Our Mission - Our Map - Our Values - Our Success
Every team sets out their campaign, with one goal in mind - to come home champions.
How much of that is really in one’s control, however, is really up to the baseball gods.
In a game of percentages, where finding ‘success’ is often hard to come by, the Queensland Australian Youth Championship Squads have taken this simple word and looked to not only define it but to live it everyday.
High Performance Program Manager Damian Shanahan is working with our representative teams to shape a Queensland centric philosophy that will prepare players for a pathway to the Australian teams and beyond.
“We are preparing to win,” Shanahan told the group. A statement that is easier heard than done.
As he explained further, not all of this is in the squad’s control.
Executing the game. Getting a bunt down. Throwing a strike. Making a routine play. Each of these things are slightly more controllable than simply winning itself.
Having a strong throw helps. Having speed on your side gives you an edge. Working on these areas are all ways that the squad will be preparing to win.
“The better we do the simple things that help us execute, the better chance we have at being successful,” he explained.
At the crux of success within Queensland’s High Performance Program though, are the things that each individual can do on a daily basis.
The core values on which a successful team and a successful player are built.
Represent with Pride
Be Team Centred
Show Up
Raise the Default
“These are the things you have 100 per cent control over. The better you do them, the other things will fall into place.”
It is easy to throw out feel good buzz words. But having a shared understanding and foundation that each member of the team believes in of how these look and feel is another.
With the help of leading mental skills coach Chris Haddock, both the U16 and U18 Queensland boys squads broke down exactly what was in their control as they build towards success in the January Australian Youth Championships.
Wearing the uniform
You’ve been handed a cap and jersey. Only it’s more than that. When you put them on, it fits different.
They weigh different.
It’s a legacy. It’s a privilege. It’s a responsibility.
The maroon jersey, and the capital Q it bears is a symbol of all those who have walked the path before. The leagues of players that you grew up idolising.
A reminder that the hard work that you have put in so far has got you here, and a reminder of the hard work yet to come that wearing it deserves.
Week in week out, you play with and around others who now see you and associate you with this brand. Now the roles are reversed and you are now that player that others are looking up to.
From your tucked in shirt and bleached white pants, to the way you hustle on and off the diamond. Everything you do, you are representing something bigger than yourself.
An honour - carry it with pride and purpose.
Tournament team centred
Congratulations, you’ve opened the email and there, it might as well be in bold, is your name.
From this moment, you are more than an individual player. You are a cog in a bigger picture that is your team’s journey to success.
Sure, you do your own reps and are accountable for your own actions, but it’s all with a greater purpose now.
Whether you’re the starting pitcher, a ball pen catcher, a pinch runner or holding down the bench with your high-fives and cheers, every role on the team is valuable and every action, effort and contribution makes a difference.
That one stolen base may be the difference between tying the game or going down by one. Keeping the reliever warm gives your team the chance to shut down innings.
A baseball game is made up of moments, and a tournament like this is full of them. Make yours count.
Show up
Turning up is one thing. Showing up is another.
Every day, every session, is a chance to be the best version of yourself, to be accountable for everything you do and say, where consistency becomes your super power.
It’s been a long day at school and your reserves are drained. You’re not sure you’ve got 100 per cent in the tank to offer.
But you pull on the uniform anyway and you show up. You give 100 per cent of what you’ve got.
Shoulders lift from the pride you feel as you slip on your cap. There’s an energy surge that fills you from being around the lads and the confidence you give them in return from this simple act says it all.
Win every drill. Win every moment.
When a whole team does this, we are prepared to win.
Raise your default
Looking around you, the guys that you typically view as your competition are now your brothers.
Together, it’s time to level up. Up and out of the safety net that is club ball land and into a world where pitchers throw harder, runners are smarter and batters are stronger.
You’re preparing to win the same game that you’ve been mastering week in and week out, only this game is that much faster.
Every training is a chance to go harder, to go faster, and push yourself to the next level.
Weeks and months pass and suddenly, where you thought your safety net and baseline was is far in the distance. You’re diving for balls you thought were well out of range. You’re pushing extra bases that you once thought were not yours for the taking.
Suddenly, the game seems simple again and the moments that once would speed up on you are now the standard.
Prepare to win
Over the coming months, 40 athletes across two squads will live and breathe these philosophies and values. Accountable not only to themselves, but to their teammates who they defined them with.
Alongside regular training sessions, the squad will bring these to life day to day and at squad camps as they prepare for the upcoming Australian Youth Championships taking place across Melbourne in early January 2027.