Making moves on the fly goes with the territory of being a successful coach. The same can be said of an association executive.
As Richmond City Baseball officially welcomes another season on Saturday, April 21 (11 a.m.) with its Opening Day celebration, the organization continues to buck the current trend for youth sports by growing in numbers.
Sure, provincial contending teams in the high-profile College Prep and 15U AAA age groups don’t hurt, but it’s paying attention to the core house level that leads to player retention.
An influx of new players at the 13U level had resulted in little success for Richmond teams in regular season play.
Roughly 60 percent of the total registration was new to the game and that number shot up to 80 percent once the top 24 kids were pulled out to play “AA” ball. RCBA teams had not won a game outside of Richmond in two years.
John Braaten didn’t want the trend to continue.
The RCBA president met with coaches and restructured the division completely. Two teams will continue to play an Interlock schedule while new players will be part of a development program where they can progress at their own pace.
“We decided to offer two types of registration. One for ‘A’ ball and travelling and the other for in-house development. They will get to work with (RCBA director of player development) David (Van Ostrand) a couple of times a week and play an inter squad game,” explained Braaten.
“No one has done this before but I don’t want a kid to play White Rock and get killed 15-0. The objective is to get them comfortable with no pressure and eventually send them out. They will also get to play our travel teams at some point and enter a tournament the May long weekend.”
Braaten also pointed out how the in-house program will be attractive to the multi-sport athlete that doesn’t want to make a big commitment to baseball. They will still be eligible to play the six week all-star season and Richmond happens to be hosting the U13 “A” levels provincials in August.
After a terrific inaugural season at the College Prep level, RCBA has expanded its 18U rep program by adding a Midget AAA team that will be guided by Murray Besler. Again, providing another option close to home, this time for the competitive player.
“We have been able to keep the majority of our own (graduated) Bantam AAA kids right here in Richmond when the older ages can go everywhere,” added Braaten.
Other big dates on the RCBA calendar include B.C. Baseball’s Travelling Caravan visiting Palmer on April 21. The annual 15AAA Queen Victoria Day 15U AAA Tournament Victoria Day Weekend and hosting B.C. Baseball’s 13U AA John Main Tournament the second straight year at Palmer — May 24-27.
Latrace Field will host the Toronto Blue Jays Honda Super Camp, for ages six to 13, July 26-27, along with the Roberto Alomar T12 B.C. tryouts the same weekend.
