Archive for the ‘Bret’s Blog’ Category

12/17/2024

It has been a very successful fall/winter season for our 9U-18U teams. We have been fortunate that there are more local tournaments than ever offered for our players and families. Our coaching staff has done a great job developing our players in practices, and coaching them in games. We are excited for the upcoming 2025 season and look forward to getting our players back on the field soon.

08/02/23

It was a good summer for all of our teams. We were able to get a ton of local, quality reps. Our 15U, 17U and 19U teams had successful summers. We helped place twenty-two players in college. Our 9U-14U teams developed a ton over the summer.

We start our new season in August, and there is a lot of excitement from the 9U-18U age levels. It will be a fun fall with a great group of players, families and coaches.

5/10/23

We are in the last week of our 18U Spring Team season, which has been successful. Going with one team this year has led to our most positive experience yet. Most all of the players from this team will play on one of the 15U, 17U or 19U Summer Teams.

Our 9U-14U teams have also had some success this spring. It’s been productive for us to get outside on Sundays for practices. We’ve gotten some good reps in local tournaments. The tournament schedule for this summer is loaded and will be a fun challenge for our players and coaches. Have to keep grinding.

3/25/23

As we head deeper into the spring season, our teams continue to refine their game and get high quality game reps. We have started our outdoor practices and the 9U-12U teams are scrimmaging once a month on Sundays.

Our 13U team is working hard and there is some solid depth being built on the roster. Our 14U team continues their intense spring season. They are practicing three times week, on the weeks there are no tournaments, twice a week during tournament weeks. They are also doing functional and strength training workouts twice a week.

Our 18U Spring Team just finished eight games down in Arizona. They were competitive in all games and got to play teams from Canada, Missouri and Colorado. Was a great experience for our players.

The summer season is right around the corner. We will be putting our 15U, 17U and 19U Summer Team rosters soon.

3/1/23

We are about three weeks away from going back outside. It will be nice to start having some outdoor practices at Golden Eagle. We will be scrimmaging once a month with our 9U-14U teams.

Our 18U Spring Team is in their spring training phase, and will have their first game this Sunday. Very pleased about the group of players and families we have on board.

We have had some roster turnover with our 11U, and now 10U team, which has been unfortunate. I’m looking forward to going out to watching some players play this spring and do some recruiting.

1/20/22

It’s been a lot of work but we are officially moved into our new indoor facility.  We are excited to have a newer building, that is nicer than our previous complex.  We will be working with less space than before which will force us to be creative on how we train our athletes.  It’s good to have a clear direction moving forward and a new home as we head into the new tournament season.

11/24/22

We signed the lease for our new building this week.  We will be moving starting December 15th.  The new building is super nice and we are excited to get it up and running by January 1st.

It’s been great to have so much help offered by our customers with the move.  It will be a lot of work, but will be worth it when everything is set up.

02/15/2022

We have started the new year with some good momentum.  Things are starting to feel normal again.  Despite it being a long road back for our organization, our teams are starting to play at the level they were playing at prior to everything happening two years ago.

Our 9U-14U teams are extremely competitive, which of course has the players, parents and coaches happy.  The implementation of our Black teams at the 10U, 12U and 14U levels has helped us develop depth on all of our rosters.  It has also given game reps to kids who normally wouldn’t have gotten them, being newer to the organization. We are pumped about the loaded schedule of tournaments we have through the rest of the 2022.  What is most exciting is that we will only have to leave Northern Nevada one time between now and early November with the 9U-14U teams.  There are a ton of great tournaments being hosted locally by various tournament organizations, who we have developed relationships with.

Our 16U and 18U Spring Teams are entering their third season of play.  The first season got stopped short, three weeks into the season due to the pandemic.  Last season was our first true season and it was very productive and positive.  Like with anything new, though, we continue to work out the hiccups, take feedback while working towards improving the way we run our spring teams.

This upcoming season we have our strongest rosters yet, our best game schedules, and our best coaching staffs to date. Our practice schedule and strength training regime allows us to be efficient in a group environment, while giving our players time to do their individual work and focus on their academics.

11/18/2021

As we head into our Winter World Series event that is being held locally, felt like it was a good time to thank our players, families and coaches.

