Local baseball clinic to promote fundamentals

Published 11:26 pm Thursday, February 9, 2006

It’s not often that you’ll see the Southeast Raiders and Northwest Bruins team up on the baseball diamond.

However, they’ll do just that on Saturday at the Diamond Academy off Cleveland Highway, as the Bruins and Raiders, in conjunction with the Whitfield County Recreation Department, present the first Whitfield County Baseball Coaching Clinic.

The one-day clinic gets under way with registration starting at 8 a.m. and costs $15 per person to attend.

Northwest head coach Todd Middleton said holding a clinic for coaches, parents and players is an idea he’s been thinking about for a while.

“(Southeast coach Jason Keller) asked me one time about doing it and it’s something I’d thought about, but had never had time to do,” said Middleton. “The thought process behind it is that the recreation department league feeds the middle school teams and the middle schools feed our programs, so we thought it would be good to get everyone on the same page.

“As high school coaches we are always attending clinics and listening to coaches talk about different subjects and I thought it would be good to do that around here.”

Keller said he’d been approached by parents about conducting a clinic in the past and thinks it can be a great teaching tool.

“All the way back to last year, we had a lot of support from parents and people asking me about doing a clinic so that people would be informed about baseball,” said Keller. “The WCRD can make coaches go to a clinic to be a coach, but to understand and learn how to teach baseball fundamentals the right way, this is a good opportunity.

“Sometimes a player is never taught the right way to do things until they get older or even reach high school, so this is a chance for parents, coaches and players to learn the correct way to teach hitting and pitching.”

Keller and Middleton — along with their assistant coaches and several college players who prepped at Northwest and Southeast — will handle most of the sessions, which deal with a wide range of subjects.

Sessions include talks on pitching and catching mechanics and drills, defensive mechanics, baserunning, hitting and bunting, practice organization, umpiring and coaching youth baseball and a question and answer period with the coaches.

Coaches, parents and players who attend the clinic will be given a handbook that features everything covered, so attendees will have a reference source when the WCRD season starts.

Middleton said he hasn’t fielded too many calls about the clinic, but is hopeful that coaches and parents will turn out Saturday.

“Registration is on Saturday morning,” Middleton said, “so hopefully we’ll get a good amount of people.

“Even if a coach or parent can’t come and stay all day, they can come for as long as they want and pick up some things.”

Keller said he hopes the clinic is just the first of many in the years to come.

“I’ve talked with two rec league coaches who are going to bring some players off their teams,” said Keller. “We’d like for this to become something that we do on an annual basis and have it grow each year as word gets out about it.”

For more information on the clinic, call Middleton at 581-2203 or Keller at (210) 313-3862.



When: Saturday

Where: The Diamond Academy

Time: Registration starts at 8 a.m.; first session at 9 a.m.

Cost: $15 per person

Schedule: 8 a.m. — Registration; 9 — Pitching mechanics and drills; 10 — Catching mechanics and drills; 10:50 — Groundball and Flyball defense; 1 p.m. — Baserunning; 1:20 — Hitting and Bunting; 2:45 — Practice organization; 3:05 — Team concepts (Bunt coverage, First and Third, Cutoffs and Relays); 3:30 — Umpiring Youth Baseball; 3:45 — Coaching Youth Baseball; 4 — Question and Answer Session