Around the Horn: College Excellence

Around the Horn: College Excellence

Welcome to the third article in Baseball Queensland’s new series, ‘Around the Horn’. The aim of this series is to bring our state organisation closer to the people and communities that connect us all together: our clubs.

Pine Hills Lightning Baseball Club has been home to many elite and professional ball players in Queensland. With a history that dates back to 1984, the Mitchelton Unicorns, turned Pine Hills Lightning, are building strong foundations for their athletes young and old. Over the past 20 odd years the club has worked closely with the Queensland Government and the Moreton Bay Regional Council to update the facilities and give the club the facelift it deserves.

There is no doubt that Pine Hills is one of the top competitors in the GBL and their 2018/19 Division One squad definitely pack a punch. Filled with strong talent that has been nurtured and developed through the younger divisions, this team is now reaping the benefits of a few key athletes that are now giving back to the club upon their return from college.

Mitch Hughson, 20, graduated from Miles Community College in Montana, Jacob Nilsson, 20 attended Eastern Arizona College and Jeremy Atkinson, 28 graduated from Salt Lake Community College in Utah. The 3 players are now inspiring younger players at the club to stay driven and set their sights on college acceptance.

Atkinson says he was inspired from an early age by one very memorable coach, “When I was younger, my State coach was a man named Luke Prokopec. I think he is originally from Adelaide and he was a real inspiration to me with baseball and achieving my goals.”

Pine Hills President, Simon Tame says, “This season we have entered the most teams into the GBL with Div 1-5, 2 masters teams, 2 in U20’s, 1 in Senior League, 2 in Junior League, 6 in Little League, 3 in Rookie Ball and 2 in Teeball. We have a real depth of talent in the club from our coaching staff and player development squads. Out Div 1 imports, Stephen and Jared are passing on their skills. We have fantastic looking grounds with over 100k invested from the State Government via the EDQ grants.

We have several ‘special’ rounds coming up including Paul Mutch Cup, Moreton Bay Regional Council Challenge against Redcliffe Padres and the Army/Air force game against Ipswich Musketeers. We have a lot happening and we would love for everyone to get involved.”

Division One Team Manager and Seniors Coordinator, Paul Hardie spoke to me about the benefits that the club is seeing from having college players giving back to the club.

How does the involvement of college ball players affect the Division 1 team?

“The initial ‘pain’ that the Division 1 team feels from losing some of its better talent from the squad becomes relief once they return! There is a confidence that returning college ball players bring that envelope the squad. They bring good practice habits, new ideas, and a team-first philosophy that becomes infectious. Their skills have improved, their baseball IQ has improved, and their sense of self-belief has improved. All of this translates to a better team and hopefully better results.”

Do these players bring a different approach to the game, mentally and physically?

“The positive advantage that we have from returning College ball players is a sense of baseball ‘maturity’ that didn’t exist prior to them travelling overseas. Having had a ball in their hand effectively everyday while at college, and the benefit of many, many extra at-bats or innings pitched, means that they are better mentally able to cope with the demands of Division 1. They have lived an experience that would otherwise take many more years at Club level in Australia. Generally these are young men who, when travelling overseas to college, are having their first experience of living away from home. Their development in physical size and strength, resilience, and experience, is all-but impossible to replicate while at home and they come back better players and more worldly human-beings. They also bring back a knowledge about how best to look after their bodies; arm strength, conditioning, nutrition and overall fitness that means they set a good example for the rookies in the dugout.”

 How do the younger players benefit from the college players’ involvement?

“A lot of our younger rookies in the Div 1 and 2 squad aspire to follow the path of those before them. You can see them seeking out the guys that have come back to ask for guidance about not just their game and form, but how to get better generally and how to go about building their college application. They build a rapport – a bond that helps our dugout culture and helps make our Club even stronger.”

Pine Hills Lighting will host Redcliffe Padres this Friday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 3:00pm; if you are local and want to support your club then get involved at the ballpark!