It has been a long twenty months for all of us and we couldn’t have done it without each other. It’s great to see the kids playing again, competing well, signing to colleges and enjoying the game.

We just had our third ever big leaguer, Raymond Kerr, get put on the 40-man roster for the Atlanta Braves. Congrats to him and his family

11/3/2021

For the first time in almost twenty months our teams are traveling down to the Central Valley to play in a tournament.  It’s been a lot of work preparing.  We are staying at three different hotels.  Families are excited along with the coaches.

It’s finally starting to feel “real” again.  Our teams have been making strong progress over the course of the fall.  We will continue to work throughout the winter.  Recruiting is going well and momentum is building.  Have to keep grindin’.

08/13/2021

All of our teams have started their new seasons and there is a lot of excitement building.  Our older teams will travel with smaller rosters to tournaments than in previous season, in an effort to maximize reps for our players.

Our 9U-14U groups will incorporate our Development teams, which will help keep our “A” or “Gold” team travel rosters more manageable, as well as giving more opportunities for other playes to travel with the Developmental or “D” teams.  The players, parents and coaches seem happy with this enhancement to our organization.

We still have a lot of work to do, to get back to where we need to be, but the energy and excitement is building.  Looking forward to a productive fall.

07/20/2021

Our summer season has gone well for our 15U, 17U and 19U teams.  Our 9U-14U teams have also gotten in some good tournaments this summer, and are preparing for a big tournament at the end of the month.

We get to play in a wood bat tournament in Tahoe in mid-August with the 9U-14U teams.  Then Labor Day weekend our 9U-18U teams will all be playing in the local AWS/NCS tournament.

We are close to being back to normal.  The more reps our teams get in games, the more we continue to get back up to speed.  I’m hoping come fall that we start playing again to our full potential.

05/25/2021

We started our summer season with our 15U, 17U and 19U teams this past weekend.  The Red And Black Dawg Fight games gave us an opportunity to look at what a lot of our guys can do.

We’re still waiting to get most of our college guys back on the 19U team, later this week.  It will be fun to start hosting out of town teams starting with this weekend.

Excited to see how our teams gel as the summer season goes along.  It’s definitely worth coming out to watch our summer teams play.

05/11/2021

We are continuing to work to get back into our routine.  It has been a long fourteen months.  At times I’ve regretted our teams not chasing out of state games, as it is apparent we are behind the teams that did so.  It has always been our organization’s mission, though, to make good, long-term decisions.

It will probably take us most of the summer to get back up to speed, and I think most of our families are ok with that.  It is good we are playing again and getting to compete.  We just have a lot more work to do to get back to where we need to be.

04/06/2021

It has been a very long thirteen months for our organization, but we are starting to get back into the swing of things. We are hopeful to keep going with our spring and summer tournament schedule for our 9U-14U teams. Thankfully all our tournaments through October are scheduled in Northern Nevada.

Our 15U, 16U and 18U spring teams are over half-way through their seasons. The first Arizona trip was a success, and the second Arizona trip is scheduled later this month. We have had some really quality organizations come to Northern Nevada for games.

Recruiting at all age levels is strong. We are excited about starting up our 10U, 12U and 14U developmental travel rosters in August. Five to six times a year we will enter these teams into a local tournament, in addition to our regular 9U-14U teams. This will give an opportunity for newer, and/or less experienced players to get game reps.

We have to continue to work and grind. If anything the last year has taught us, amongst many other things, is that nothing is guaranteed.

01/07/2021

We are hopeful that 2021 can be a better year for all our players, families and coaches.  Currently we are working out indoors with the hopes to start playing games again soon.  We look forward to some normalcy as we get deeper into 2021.

08/05/2020

We continue to keep hope we will get to start playing competitively soon.  Unfortunately tournaments up here in Northern Nevada are still delayed, as there are a lot of entities across the state that continue to participate in rogue games and tournaments.

It is very disheartening for our kids, coaches and families.  We can only do what we know, which is continue to work hard in a practice environment.  Hopefully, game play will open up in Northern Nevada and Northern California sooner rather than later.

