Mike DiMauro: Lucas Beaney: 'town' and 'team' forever
Jul. 25—WATERFORD — This is his season, his time, his program. This was the day when Lucas Beaney would get Waterford to another Babe Ruth World Series, the ultimate travel team experience.
And the disappointment still permeated Beaney's words Monday morning about 24 hours later, when his team and his town fell an eyelash short. Sure, there's another state championship banner for the 14s and respectable outcomes for the 15s and 13s, both making at least the state semifinals earlier this month. But when the history is deep and the expectations unyielding, the losses sting like a heated hornet.
Words may or may not offer solace in the wake of his program's loss Sunday to Trumbull in the New England Regionals. But there's this: Lucas Beaney, president of Waterford Babe Ruth and coach of one of the all-star teams every summer, is emerging as the glue guy of the town's estimable overall athletic success.
"The goal for the program is for the kids to play in meaningful games," Beaney said. "There's really no meaning to games played during weekend travel tournaments. This counts. You lose, you're out. You win, you advance. The kids care. More than I thought they did, to be honest."
For the unfamiliar: Youth, high school, college and professional sports are the perfect societal mirror for escalating whims of self-indulgence. Travel teams trump playing for the boring old town. Some high school kids attend three schools in four years. College transfer portals have more people than a Friday at Fenway. And the pros? Ah, the pimped home run, touchdown gyrations and the dreaded "three goggles."
Travel teams, while perhaps exposing kids to better competition and more eyes, are rooted in the individual. Look at ME. Look at MY skills. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, although it's the biggest reason why transfer portals in college are overflowing. Nobody learns how to be a teammate and play on a team. And when patience and sacrifice are required, they are unarmed.
This is where Beaney excels. Team and town are all he cares about. He learned that from his dad, Rick, the former Waterford Babe Ruth president, a man who succeeded Bob Bono, another guy who scores a perfect 10 on the loyalty-o-meter.
"Getting the kids to compete in the Babe Ruth tournaments teaches them how they must compete in every single game," Beaney said. "It teaches them how to win. To do things situationally, sometimes at the expense of your own stats, but for the team. That's what actually translates to the high school program."
Beaney's program has produced scores of kids who haven't merely stayed home, but contributed to the success of several Waterford High School teams, not just baseball. Example: Waterford graduate Ryan O'Connell had 14 points and 15 rebounds in the 2019 state championship basketball game before 6,800 fans at Mohegan Sun. After the game, he drew a direct line between being comfortable in that moment because he started the Babe Ruth state title game as a pitcher.
"Our whole program model is to be a feeder for the high school," Beaney said. "If we help other sports besides baseball, that's great, too. It stinks to lose the way we did Sunday (1-0 in seven innings) but to win a state title and help the high school at the same time is why we do this."
Once again: With kids leaving high schools in droves for better individual opportunities, a young, successful coach preaching "town" and "team" is more valuable than a lung to the high school program. Waterford has a better retention rate than most other towns because of what Beaney teaches. Happily, most still listen.
"We want to keep the kids playing together," Beaney said. "Other towns around here may not have that. But it's important. I know everybody hates Waterford. We're a bunch of jerks obsessed with winning. Except it's funny. When we get kids from other towns to come and play with us and they're part of something bigger than themselves, we're not such bad guys anymore."
Not every town has a Lucas Beaney. He cares, maybe sometimes too much. But the results are for all to see on the walls of The X and at the Babe Ruth field. Town and team may be on life support nationally. But not in the 06385.
This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro
