilconditioners to prevent rainouts and maximize safety onany athletic field. You’ll also be connected to the industry’slargest network of sports field knowledge.

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