USA Baseball launches Athlete Development Programme

USA Baseball launches Athlete Development Programme
01/03/2019

It will be a four-day, 19-22 June invitation only, development opportunity for 36 elite-level athletes of the 13 and under age bracket. It will be held at the National Team training complex in Cary, North Carolina

USA Baseball announced the launch of its Athlete Development Programme (ADP). It will be a four-day (19-22 June), invitation only, development opportunity for elite-level athletes of the 13 and under age bracket. The inaugural ADP will be held at the National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina.

The ADP participants will receive instruction by USA Baseball National Team coaches, college coaches and premier high school coaches from across the USA.

Each day at the ADP will feature advanced on-field skills development, with positional and team fundamental drills. Over the course of the four days, the 36 athletes invited will be placed on a Stars or Stripes team. The two teams will face each other in a best of three series.

Butch Chaffin, a two time National Team coach currently serving as the Head Coach of Cookeville High School (Tennessee) will be the Field Coordinator. A staff of 8 coaches will be joining Chaffin: Rucker Taylor (Davidson College Head Coach; Stars team manager), Doug Creek (USA Baseball alumnus), David Houston (Covenant Day School in Matthews, North Carolina), Tanner Vesely (U-12 National Team 2015 Head Coach), John Mc Cormack (Head Coach at Florida Atlantic University; Stripes team manager), Scott Grove (The First Academy in Orland, Florida), Wes Brooks (Oxford High School in Oxford, Alabama), Roger Kieschnick (University of Texas at San Antonio).

The programme is beginning with the 13 and under age group, but will later offer a pathway to a National Team extending from the U-12 National Team programme through the Collegiate National Team.

USA Baseball Senior Director of Baseball Operations Ashley Bratcher commented: “With the creation of this new initiative, we now offer national team-level instruction to more athletes than ever before with plans for additional ADP age groups in the future.”