A New Era Begins At St. Thomas

The St. Thomas baseball program has consistently been one of the top teams in the county over the past decade. There was a time, however, when the program was even more successful.

Troy Cameron played for St. Thomas during some of the programs best years in the ’90s. Cameron, who became the first Broward County high school baseball player to be drafted in the first round when he was selected 29th overall by Atlanta in 1997, wants St. Thomas to have a taste of those better days again. That desire to help his alma mater return to greatness has carried Cameron to the head coaching position at St. Thomas.

Cameron, who inherits the Raiders program from another St. Thomas legend, Bobby Lawson, is tasked with guiding the Raiders as they look to improve on a 14-9 record last year. St. Thomas reached the regional quarterfinals in 2012 before losing 5-4 to Monarch.

“I know there’s going to be some bumps in the road along the way this being my first go at coaching, but baseball is one of those things where if you get a chance to give back to the game of baseball, then you do it,” Cameron said. “So this is my opportunity and my chance to do it, not just to the game of baseball and what I’ve gotten out of it, but also to my alma mater. It’s just a good situation to be able to coach here and hopefully get the program going.”

Senior Frank Rubio said having Cameron as coach has the team energized and ready to get down to business as the fall season cranks up.

“It’s very exciting for all the players and for everyone who is following our program,” Rubio said. “It will be a good way to kick-start our last year. I think he brings a sense of respect because of the mentality he brings from a former player’s view and keeping the tradition St. Thomas is known for over the years.”

Cameron coached the Raiders in the fall the past couple of years, but his instruction carries a little more weight now that players know he’s going to be directing the team in the spring as well.

“The things I’m doing for the kids in the fall here now is something that’s going to be directly translated into the spring,” Cameron said. “The way we run our practices, the way we play the game, the way that we approach the game, now because I’m the coach also in the spring, this is my chance to get on the field and show these kids what I expect out of them, know how I want my practices run. When the spring rolls around, we’re already clicking on all cylinders and we don’t waste any time. It’s good because it gives me a chance to really roll out the way I want the program to be played and how and what I expect out of the kids.”

St. Thomas has lost 13 seniors from last year’s team, but Cameron said the program remains sound and has a lot of quality new and returning players.

“It’s fortunate that we have a lot of good athletes that come to St. Thomas, and we’ve always had good baseball teams and good players that come through here. We lost 13 seniors, but we’ve got a JV team that’s graduating to the varsity level and we’ve got a freshman team and then a JV team,” Cameron said. “The JV team is mostly sophomores, so you’ve got about 20, 25 sophomores that are all graduating to the varsity for a chance to compete at the varsity level. Just like any other school, you’re going to lose guys and you’re going to reload, and we’ve got a good core of guys.”

Cameron thinks pitching may be the team’s strong suit with Alec Byrd and Rubio returning as the teams’ co-aces. Byrd is entering his fourth year on the varsity team, a rarity at St. Thomas where the varsity team almost exclusively is comprised of juniors and seniors. Byrd went 3-3 with a 5.30 ERA and a team-leading 46 strikeouts last year. Rubio struck out 33 and led the team in wins, going 6-0 with a 2.06 ERA.

“I don’t think one of them is an ace and one of them is a number two guy. I think they’re both aces for any team in the county. I’m blessed to have both those arms throwing for me,” Cameron said. “We’ll have those two guys heading up the rotation, and then we’ll fill in behind them with some seniors who got some experience last year pitching who will definitely contribute. I think our pitching right now might be our strong point, but by the time spring rolls around, hopefully everything else catches up.”

The team lost one of its top pitchers in Jimmy Wright, but Richie Naylor and Will Arpin return, and Kevin Balfour and Christian Denby are moving up from junior varsity to bolster the staff.

Byrd also played first base last season and he’s joined by center fielder Peter Nicoletto as the only two position players coming back this season.

Nicoletto led the team in hitting last year, batting .463 and Byrd was solid at the plate as well with a .345 average. The team overall hit .287, and Cameron said the team is aiming to do better this year.

“Hitting .287 in the big leagues is pretty good, but in high school with aluminum bats, these BBCOR bats now, we’re going to need to improve on that. I’m not looking to have a lineup full of three, four hitters, I’m looking for a bunch of guys who can put the ball in play and make things happen, get on base,” he said.

Opponents will need to be on guard when those players get on base, Cameron said.

“We got a lot of guys who can run, so I’m looking forward to getting on base and stealing and doing some hit-and-runs and making things happen, putting the guys in motion,” he said. “I think we’ll get better as team hitting-wise and also we’ll manufacture some runs without even having good hits. We’ll improve on our offense this year.”

Byrd said the team’s approach at batting practice this fall is allowing him and his fellow players to get in more swings.

“I feel coach Cameron’s instruction is getting us where we need to be,” Byrd said.

St. Thomas will need to be at the top of its game to make it through its tough district slate. Scrappy teams such as South Broward, Plantation, McArthur and Cooper City as well as long-time nemesis Nova will have St. Thomas on its toes at all times.

“Every team can beat you on any given night,” Byrd said. “Winning our district is way tougher than it used to be.”

Cameron agreed.

“In the past, we had a few teams in our district that unfortunately just didn’t have that great of a baseball program. We knew what was going to happen in that game,” Cameron said. “We were able to get some guys experience who weren’t your everyday starters. Cooper City usually puts a pretty good team out there, and you can’t take them lightly. They can beat you on any given night. I know last year, the team lost to South Broward. Before the season started, I’m sure a lot of people thought they’d probably win those two games, so it just goes to show our district is strong. You can’t assume you’re going to win that game. You’ve got to make sure you’re going in with your A team and make sure you get those district wins for sure.”

St. Thomas also will try to get the better of Nova this year. The Titans outscored the Raiders 20-9 in three games last year, including shutouts in their first and third meetings of the season. In the teams’ second matchup, St. Thomas narrowly beat Nova 9-8, handing the Titans their first loss.

“We feel that our rivalry only gets better every year,” Rubio said. “The players and coaches know each other and respect each other. It’s a great rivalry for the game of high school baseball.”

Beating Nova and nailing down its district is one step in Cameron’s overall plan to boost the St. Thomas program and regain some of the prestige it had during his playing days. But first he needs to get his players to understand where the program has been and where it can go.

“My sophomore year, we won states, and I think we ended up finishing third or fourth in the country. We were nationally ranked my sophomore year, and then we were number one in the country two months during my senior year,” Cameron said. “A lot of these kids don’t know we used to be nationally ranked as a baseball program. And we’ve kind of gotten away from that. We love the exposure and the atmosphere that football brings to this school because it helps us from a baseball standpoint, but I have to get my kids to know the history of our program and understand that we were national contenders as well in baseball. If you don’t have the attitude that you can get back there, we’ll never get back there. We’ve got to get the swagger back. It’s left us for a little while, but we’ll get it back.”

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