If you are part of a baseball club in Queensland and have a story to share, we would love to hear from you; just email me at liv@baseballqueensland.com.au to get your story heard! Players, coaches, umpires, families and fans are all encouraged to get in contact!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Around the Horn: Female Edition

Around the Horn: Female Edition

Welcome to the second article in Baseball Queensland’s new series, ‘Around the Horn’. The aim of this series is to bring our state organisation closer to the people and communities that connect us all together: our clubs.

Our Greater Brisbane League is finally here and with a new season comes new teams and plenty of new female players.

Two particular clubs in the GBL are leaving their mark on the world of baseball in a fresh and innovative way. Western Districts Bulldogs Baseball Club and Carina Leagues Red Sox Baseball Club are paving the way for women this season by including all female teams in their club. Wests have joined forces with 16 of the brightest 14-year-old players and the Red Sox have formed a powerful Division 4 women’s team to compete alongside the men in the rest of their league.

Western Districts Bulldogs Baseball Club is located in Darra, a prime catchment area for attracting new players to the well-loved club from far and wide. Long term, devoted West’s player and coach, Brad Schneider has found the perfect way to do that with the inclusion of his 2018/19 U14’s girl’s team. With players traveling from up to 25km just to be part of this team, it’s safe to say that Brad and his assistant coach, John have their hearts in the right place with this young group of girls. You can rest assured the players love it for more reasons than just their bright pink playing shirts…

Head Coach, Brad Schneider and Assistant Coach, John Pickford spoke with me at their Tuesday night training session to talk through the birth of West’s inaugural U14’s girl’s team, as well as the core values and morals they are both installing into the young athletes at Wests.

What is your background with baseball at Wests?

Brad:“I’ve been playing/ involved with the club for about 25 years. Back in the day, I played my way through all 3 grades, starting in C Grade and moving my way up. Even back then we had volunteers putting back into the game and I’ve been really lucky in that sense to be able to now put back into the club and help out with the juniors. I’ve been involved with the junior programmes for a few years now. I’ve got kids here that I’ve coached as they’ve been growing up and they’ve now made our senior teams- that’s pretty cool to me. My son plays here as well and I’ve taken a step back from that team and decided to take on the girl’s team this season.”

 How did this team come about?

John:“It’s grown from a small 10-week workshop we did with female players to a group of 16 girls wanting to play on this U14’s team. About ¾ of the team hasn’t played baseball before, we’ve had some girls come from different clubs to participate in this new team and we get to coach them through a really prominent time in their life. We’ve been talking to the parents too, the key thing we’ve found with coaching these girls is that we need to be in close communication with the families to ensure that we aren’t taking up too much of their school work time but having them still know that this field and this team is their safe place to come and be themselves. If we can help develop these girls and guide them on the right path then they will take care of the rest; they are so supportive of each other. We are all about the girl’s developing their skills, it’s building their social awareness too because there is so much bullying that goes on now, we are really big on this being the area that they can be themselves in.”

Do you have any particular goals for your team this season?

Brad:We are going for little milestones at a time. A win isn’t even on my radar at the moment. We are going to reach a new milestone each week and move up from there. A lot of our team hasn’t played the game before so us coaches haven’t set unrealistic goals; we are expecting them to have fun and to bond as a team. There is a big growth for baseball in the country right now, so hopefully other girls can see this team and then join their local club and play too!

How do you think the team will go once they are up against the boys in the GBL?

John:(laughs) “That’s the big question! We’ve had a few scrimmage games with the younger boys at the club and they cheered each other on and overall the confidence level was fantastic. They know that we only expect their personal best, as long as they are happy and having fun then we have done our job! Even though a lot of our team hasn’t played baseball before they are all very athletic so I think people will be surprised when they see them play!”

Brad, as someone who has been part of Wests for so long, what are some of the club’s biggest values?

