Local high school baseball coaches passed their wisdom on to Plant City Little League coaches on Saturday, Feb. 11.
Many Plant City Little Leaguers are about to start practicing more like their high school counterparts, thanks to men who may later be their high school coaches.
On Saturday, Feb. 11, coaches and players from Durant and Plant City high schools teamed up with Plant City Little League to host a coaches’ clinic. From 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., coaches in attendance picked up tips and tricks from some of the top baseball coaches and players in
Hillsborough County.
“I just love talking to the coaches, because so many of them are so new at it,” Durant assistant coach Donnie Scolaro says. “But, like I was telling them, too many people get it in their mind that you have to be somebody who’s played to be a good coach, or had experience as a player. I think there’s so much you can accomplish and do, and get these kids ready to play and enjoy playing, without having played one game of baseball or softball.”
The session was led by Durant head coach Butch Valdes, Donnie Scolaro, Plant City head coach Mike Fryrear and PCLL board member and former Durant coach Gary Graham. Durant players who helped out include ace Jonah Scolaro, outfielders Steven Witchoskey and Jared Mejia, shortstop Frankie Martinez and catcher Alex Molinelli. Plant City brought outfielder Dalton Wingo, shortstop J.J. Gonzalez, pitcher Parker Messick, catcher Hunter Emerine and utility man Cade Shissler.
“We love coming out into the community, and we love getting our kids out here,” Donnie Scolaro says.
Though both schools have taught clinics before, they hadn’t always been able to join forces. But the call to host a clinic together was an easy one to make, due to history between the programs and Graham: Fryrear, a Durant alumnus, was coached by Graham and Donnie Scolaro while in high school, and he and Valdes are among a group of East Hillsborough baseball coaches — including Strawberry Crest head coach Eric Beattie — that are close friends.
Many of the drills and concepts taught to the coaches almost mirror what the high school coaches currently use in their programs — the only difference is that the Little League drills are simplified, both to match that level of play and the physical capabilities of pre-teen children.
“At the Little League level, they need more fundamental baseball and understanding life lessons,” Fryrear says. “That’s the basis of Little League.”
The Little League coaches learned better techniques for everything one could do on the field: offense, defense, pitching, catching, hitting, running, throwing and positioning. The high school coaches also stressed the importance of giving the Little Leaguers life lessons and being good role models. The kids occasionally took breaks from demonstrating drills to offer their own bits of advice.
“The longer you do it, obviously, the more you learn,” Donnie Scolaro says. “That’s what we hope to bring to them, the experience … they pick up on the little things and go ahead and implement them in practice. It will make the kids better players, the practice runs better.”
Fryrear says that the coaches would like to host camps and more joint clinics in the future, and are hoping to get the next clinic going in the fall. For both programs, it’s a way to give back to the community and help Plant City’s youngest baseball players pick up the right habits on and off the field.
“Planning this together, it was an honor to do this with Durant,” he says.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
