Veterans Galore At West Broward In 2015

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The guys on the West Broward roster don’t need to be reminded that they must do everything right. They know that they cannot just show up and expect to win. They all know what their job is and they do not need to be told. There is no need for any extra motivation in their clubhouse. The only thing the coaches talk about to remind them is to be together all of the time.

It is a unique opportunity that the Bobcats have this season. The roster boasts 15 seniors in all, which provides the ball club with a ton of veteran experience and a bevy of talent. The team is strong in all the right places and capable of making waves in the playoffs. Yet despite the comfort of this glut of talent and experience, no one is taking things lightly. The players have not forgotten that they were upset in the district playoffs last season, and the goal is to maintain focus and not take anything for granted this time around. The guys know what they are capable of, and they also know that they must prove it by earning it on the field.

“We’re confident, but not overconfident, especially after the sour taste in our mouths over how the season ended for us last year,” West Broward Manager Sergio Ambros admitted. “It’s a veteran team that most of them have been on varsity for two or three years. In Chase Hay-Eldon’s case he has been on varsity all four years, and he got be on the team during our playoff run to the regional finals in 2012. Chase knows what it takes to get all the way there, but he also felt the heartbreak of last year. So it’s a team that knows what it takes, and knows how disappointing it can be if we don’t take everybody as seriously as we need to. That was something we fell short on last year.”

Coach Ambros has been with the Bobcats program since it first originated seven years ago. After serving as an assistant under inaugural skipper Mike Moss for three seasons, Coach Ambros now begins his fourth year as the guy at the helm of this ball club. This season will be his first graduating class and these are the guys he picked as freshmen with a vision of having them four years later. They are here now and Ambros thinks it will pay dividends for them all.

This is a team that is together in all things. Most ball clubs are tight and unified like a family, but West Broward still stands out alone in the unique way they act as one. The team is well known for its togetherness, something teachers and administrators often note to the coaching staff. The squad is recognized for always being together at school and for always being well behaved. As a program, they have always focused on doing charity work and giving back to the community, and it is something that each player takes great pride in.

“What I always wanted to do when I took the job was to make it a sense of school pride,” Ambros said. “We get caught up with the summer ball and the kids know how important that is to play travel ball and get seen by colleges over the summer or in fall tournaments. But I wanted to go back to the old school of having pride for your school. Let’s do stuff for the community and for our families, let’s take pride in our field and our facilities, in what we do and to do it for the name on the front of our jerseys. They buy into it.”

The vision that Coach Ambros had all along has certainly come to fruition. Thanks to the commitment and dedication shown by all the people involved in the program during its short existence, the West Broward baseball team is widely recognized for all that it does off the baseball field. The team regularly holds charity outings, and just recently celebrated its third annual charity event to raise funds for the fight against Breast Cancer.

“We’re very big on giving back to the community,” senior Nick McDonald said. “We love doing big charities, going to Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital and having the Bats Against Breast Cancer day. It’s just fun and it brings all the guys and the families together. It’s just a big donation to the people we need to give back to. Baseball is a fun game, and especially at West Broward.”

It’s not just about baseball at West Broward. Ambros admits that what makes him most proud is in knowing what great young men he has in his program. The coaches are not just teaching them how to be great baseball players but also helping to mold them to go into life being respectful and giving back. Hopefully one day they will be good husbands and good fathers and turn that whole cycle of life right around.

“You talk to a couple of guys, and they are character guys almost to the man in every single individual,” Ambros said. “They want to give back and they take pride. It’s everything that we do to take pride like that. That’s what makes me feel pride. We had a practice this week that I could not attend and I called my assistant coaches and they told me we had a great practice. So my first thing to do was to send a text message to every single one of them and tell them I am really proud of you guys.”

The leadership on this squad starts with the guys on the mound. Michael Schappell and Christian Dearman are the primary starters, with Nick McDonald right there to lead the relief corps. Adding to a deep staff are the addition of several promising guys who are coming into their own to earn their roles, such as juniors Ryan Schoonover, Matthew Perez and Justin Martinez, as well as Somerset transfer Anthony Molina. The team has plenty of arms, they expect to pitch well and they expect to play great defense. The coaches are hoping the offense will come around and peak at the right time to round everything perfectly into place. Either way, the Bobcats know they have enough pitching to keep them in every game.

“We’ve got 15 seniors and eight or nine of them are pitchers, so that is really big. Pitching is important to us,” McDonald said. “Our arms are going to be very key and important to the team this year. We’ve got everybody back, including Schapp and Christian Dearman. We are deep this year and we have some guys that can swing it too. We know if we go down 1-0 we are going to fight right back. We have a lot of guys that are going to put the ball in play, get the bunt down or whatever they need to do to get the job done. It doesn’t just need to be the pitchers all the time. We have hitters and pitchers and everybody is going to contribute this year.”

Every man on the roster has something to prove after the way last season ended for this squad. It is an experienced team of talented players all with something to prove. The majority of them have been playing together for the past four years and now they are united in one common goal. They don’t have one particular leader; they are all leading one another because they all want to go in the same direction.

The offense accepts that they must increase their production to help the pitching staff out. Last year the team survived many close contests thanks to the dominance of its hurlers. But to reach the ultimate goal of competing for a state title, the club must execute in all three phases of the game. As anybody knows, in baseball you have to score runs in order to beat your opponent.

“We just want to jump on them early and get ahead of them in the game,” Hay-Eldon said. “We want to move runners and do the jobs that we’re supposed to do. That’s how we’re going to be successful. It’s not so much about the batting average but in getting the job done with sac bunts and getting the runners over. You don’t see that stuff in the stat book, but that’s what is important in the game. That’s what’s really going to help us.”

For some guys, baseball will not end after high school. A few guys have already committed to colleges, with Schappell heading to Jacksonville University and Chase Hay-Eldon going to Nova Southeastern University. Several others are also getting lots of attention of college scouts. The coaches are firm believers that there is a place for anybody who loves the game and is willing to work for what they want. Yet while each player’s individual future is important to them, for the time being everyone is focused solely on what needs to be done to make this spring season a success.

“We are not going to overlook anybody,” said Hay-Eldon. “I think we did that last year with Everglades and other schools, but this year we are treating everybody the same and we want to beat everybody regardless of who it is.”

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