Piper Entering A New Era Under Don Collins

Stability is something that has been lacking at Piper as the program is on its third manager in just a few years.

Don Collins, an assistant football coach at the school the past two years, recently accepted the job and plans on molding the quality pieces he has to work with into a masterpiece.

If the name sounds familiar, it’s because Collins was the manager from 1996 to 1998 back when Piper was a Class 5A school. He led the program to a district championship his first year, and the 1998 team finished as district runners up.

When the job opened up again when Chris Costanzo left after last season, Collins said he “jumped at the opportunity to come back. I missed coaching baseball. I definitely wasn’t passing up this opportunity to come back.”

Collins brings college experience to the Bengals, having coached at Tennessee Tech.

Because of previous commitments at the school, Collins, an advanced placement U.S. and European history teacher, hasn’t been able to coach the team much this fall, although he is leading the effort to get the team more physically fit with a weight-training conditioning program. On the field, Mike Cuminale and Mark Lindsay are doing the coaching.

Zach Crosno, who will be the team’s ace this year, said “we’re getting to know him a little bit, but it will be different, not getting to know him during the fall, not getting to bond with him. The coaches we have out here now are pretty much preparing us for what we’re going to be in for in the spring season, so hopefully they’ll prepare us well and we’ll be ready to go when he comes out. He seems like he’s going to keep us on track. He’s not going to put up with attitudes. He’s definitely strict and going to help us come together more as a team.”

Collins said the first step to helping the team improve on its 8-12 finish last year will be to change the mindset.

“I want to put together a team that wants to compete for the district championship,” Collins said. “That’s the mindset I have and am going to instill into the team. Once the mindset is changed, a lot is achievable. The future is bright for us.”

Cuminale, who is serving as assistant coach this fall and leading the team in practices and games, said it’s going to take the players a while to adjust to the curve they were thrown when Costanzo left.

“The big thing for them is right now they’re in a transition period,” Cuminale said. “They lost their head coach and a new head coach will be coming in. It’s going to a learning curve for a while. It’s rough for the boys right and tough with two guys running the team. Right now the transition and the not knowing is really tough on the boys.”

Among Collins’ main concerns is the pitching staff, which is still developing behind Zack Crosno, who pitched the most innings on the team last year (43), struck out 32 and posted a 2.77 ERA.

“He’s a great lefty, has great control of the ball, he’s able to hit his spots,” Cuminale said. “He has some decent speed behind it. He’s able to hide the ball well in his delivery. If he continues working the way he is now, I see him going a long way, even at the next level.”

Other pitchers on the largely unproven staff are Chase Perry, Ricky Reinhart and Jesse Crosno.

The team is focusing on small ball to help off set its lack of height.

“You look at a lot of the schools out here and you’re looking at a lot larger players,” Cuminale said. “Unfortunately here right now, we don’t have the 6-3, 6-4 players, so this has to be more of a small-ball team, putting the ball in the gaps, getting these guys on base and going position to position with them. If we can get that taken care, we can be very competitive. They’ve shown that throughout the fall, earlier in the games they can be very competitive and as the game progresses, we have to keep the consistency up the whole game not just the first three, four innings.”

Players are still vying for spots, but at the moment, Jared Hammer is the leading second baseman with Perry and Anthony Vargas manning short stop. Vargas gives the team a spark being a transfer from American Heritage. Third base will be played by Reinhart.

Jovanni Alamo and Zach Crosno are returning outfielders.

The team believes it can be competitive in one of the toughest districts in Broward. Piper’s district, 8A-11, features scrappy teams from top to bottom, leaving little room for error. Piper managed a 6-6 district finish last year that put it squarely in the middle of the pack.

“The district always is going to be strong,” Collins said. “It’s going to be a battle and good competition brings out good teams. It’s a challenge and I like challenges. We’ll just have to compete.”

Zach Crosno said he sees things going successfully for the team if it maintains the unity is has now.

“If we keep this chemistry with a new coach and new environment, everything will be fine,” he said. “We just have to keep it going, can’t lose focus, can’t lose our heads. That’s the big thing.”

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