St. Thomas Aquinas Still In The Hunt For State Glory

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The chemistry on the St. Thomas baseball team could not be better. The program knows how important that can be for success, as it can look back to the great team chemistry it enjoyed two years ago when the team went to the state tournament. Chemistry is a huge component in that, and this group is heading in that same direction this season. The way these guys work together could just make all the difference.

It is a veteran group that returns to lead the Raiders this season. They are a talented bunch and they are hungry to keep chasing the dream of a state championship. St. Thomas won the district last season and advanced to the regional semifinals, before falling to eventual state champion American. The guys know the team is in the hunt, and that is the big motivation for most of them.

“Last year definitely hurt, but this year it is about taking it one game at a time,” said senior pitcher Jordan Spicer. “Take it one game, and hopefully by the end of the season we can finally reach out goals.”

For Manager Troy Cameron and the staff, the season goals may be in a different order. Cameron knows as coaches their primary goal is to help guys keep getting better, and to see them go on to play at the next level. They want a state title for the kids, but to them it is secondary to what their futures become.

“As a player I was fortunate to win a state title at St. Thomas and I know what that is like, and I want the kids to be able to experience that,” Cameron said. “Their eye is certainly on getting back to jetBlue Park and I think we have six kids on this team that were on the team that went there two years ago. Those are the guys who will lead us if we are going to get there again. As a player they would love to go out and win a state championship, and I think a lot of people feel that we have a good chance this year.”

Cameron appreciates the dedicated coaching staff that he has alongside him. When he first got the opportunity to take the reigns at his alma mater, Cameron reached out to two good friends and great baseball guys in Tim McNab and Mike Rodriguez, two assistants who are integral to the program. Mixed in with them is Legend, former skipper Ed Waters, and John Hackett, two veteran coaches with loads of baseball knowledge.

“It is a good mix of the old school guys and the mix of the new-school guys,” Cameron said. “The camaraderie amongst the coaches is great. It funnels down on the players. We have fun and they have fun as long as well work hard every day.”

The coaches work their kids extremely hard, and they are ready to start playing games now. By the time they get to play somebody else it will be a relief that they get to compete against somebody else, after how hard they have battle one another in practice lately.

The team is strong in a lot of areas this season, but there is no question it is the pitching staff that is the strongest. The Raiders have a bevy of arms available, experienced guys who are capable of throwing strikes and recording outs. At the front of the pack are seniors Nick Marchese and Jordan Spicer, two veteran right-handers who have logged some solid varsity innings and who are looking to end their high school careers with a state title.

“It’s an honor for my coaches to trust me that much that they let me be one of the main guys this year,” Spicer said. “It’s a real honor, but it is more important to me to be out there with my team and for our team to win. My team trusts me to give me the ball and I need to do it for them and the coaches as well.”

There are a lot of capable arms behind the two primary starters. Veteran right-handers Eddie Angelbello, Grant Laue and Will Kelleher, and lefty Wes Spano all figure into the equation. The team also has the added depth from promising young sophomore Johnny Leone, who could become the team’s number three starter.

“We don’t have enough innings this year to get everybody their proper amount of innings,” Cameron said. “We have one of the best one-two starters with Nick Marchese and Jordan Spicer, and to see what they are going to do their senior year after the successful years they had last year makes us excited. But we have five or six guys right behind them that are extremely good. It’s a good problem to have when you have that much talent to choose from.”

The lineup has a fair share of depth as well. Speedsters Juwuan Harris and Gary Mattis hit at the top of the order, specializing in getting on base and then wrecking havoc on the base paths. Senior Alex Dickinson steps into a big role as the starting catcher, and hits in the middle of the lineup. Also returning to the batting order is senior outfielder Carter White.

With a total of 14 seniors on the roster, there is a lot of focus being spent on getting these guys off to play college baseball next year. Several guys have already found their future destinations; Dickinson is headed to Princeton, Marchese to Tallahassee Community College, Spicer to Polk State and Harris is headed to Rutgers to play football.

There are a few other guys set to make names for themselves this season, and as a whole the roster provides a perfect blend of characters to provide excellent chemistry. The guys are all very close and work great together.

“It’s definitely one of a kind; we are boys on and off the field,” Spicer said. “We hang out, we chill and we have a group chat that starts at seven in the morning and doesn’t die until like twelve o’clock at night. It’s insane but it’s just that this team chemistry is one of a kind. The best is that we all have each other’s backs and we are all ready to go to war for one another.”

One of the exciting parts for Cameron as a coach now as opposed to a player is exploring the unchartered territory of coaching. He is learning two times as fast about coaching then he ever did about playing, and as a staff they are always working to evolve and improve what they do. With such a veteran group the program has not made many sweeping changes to the approach this season, but they always go forward with an eye on ways they can enhance how they make their guys better players.

When Cameron first got the opportunity to come back and coach at St. Thomas, one of the things he wanted to do was to revitalize the alumni pride and support in the program. He has played in the program and feels a lot of pride for it. Therefore he brought back the alumni game and encouraged former Raiders to stay close with the team.

“We built a Tradition Room where we are starting to hang jerseys, and we hung a jersey for Tyler Greene who played in the World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals a few years back, and it is signed by him,” Cameron said. “We also have a bunch of awards other guys won in the past. Not just the St. Thomas athletic tradition, but more specifically the baseball program. A lot of the guys on our team didn’t know we have seven guys who have come through and have played in the big leagues. It’s a motivation for these guys every day to go out and get better.”

The players are getting used to seeing former Raiders swing by to work with the team. Alumni Robbie Scott is a familiar face who made the AA All Star team last year, and who could be the next big local name in the pros. Meanwhile here he is working with the players and letting them see a familiar face that is ascending to heights they also dream for someday. It adds intensity and makes them work harder, and it is another piece of the tradition here for St. Thomas baseball.

Recently the Raiders also renamed their field after Coach Waters. His presence provides an uncanny bridge to generations of St. Thomas baseball teams, and the current players love him as much all the previous ones do. He also provides a close up look at the dedication it takes to earn something as flattering as having a baseball field named after you.

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