North Broward Older And Wiser Going Into 2013

North Broward Prep was a work in progress last year after losing nine seniors to graduation from a team that went to the state semifinal — the farthest the Eagles had ever been — and going through its first season in arguably Broward’s toughest district.

This year, the Eagles have to deal with losing five seniors and will be counting on the progression of last year’s younger players over the summer to help the program regain some of the success the team enjoyed the previous year.

A big loss on the mound is Casey Kopec, who went 4-3 with 65 strikeouts and a 2.33 ERA in 57 innings. Another key loss is the bat of Kevin Fagan, who hit .495 with 38 runs, 25 RBI and 11 home runs.

“Obviously, it hurts to lose those guys, but that happens every year,” North Broward manager Brian Campbell said. “You lose guys, so you just have to keep moving forward. I feel pretty good about our team. I feel good about guys who were young last year who played quite a bit and their development over the summer. All those kids who were considered young players last year now a year older and have a year of varsity experience under their belt.”

Some of the players Campbell is excited about this year include ace lefty Fidalic; returning catcher Mack Nathanson; first baseman/pitcher Drew Rangel; Chad Fleischman Kevin Thomas and Hernando Sierra, who is playing football this fall.

Sierra will be counted on to put up offensive stats just as good as last year. He hit .325, drove in 13 runs and scored 19. Rangel was close behind with a .328 average, 19 RBI and 13 runs.

“[Sierra] was one of our big hitters last year and has a lot of power, so I’m looking for a big season from Hernando,” Cambpell said. “I feel really strong about one through nine on our team.”

Fidalic will be joined at the top of the pitching rotation by Fleischman.

“Both have good stuff and are hard-nosed pitchers,” Campbell said. “And that’s what I love. I love hard-nosed guys. I think all of our guys are, but those two kind of stand out. They can go in and give us a chance to win.”

Behind them will be Thomas, Rangel and Will Simpson, who primarily will be counted on to be the team’s closer.

One area that can stand improvement from last year is defense. Last year’s team struggled in that area and poor defense allowed for too many errors. The players are taking the situation seriously.

“Fielding hurt us early, middle and late,” Rangel said. “Our pitching was fine and our hitting was good enough to win us games, but we just didn’t buckle down and make the key play when we needed to. “

Campbell agrees.

“For us to win, we’re going to have to play solid defense,” he said. “All we preach to these guys is making routine plays. Make routine plays and everything else will take care of itself. I don’t need people making highlight reels out there.”

Fidalic also said the team needs to be sharper mentally as well.

“We have a good team, we just need to put the mechanics together and make it work,” he said. “Right now, we’re missing a couple of things mentally, but once we get the mental part of it, we’ll be good.”

Fleischman points to last year’s district semifinal against Coral Springs Charter that the Eagles lost 6-3 as an example of the team needing to improve mentally.

“We led in the game and sort of got down a little bit because they started putting runs up,” he said. “We got down on each other, but we’re trying to make it more positive this year. You’ve got to deal with adversity. Sometimes when we get down in games, we just kick ourselves down. We have to get back up, and our upperclassman have to do a better job of leading this year.”

Better defense and avoiding mental mistakes will help the Eagles be more competitive in their loaded district. They finished 11-16 overall and 5-7 in District 4A-13 last year.

“We play in a tough district and I think we can compete,” Campbell said. “I’m looking forward to it. I love it. I love being in a district that’s tough and you have to go out and play every single day to have a shot. You can’t ever relax. You can’t ever get comfortable, and that’s what I like about it. It keeps our kids working. They know if they take one step back, it’s going to be tough to catch back up. Being in that tough district is very beneficial to us. It definitely helps motivate us for practice knowing everybody’s good and you have to compete every single day.”

Rangel said leaders are emerging on the team this fall and that should help to keep the ship sailing smoothly.

“I think we have a bunch of leaders on this team,” Rangel said. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be a senior. It can be a sophomore or a junior. Junior Mack Nathanson, he’s stepping up and being a leader. A.J. Fidalic, he’s being a leader. Chad’s being a leader. Our leadership is there and is going to be there. We don’t have as many great leaders as we had last year, but people have to find a way to step in and do it.”

The team this fall is spending more time on conditioning and weight training that it is playing games. Campbell believes the players already play enough baseball the rest of the year and need a bit of a slowdown with that in the fall. He schedules light as a result.

“With being a small school, numbers can be thin and my most important priority is making sure they’re healthy all year long, and I think in order to do that, we need to focus more on conditioning and strength training and practice rather than playing 30 or 40 games in the fall,” Campbell said. “That’s the way I’ve always approached it and the way I’ll keep approaching it.”

Overall Campbell is exciting for the spring season and is enjoying his job as North Broward’s manager.

“These guys have been a joy to coach so far,” he said. “They’re hard-working. They do what we ask them to do. They have fun with each other. I think our team chemistry is really good. I feel really good about how these guys interact with each other and how the older players help the younger guys. We’re all one team. I don’t have anyone out here that’s looking to play for their own stats. We talked about being your brother’s keeper and playing for your teammates. These guys are really buying into it this year.”

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