Coach Offers Advice for Sports Tryouts

Playing freshman baseball is the dream of many boys (and a few girls) entering high school.

Jeff Baumback, the 31-year-old head baseball coach at Redondo Union High School, says many are in for heartbreak.

"We're trying to guess and project ... is this kid going to be a starting varsity player some day?" Most won't be, he said.

A former Cal State Long Beach pitcher who won numerous championships (including Baseball America's national championship) as pitching coach at Long Beach Wilson High before coming to RUHS a year ago, said "there is no easy way" to tell kids they didn’t make the team.

In Long Beach, he said, "we used to post [who made] it on the door." But at RUHS, when the final ax comes down next spring, the coach will inform students on the school's website so they can get the news at home.

Students have "an option" to know the day before, he said. "It's tough. I try to make it the easiest for the kids."

Sitting at his desk in RUHS' Memorial Field office before a practice game against Crescenta Valley High, Baumback looks more like a varsity player than head coach of the Sea Hawks. But his demeanor is serious, his blue-eyed gaze direct.

Only about six or seven of "the best" incoming freshmen will be chosen for the baseball training class, which is worth five units, in the fall, he said.

"That doesn't mean they made the team for the spring," the coach added. "It only means they'll take the class. But they'll be working out with us three or four days a week. They get extra help and more in-depth coaching than the travel ball circuit."

Instead of a normal baseball camp in Redondo this summer, 26 players were chosen by coaches for two travel ball teams—some from a baseball camp Baumback helped a friend run in Hermosa and some from a tryout at RUHS.

"Most who came to the tryout are incoming freshmen," Baumback said, adding that nearly 40 hopefuls participated. The Spring RUHS Freshman team will have 15-18 players in total.

What is coach looking for?

"I'm looking for kids who have an elite [throwing or pitching] arm, an elite running ability ... Kids that have things you can't teach," he said.  "Speed, you can't teach that. You can develop it, improve upon what you've got, but if you're just fast, you're fast."

He also wants to see good balance at the plate. "I'm not super concerned with how far they hit the ball," he said. "I'd rather take the kid who has really good hitting mechanics and does things the right way, obviously coupled with some athletic ability."

For eighth-grade kids, he said, "the most important thing is to work on is developing your skills, your fundamentals, meaning doing things the right way."

If a kid doesn't make the team, Baumback advises him "to keep trying." While in Long Beach, he said, "several times we had players we had cut as freshmen or sophomores, who came back and made the team." One of them became a number one starting pitcher.

"You just need to decide," he said. "How much do you really love baseball?"

Andrew Saltsman, who became athletic director at RUHS a month before Baumback was hired, was drafted out of high school by the Dodgers and worked for four years in the San Diego Padres organization.

After 11 years as a high school administrator and activities director, he now oversees 25 teams at RUHS, including baseball, football, soccer, golf, tennis and cross country.

Half of the teams, including baseball, are broken into three levels: varsity, junior varsity and freshman/sophomore (also known as "frosh/soph").

One of the things Saltsman stressed at Eighth-Grade Parent Night last May was the importance of being a "multi-sport athlete." Rather than limiting themselves to one program, he told parents, students need to "broaden their horizons."

A junior college baseball coach for six years, Saltsman said what he "learned playing basketball [in high school] transferred into baseball."

He thinks students do themselves a "disservice" by devoting themselves entirely to one sport. "Not everyone can play," he said. "A lot get left out."

For those bound and determined to be a part of baseball, however, a lot of programs, including Redondo's, keep kids on as scorekeepers, announcers or equipment managers, he said.

Scott St. John, a volunteer Little League coach ever since his son, Vance, started playing baseball ten years ago, faces a new phase.

Now that his son and so many of his Redondo Beach teammates are looking to play in high school, St. John, like many parents, is holding his breath.

Where some talented players are bound to make the freshman team, he said, "A few are on the bubble and may or may not make it."

Flush from a win by his Redondo Beach All Stars, who trounced Hermosa Beach 11-0 Thursday night, St. John said, "It's all about what a coach sees in a boy."

He recalled a situation where one of his better players did not even make the All Stars. "He just didn't hustle that much," the coach said.

The same thing happened when the boy tried out for the freshman team. "The head coach just didn't see the desire, the will to be there."

In his experience, St. John said coaches aren't just looking for how a player catches a ground ball or fields to first base.

"Coaches want to see who runs out to the position, who gets there first," he said. "Some kids jog, others hustle like it is Christmas Day." Coaches want to see "fire in those kids," he said.

If kids don't make it the first time, he said parents should not tell them to give up.

"Orel Hershiser didn't make his freshman team," St. John said. The Los Angeles Dodger pitcher "got cut in tryouts, but didn't quit." Same with Dodger slugger Eric Karros.

"He didn't make his freshman or sophomore team, but he ended up in the major leagues," St. John said.