NECC Home Run Derby promotes baseball, cancer awareness

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

As a way of promoting baseball and helping the community, two senior ballplayers at Lakeland Junior/Senior High School in LaGrange, Ind., came up with an idea.

Jayce Riegling and Braden Yoder decided to organize a home run derby and invited other players from the Northeast Corner Conference to participate.

Sixteen hitters representing nine of the conference’s 12 schools — Angola (where Roger Roddy is head coach), Central Noble (Tyler Graybeal), Fairfield (Darin Kauffman), Fremont (Justin Bock), Garrett (Jason Richards), Lakeland (Michael Isaacs), Prairie Heights (T.J. Guthrie), West Noble (Doug Brown), and Westview (Jason Rahn) — are slated to slug it out, beginning at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 3 on the Lakeland diamond.

There will be four rounds with batters seeing how many homers they can hit in three minutes.

All proceeds from the event, which has 48 corporate sponsors, will be going to Hello Gorgeous!, a non-profit organization that provides complimentary, professional makeovers and cosmetic education to all women battling all cancers. Organizers says that more than $5,000 has already been raised.

Tickets will be on sale the day of the event for $3. T-shirts will also be sold. To keep spectators fed, the MADD Chef Creationz food truck will be there, too.

Why an NECC Home Run Derby?

“Everyone loves home runs,” says Riegling. “I want to be an agent. I was talking to some (sports) agents. They told me to come up with baseball projects.”

After batting around a few ideas, they settled on bringing in players with the pitcher of their choice for a home run derby.

“It helps the community better,” says Riesling. “It gets us closer.”

Yoder, who is considering a career in engineering, sees his role in the project as the proof reader and aesthetic editor.

“I try to make everything look nice,” says Yoder. “I’m more behind the scenes. I keep things straight.

“This is going to be a fun event. I’m excited. It’s the first time I’ve ever done anything like this. So far it’s turned out perfectly.”

Yoder says permission forms need to be finalized, but they will welcome participation by younger kids to shag balls.

The event was originally scheduled for May 2020, but the IHSAA informed the organizers that players could not participate in-season so the date was changed.

If the weather does not cooperate Sunday, back-up dates are Nov. 9 and 10. Updates will be placed on the project’s Twitter page — @NECC_HRD.

Most of the participants came to a media day sponsored by Shipshewana Trading Place.

Here’s what the many of the hitters had to say:

Felipe Arevalo (Fairfield): “This is a very nice project … We all love baseball. This will be my first home run derby. It’s going to be fun … (Coach Kauffman) talks about hitting the ball hard.”

Brayden Bontrager (Lakeland): “I just love the game. Baseball is a fun sport to play. I always like to hit home runs … Home runs are the best part of the game. It rallies the team … (Coach Isaacs) is more of a contact guy, get guys on-base … The ball travels here in left field. There’s a cornfield out there.”

Nathan Burr (Central Noble): “I’ve never heard about anything else like this in high school. I thought it would be fun to be part of the first one … This is a great cause — cancer awareness. I’m real excited.”

Tyler Curtis (Prairie Heights): “I like hitting dingers. I like the competition … Last year I had one (homer) on varsity … Rotational hitting (which I learned at Hitters Edge in Sturgis, Mich.) is a big thing. A big shoutout to Mike Marks and Robert Riley … Stamina is a big thing we don’t focus on (in a home run contest). You have to control your breathing.”

Camden “Bodhi” Hall (Prairie Heights): “(Bodhi) comes from a movie called Point Break with Patrick Swayze. My dad just wanted to name me that. He still calls me Bodhi … Tyler Curtis and I wanted to represent our school and show them what we’ve got as sophomores … Tyler and I were in a home run derby together while with the Hitter’s Edge. He was first and I second one year … (Hitter’s Edge coach Mike Marks) is great. You go up there, you’ll learn something.”

Camden Harris (Garrett): “I had four (home runs) last spring (behind senior Kobe Lucarelli’s six) … This will be my third (home run contest). I was in seventh grade and we were in Kentucky for nationals (in travel ball) and I got second place. As a freshman or sophomore, I was down in Florida and got first place.”

Connor Kreis (Fremont): “I heard about a slogan like ‘Swinging for Cancer’ or something like that. I figured it was going for a good cause. It’s just cool to get out here and see these other athletes that I’ve played against since I was a freshman.”

Owen Miller (Fairfield): “I hit two home runs last year. One was a grand slam (at Lakeland) … You have to have a good pitcher (Owen’s father, Tim Miller, will pitch to him) and you need to be confident.”

Nick Mortrud (Westview): “I thought it would be fun to do something to bring the schools together … In a way, this helps the school kind of showcase what they’ve got … We’re bringing the community here, too … I was in a home run contest in travel ball at around 10 (in Columbus, Ohio) at ended up winning it … I’m going to be thinking don’t take too many wasted swings. After each swing kind of analyze what you’re doing. Focus on what you’re body’s doing as you take the swing.”

Hunter Saggars (West Noble): “(Jayce) and I go way back. We used to play ball together … I’ve never seen anything like this before so I figured it would be cool to be a part of the first one … I’m not going into this thing thinking I’m going to win it. We’ve got some big boys. I just want to be a part of it … (2019 West Noble graduate) