More than 25 young baseball players braved the thunder, lightning, sunshine and rainbows on Friday night and Saturday morning.
It was part of a four-hour clinic put on by local baseball coaches Dave Saad and Larry Tougas.
Tougas and Saad put the fun in practice by playing whiffle ball and tee ball mini games, and of course teaching the fundamentals of both hitting and fielding.
“We tell the kids we are not here to make them into ball players, we are showing them skills they have to work on that will help themselves make them into better ball players,” said Saad, the no nonsense instructor.
“Baseball is a difficult sport to practice, it’s repetition, repetition, repetition, and we are trying to show them the things they have to repeat. A lot of coaches say practice makes perfect, but practice makes permanent and if you are doing the wrong thing, you get really good at doing the wrong thing and what we are trying to do is show them the right thing.”
Baseball has been seeing a re-birth of sorts in North Bay, as the Blue Jays success seems to have rubbed off on young players who want to create their own memorable Bautista bat flip on North Bay baseball fields.
“It creates interest in the sport, they are watching it, they are getting excited about it,” said Saad.
“What we want is we want them to get excited about being a player. You can watch as much ball as you want but the real fun is in playing. We want them to have fun playing.”
With some youngsters telling the coaches they wish it was a week-long clinic, the two coaches realize the interest is there.
“That makes us feel good, that we are doing some things right here, they are having fun with it, they are picking up some information and that’s all we are going to talk about as we look forward to next year and the following years as to what we can do to improve upon the learning aspect and also the fun aspect,” Saad stated.
Saad hopes they can expand the program next season. He believes getting more coaches involved in the clinics is important too.
“With North Bay Minor Baseball we want a program here where we are going to get the coaches out, we have manuals we have put together and we want to give these to the coaches, we want to get them trained, so that we are all on the same page in terms of how to throw a ball, how to set their hands to hit, how to run the bases, and how to field a ball,” Saad explained.
“If we can get that consistency from the beginner through to the bantams, then they are going to want to play midget and then we are going to be a feeder system for the senior league as well.”
