A servant mentality: Avista NAIA baseball teams host annual Kids Clinic with the American Baseball Coaches Association
May 23—All 10 teams set to compete in this year's Avista NAIA World Series of baseball turned out to help at the annual pre-tournament American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Kids Clinic on Wednesday at Harris Field.
Turnout was down from previous years (perhaps an aftereffect of the untimely end of Lewis-Clark State's season), but enthusiasm among those present was not, as ominous clouds occupied much of the visible skyline but the sun continually peeked out and kept conditions pleasant. This year's clinic was structured slightly differently from previous iterations, with participants divided up into groups of 5-to-8-year-olds and 9-to-12-year-olds. Each group cycled through five stations — teaching fundamentals of the outfield, infield, base running, pitching and hitting — and each participant received a commemorative T-shirt.
Georgia Gwinnett's station stole the show, whipping youths into a frenzy of excitement in imagined celebration of base runs. Children who had successfully completed the miniature diamond of bases laid out by their instructors were encouraged to assume the Grizzlies' signature "claws out" pose, raise their voices and form a throng with their groupmates resembling a team mobbing one of its own who has struck a game-winning homer.
"It's a lot of fun to get out of the hotel," third-year Georgia Gwinnett assistant coach John Topoleski said. "You get to come out here, try to make some future Grizzly fans, and who knows? Maybe there's a good star out here that will help everyone else out."
Tennessee Wesleyan pitching coach Zack Sterner, who led his team in holding throwing exercises alongside the field, also emphasized the significance of the clinic in forming a connection with the next generation and sparking embers of talent.
"We taught them a little bit about the windup, and obviously throwing strikes off the mound," he said. "Getting to serve these kids in Lewiston, I think that's a huge takeaway for us as a club — something we talk about a lot. ... It speaks to the servant mentality they have, and I think this is one of the biggest highlights going into the tournament before everything starts."
In another respect, the clinic provides a service and a special memory not only for the pupils, but for the players as well.
"Our guys aren't used to signing hundreds of autographs," Cumberlands coach Brad Shelton noted. "It's all an amazing experience for the players, and they get treated like big leaguers."
Outgoing LCSC athletic director Brooke Henze MC'd proceedings over the stadium's speakers. Former Division I veteran coach Ryan Brownlee attended on behalf of the ABCA — which, as he noted, has been overseeing the clinic since the 1980s.
