|
Youth helps fuel OTB Pirates
While the OTB Pirates have gained most of their recognition through the senior division team, it has been the lower levels of the organization that have helped supply the players.
This year, the senior team advanced further in the playoffs than the junior team. But for the last two years, the junior team has played deeper into the summer.
This summer, the senior division Pirates were eliminated from the state tournament after losing a back-and-forth, 15-14 slugfest to the Newburgh Nuclears in a losers bracket semifinal.
"It wasn't a pretty game by any means," senior manager Nick Farese said. "It was exciting for the fans I'm sure, but it wasn't very well played."
That's not usually the case with the senior Pirates, who have been to 13 state tournaments since 1987, winning nine titles. In that time the Pirates have won four regional titles, qualifying for the American Legion World Series in 1990, '93, '96 and 2002.
The end of the season hardly signals the end of working to improve the organization for the OTB coaches.
"The day after we're done, we start looking at next year," Farese said. "We have a nucleus of players at the junior level that we're really high on.
Four years ago, senior division assistant manager and organizational scout, Bob Farese, came up with the idea to start a division for younger kids.
First he started a junior 17-and-under team in 2004. This year's team lost in the state tournament, but back in 2006 the juniors were state champions. The 15-and-under rookie team just completed its third year.
"It's like the pros," Bob Farese said. "We have a minor-league system and instead of cutting kids and them playing for someone else, they get to work their way through the system. It helps keep our senior team strong every year."
It's the practice at the lower levels that helped North Rockland graduate Chris Landry improve as a player and move up to the senior level.
Spending his first two years on the junior team allowed Landry to improve his batting stance, his understanding of the strike zone and his approach at the plate.
"My first year coach (Nick Farese) taught me so many things," the senior division outfielder said. "They start at step one and just teach it over and over again. It definitely helped being in the program at a younger age because you're brought up doing the same things."
Mike Girling, who just ended his second year on the junior team, needed a little convincing before he joined the Pirates.
The Pearl River junior was playing on another American Legion team when he came across the Pirates. The score was not fresh in Girling's mind, but he did remember that "they were really good and they beat us pretty badly."
Like Landry, it's the repetition and attention to detail that convinced Girling this was the right team for him.
"I went to camps before and they didn't enforce (technique) as much as the Pirates," Girling said. "After each at-bat the coaches talk to you and explain what went wrong. It's a lot of one-on-one. I've definitely gotten a lot better in the last two years."
|
|
|
