Winter Baseball is Heating Up

This article was submitted by Second Wave baseball.

The only way to improve upon last winter's indoor baseball season was to get more local area boys involved. At least that was the initial mindset of Second Wave General Manager Rob Hopkins. 

"We had 12 boys playing last winter, with another two who we called up when we were down some players," he said.  "Those boys played three and a half months of baseball before the outdoor season even started.  Every one of our players improved over the course of last winter and racheted up their baseball skills." 

However, the Second Wave baseball program found themselves in a bit of a quandry heading into this winter's indoor season — they returned 10 of 12 boys from last year's team, quickly filled the two open roster spots, then had five more boys who wanted to play.  

"We had a team and a half," noted Hopkins.  "Which is not where a GM wants to be in terms of numbers.  There were clearly too many boys to use as alternates if/when players were sick or were away, and not enough players to run a second team.  So we did what we felt was our only option — and that was to put the word out."  

In six days, the Second Wave baseball program found seven more boys who wanted to play indoor baseball in the dead of winter here in New England and Second Wave had two teams in the 8- to 10-year-old division at Route 1 SportsPlex in Danvers.

"We had a tremendous response and now have two teams — Second Wave Blue and Second Wave Red, the general manager said. "We have 24 local area boys playing on both teams and we're set up strong to migrate one of these teams to the 10- to -12-year-old division next winter." 

A critical factor in a successful baseball program is good coaching — Hopkins knew this and realized he couldn't coach both teams.

He called upon fellow Swampscott resident Pete Inzana whose son was slated to play on the Red team and Inzana agreed to hold the reins for the Red team.  Hopkins and Inzana then rounded out the remainder of the Red team's coaching staff with Adolf Graciale, Team Greenfield and Fred Dubiel and Dave Coleman.  

Hopkins continues to manage the Blue team with help from Dan Dilisio, Joe Caponigro and Hopkins' father, Warren Hopkins.  

"I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the help Second Wave baseball is receiving from our two sponsors who paid for our game shirts and hats — which in turn, allowed us to keep the costs down for our players," noted Hopkins.  "Dilisio Brothers sponsors our Blue team while TheBaseballLab.com sponsors our Red team."  

The season is only 4 weeks into the first of two sessions that Second Wave enters teams.  Each session is 7 weeks long, so there is a lot of baseball to be played the rest of this winter.  

"It's all about the development of our players and building confidence within each boy," the general manager said.  "With repitition comes consistency, and with consistency comes confidence.  Our coaches aren't really concerned about the score of games as much as we are the development of our players and that they are enjoying themselves playing baseball.  That's what fosters a love of the game."  

For questions regarding Second Wave baseball, all inquiries can be sent to graydawg864@aol.com_______________________