07/21/2020

We have a lot of players, families and coaches anxious to be able to have our teams play in some type of competitive environment.  We are hopeful that we will be allowed to scrimmage soon, while making sure to take the necessary safety precautions.

Until then we will continue to utilize our indoor and outdoor practice times to grind through what has been an extremely difficult four months.

07/06/2020

It has been a very difficult time the past 3.5 months, as we had to prioritize baseball accordingly with everything else that is going on in the world today.  We are hopeful to be able to start playing some tournaments in the relatively near future once it is deemed safe.  Until then we will work hard in our team practice environments, as we are grateful to be allowed to do that currently.

02/18/2020

There is a lot of excitement with the launch of our 16U and 18U spring teams.  We were successfully able to fill both rosters as our season kicks off this week.  Every player on our roster, save one, has been with the organization previously.  This is something that is important to us as our players and families will know our system.

A lot of noise has been going on outside of our organization with other entities taking exception to us starting these teams.  The plan for these teams has been years in the making and has come from demand from our families, along with the natural evolution of both baseball and business.  Families now have a choice in the spring as to which path their sons will follow, and this is a good thing.

Any organization, private or public, runs as a business.  They have a budget to meet, with financial obligations that need to be taken care of in order to run properly.  How an organization chooses to operate directly reflects on the type of customer base they want to attract.  With our teams, we chose smaller rosters compared to our competitors.  We choose to focus on individual player development within the framework of a team aspect, geared towards playing the best competition possible.

We aren’t tied to a particular league where we are forced to play a certain schedule, and with that we can choose what events and opponents we get to play against.  In order for our players to develop, they need exposure to high level practice and game reps on a regular basis.  Our smaller rosters allow for more individual attention.  We define roles prior to the season so that players and families have a clear expectation level heading into the season.  Culture is very important to us, and a key component to keeping a healthy culture within our organization is communication.

Our perspective is that families aren’t leaving certain organizations to come play for us, they are simply choosing not to leave playing for us in the spring as many have been forced to do in prior years.  We also look at it with the mindset that we need to have a product that they want their son and family to be a part of.  We re-recruit our families every season.  A lot of hard work has been put into the concept of our spring teams and we are very pleased about the overwhelming amount of support we have received from our families.

Here’s to a great 2020 spring season!

1/31/2020

It is an exciting time as we head into the spring.  Our 9U-14U teams are working away preparing for upcoming tournaments.  It will be another month before we can get back outside, but fortunately we have a lot of space in our indoor facility to get work done.

For the first time ever, our 16U and 18U spring teams will be getting their work in as well.  We just ended the 16U and 18U fall/winter season.  After a brief two and a half week break, we will be getting back after it with the older group.  Big things ahead.

12/24/2019

We want to wish all of our players, families and coaches Happy Holidays.  It has been an outstanding year for our organization, one filled with growth and evolution.  We will work harder than ever before to serve our families as we head into 2020.

12/4/2019

We made a decision as an organization not to travel our 9U-18U teams to California this weekend, based on the weather forecast predicted for the weekend.  Keeping the safety of all of our family’s is extremely important and we will have plenty of baseball to play in the future.  We will use the next several weeks to work hard in practice and get ready for the January tournament.

11/19/2019

We have entered “Phase Four” of our business model, with the 16U and 18U Spring Teams starting up in March. This will provide our families an all-inclusive baseball experience as their sons age up through the organization.

Our 9U-14U teams continue to gain strength, just finishing a great showing at the AWS Winter World Series out at Golden Eagle. It is great that we have gotten so many great reps for our guys with only having to go out of town one time since last March.

Our 16U and 18U fall/winter teams have two tournaments left in their seasons and have begun to move indoors for practices, like the rest of our teams, and will be able to get a lot of work done. Having a facility the size of ours is a huge asset to players staying sharp during winter.

5/17/2019

Our 15U, 17U and 19U teams have officially started their summer seasons.  All three teams will play a highly competitive schedule and will swing wood bats all summer.  Our 2019 college commitments list continues to grow.

Our 9U-14U teams have their most challenging summer tournament schedule ever, and we are excited about so many local tournaments providing opportunities for our players to get high level reps.  Should be some good baseball.