Here & There Column 9-11-12

Getting That Baseball Opportunity

  Travel baseball for area youth has grown in leaps and bounds in recent years and now there is a big emphasis by organizations to help high school juniors and seniors get their opportunity to play college and professional baseball. 

  Showcase teams are organized for the sole purpose of getting exposure to college coaches and scouts which hopefully end up producing scholarships to Division I, II and III schools.

  Sullivan County NY and Wayne County Pa. seniors and juniors are getting looked at by college scouts thanks to the great efforts of Norheast Pride Baseball located in Wayne County and Pro Prospects out of Monticello. 

  The two baseball orientated organizations joined forces to provide area high school baseball players a better opportunity for skill training along with exposure to college scouts. 

  Pro Prospects will be a feeder program for Northeast's tournament teams and provides Pro Prospects with a local travel team option. 

  Becoming a part of the Northeast Pride Showcase 18u team means a lot of sacrifice by not only the players but by parents and sponsors of these ballplayers. It's also an expensive but very rewarding experience with initial expenses for uniforms and equipment and separate tournament fees for each event, travel expenses for gasoline, eating out continually and motel housing expenses. 

  New bonding friendships for both the players and parents are formed and the travel team family gives that kind of support these ballplayers need to be successful in that next level of college or professional baseball. 

  The Northeast Pride 18u Showcase team has had scouts or coaches from St. John Fisher and Long Island University look at them at the Chester Tournament, at the Millersville Pa. University coaches present included Millersville University, Eastern University and Penn State Abington. Other teams that were supposed to be attending were York College, West Chester, Kutztown, Penn State Harrisburg, Arcadia, Franklin & Marshall and Allbright. 

   Kudos to the Northeast Pride 18-u Showcase organization including  manager Steve Alhona and coaches Chad Goetz and Cliff Kelly for giving area youth the chance of a lifetime to  grasp that golden ring and a college baseball career. 

  

                                                      

Identification of the above photo

Sullivan West first baseman Patrick Pierce at bat for the Northeast Pride 18u Showcase team at Millersville Pa. University over the Labor Day weekend.