Brad:“At the end of the day we are a working club, it’s nice to have great facilities but we really work together as a club and get things done as a community. Our committee over the past few years have put a lot into the club, for 35 years we haven’t had a clubhouse or a functional canteen and now we are getting little instalments to better the club. We will have a big clubhouse-opening day, which will be a great start to our season! We still have guys involved in the club from the Victory South’s days, so we are proud of our history and where we’ve come from and that is definitely something I’m trying to put through to the kids now. We need to respect and value the people who played before us because at the end of the day if it weren’t for the guys before us we wouldn’t be playing on this field we all love so much. We are a club that’s filled with people who just love baseball and maybe we aren’t as well off as some of the other clubs but we sure turn up every week and do what we love!”

 John:“As a club we are very respectful. We see kids come from tough backgrounds and if we can drill into our players that respect is the #1 thing than we can all feel equal and comfortable at our club. You do find bullies wherever you are and that’ll never change but we are big on keeping our club respectful and filled with pride.”

Tuesday trainings for West’s U14’s team is anything but boring, players and coaches were all sporting bright pink playing shirts, with music pumping through the air, it was definitely a welcoming environment for new and existing players to learn the great sport of baseball in.

Long time baseball player, Matilda Shepard says, “I love it here at Wests, I love even more that we have an all girls team this season because we are already so much closer than I ever felt when I was part of the boy’s team. We all know each other really well and over the past couple of weeks at training we have really started to bond with each other more. I just moved from another club and here at Wests they teach us so much more technique, which I really love, and that’s what I looked for in a club because I wanted to improve as a player. It’s a really fun team and I really hope I can hit a homerun this season; I was so close last year!”

After being introduced to baseball this year, Elliarna Rein comments on how supportive and welcoming the sport has proven to be for her, “ I’ve never played baseball before but I’m really enjoying training with my friends here. My team is really supportive when I actually hit the ball! They all cheered for me and we do that for everyone; it’s really fun! I hope that our team can keep on being supportive during the season and all achieve our personal goals.”

It’s safe to say that the boys better keep an out on this group of girls because something tells me they could be the team to beat!

Brisbane Bandits Assistant Coach & current Carina Red Sox Division 4 Head Coach, Lisa Norrie took time out of her training session with the women’s team on Wednesday to talk all things development as well as future goals for women’s baseball in Queensland.

When did the idea come to you about creating a women’s team for the Division 4 strand?

“The club approached me last year about getting an all girl’s team together and asked me if I would head up that team; of course I said yes and would work it in and around Bandits as well as a I could. So, I’ll be taking the team for the first 4 weeks of the comp and then when Bandits starts I will be handing over to Mel Hill, who I am mentoring and coaching up to take over this team. I’ll still communicate with her and come to trainings, help her put together line-ups and everything like that so I am still part of it as much as I can be!  Our club is all about growing the women’s game and we struggle in Queensland when we go to Nationals because we just don’t have enough game time under our belts. Other states in the country have women’s leagues so this is about getting our players in Queensland more game time and challenging them by being in the men’s comp.”

What are Queensland’s chances of a women’s league coming to fruition?

“In other states they have their clubs and then women’s leagues that run off that. That is exactly where we want to go with this. It would be great to have every club in QLD have a female team so then we could have our own league that is still club based with community, just like the men’s league. It’s definitely something we are working on and trying to get up and running. The aim is for people to see what we are doing here and then replicate that in their own club.”

Why did you decide to include them in Division 4?

“We tossed the idea around about putting this club in Division 3 but as women we have always struggled pitching wise, at State level and National level and ultimately we wouldn’t have the pitching depth week in week out o play at that level. The more experienced players can work individually on things they have identified to work on and they will still be challenged but the newer or younger players we have coming up will still be nourished.”

What sets Carina Red Sox apart from other clubs in QLD?

“Carina is very, very supportive of women’s baseball and not a lot of clubs around Brisbane are, I’ve found that they are very supportive of women playing in the men’s teams and they are the one’s who actually suggested that we include this women’s team in the league this season. We are very family orientated as well, across the board through Division 1 right down to Little League. I like that we have senior players coming down to training to help out the kids or even our women’s team.”

The Divison 4 team is full of powerful players, both new and existing and through the guidance of Lisa Norrie and Mel Hill, they will, without a doubt, leave their mark on the history of women’s baseball in Queensland.

If you are in the catchment for the Western Districts Bulldogs Baseball Club or Carina Leagues Red Sox Baseball Club, then head down to support them this season; club fixtures will be circulated on team’s social media pages.

If you are part of a baseball club in Queensland and have a story to share, we would love to hear from you; just email Liv at liv@baseballqueensland.com.au to get your story heard! Players, coaches, umpires, families and fans are all encouraged to get in contact!

 

 

Around The Horn: Phil Overlack

Around The Horn: Phil Overlack

AROUND-THE-HORN: PHIL OVERLACK

Redcliffe Padres Head Coach racks up 750 Divison-One Games

 Welcome to the first article in Baseball Queensland’s new series, ‘Around the Horn’. The aim of this series is to bring our state organisation closer to the people and communities that connect us all together: our clubs.

Redcliffe Padres, Head Coach, Phil Overlack, truly embodies what it means to be a leader in the baseball community as an accomplished player, well-respected coach and proud family man. Overlack started his baseball career as a young 14-year-old athlete with the Runcorn Indians in 1990. During 8 successful years there, Phil got the opportunity to play in the original ABL for 9 seasons with the Gold Coast Dolphins/ Cougars. Towards the end of his career with the Indians, Overlack took on a player-coach role and was honoured when his jersey number, 20, was retired at the club.

Phil then got the unexpected opportunity to coach the Redcliffe Padres A-Grade team for part of the season in 2014 and the following season Overlack became the official A-Grade coach of the Redcliffe Padres. Overlack hasn’t looked back and will be going into his 17th year coaching Division 1 and his 8th year coaching at Padres.

Liv sat down with Phil to discuss his approach to coaching, why development is so essential in the Padres community and what it means to him to have hit the 750 A-Grade Game milestone.

Phil, run me through your journey coaching Div 1 at Padres?

“When I started coaching here we lost the majority of our A Grade Team to other clubs and the ABL, we only ended up with about 3 or 4 players in the end. We were pretty much left with nothing so I just changed my whole view on winning. I thought that we have some of the best kids in Queensland or even the country at this club and I thought that I’d chuck the kids out there. So, 3 years ago we came dead last in the competition and the average age of the players were about 15/16 years old. Then, 2 years ago we made the play offs with the same team and finished fourth, which was a big buzz for them. Last year our team, the same kids I started with, were all 18/19 years old and we fell one game short of making the playoffs. I think we surprised a few people, they thought we were just a bunch of kids but what they don’t know is that we work hard in the offseason.”

 Non-Padres members might not be aware of the level of development that is implemented at the club, what are some of the programmes that Padres have been

“We run an off-season programme for our athletes, we also have camps for the new Little League players to prepare them for the upcoming season. You know you’re doing something right when you have Div 1 players, coaches and parents asking to volunteer at our Little League camps. They never ask to me remuneration, they just do it because they love the club and what we do for their families.”

Run me through your approach to coaching?

“Each year I try to pick a few 15/16-year-old kids and make them my prodigies and work on them and so far it’s working really well. The kids know that they don’t have to leave the club to get a shot, we’ve lost players in the past, like most clubs do but we are really aware that we have some real talent here. By giving these kids the opportunity, I’ve now got 6 kids playing college ball in America and the last 2 years we’ve had 5 of our kids in the Bandits Development programme, so that is big buzz for me knowing that all the hard work we put into them is translating onto the field. If we can bring them up through our system here then hopefully in 5 years time when they’re back from college we’ll win a couple of championships (laughs).

 A lot of people may disagree with your tactics of putting a young Division 1 team on the field, talk me through the plan of action you have with them?

“We have a really bright future here, maybe we’ve taken a few steps back but I believe it has payed off for us. I look at other clubs and then back to Padres and I think we’ve really set ourselves up for the future and secured some longevity for ourselves as a club.”

Phil, you’ve achieved an incredible feat having almost 750 A-Grade/ Division 1 games under your belt. What does that mean for you?

“It makes me feel old (laughs)!! I was 14 when I first started playing baseball and then I started playing A Grade when I was 17. That’s probably why I have so many games under my belt. I still love playing, I’d still play B-Grade now but I don’t wanna take a kids spot; I’ll just fill in if I ever have to! “

 

Redcliffe Padres are blessed with a tightknit community of families that are dedicated to the club and what it has to offer.

Liv spoke to Sam Holland, former pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels organisation, pitcher for the Brisbane Bandits and local Redcliffe Padres Division 1 Player about his experience with Padres.

Sam, there is no doubt that Phil Overlack is a phenomenal leader, how has he helped you over the years?

“I’ve known Phil for several years now; actually the first A-Grade game I pitched was actually to Phil, he was my catcher. I started off playing with Phil and then as he moved into coaching I always had a lot of respect for him he played the game the way it’s meant to be played: hard, no nonsense and he really just did everything he could to win the game the right way. As a coach he is taking that mentality to our juniors here and those younger kids coming up trying to get them playing to win, not so much just going through the motions; we play to win and we pay hard and we play fair and we do all the right things. Philly has us that way because he has led by example. For me, I watched him play and do those things so it was easy for me to take it all in when he said it to us- we really had no excuse! He’s a great mentor to the younger kids, he is a very respected player, he played in the old ABL, he’s seen a lot and I think that especially for those younger guys coming in to have someone with such a past in baseball it allows them to stay connected with him, he is still so relevant in the community of baseball. He does a great job of bringing a little bit of the past into the present and passing all the right things down to younger generations. Phil has morals, maybe some people will say that’s old school but he really leads by example. He leads a great group of players who are here for the right reasons and you can see that over the last 4 years we’ve sent a large group of kids off to college. He breeds the mentality of good, hard baseball.”

Where do you think the passion comes from? 

“Well, I’ve been playing here since U12’s after moving from a few other clubs and since playing my first game here I’ve loved it and I’ll be here until my name’s up beside Landy and Dunsdon (laughs). I guess what really makes Redcliffe such a successful club I think is the community base to it. There are a lot of families involved in this club, the same people have been involved since I was a junior and that really builds a strong base of community. Once you have a lot of people on top in the committee putting in time and dedication going the extra mile to get the grants for the facility, keeping the fields looking tidy while not having a paid grounds crew. The families involved here are what make it special. It’s no secret that people move clubs to come to Redcliffe because we have such a strong pathway to success. Padres have helped so many players gain their success in baseball, they’ve helped me get where I am.”

 

The spirit of Padres has touched the lives of many players, old and new. New Padres player, Sid Daniels, 16, is going into his second season with the club and is thrilled that he made the decision to be part of this close community, “Having only started playing baseball last year I was really surprised with how welcoming they all were to me! A family friend suggested I join Padres to give it a go and I’m so glad that I did!  I’ve loved playing the game and all the inside jokes I now have with the players on my team; they called me the ‘Rookie’ last year, it’s got a such a fun vibe. The encouragement & support from family members of our team to me was amazing. They always encouraged me & wanted me to play my best; I even got a go at pitching! The time & effort the coaches put in to all the players is so supportive of all of us.”

Daniels received the Batting Award at the end of the 2017/18 season and is looking forward to playing in the U18’s State Titles this September with Brisbane North. Daniels will be back on the field as a proud Padres member in October for the Greater Brisbane League.

The new baseball season is approaching quickly with the Greater Brisbane League (GBL) commencing in early October. Local baseball lovers or aspiring players are encouraged to get in contact with the club’s registrar to find out how they can be involved in a player or volunteer capacity.

If you are part of a baseball club in Queensland and have a story to share, we would love to hear from you; just email Liv at liv@baseballqueensland.com.au to get your story heard! Players, coaches, umpires, families and fans are all encouraged to get in contact!

Facebook: @redcliffepadres

Website: http://www.redcliffepadres.com.au

Email for baseball registrations: registrar@redcliffepadres.com.au

Email for other queries: secretary@redcliffepadres.com.au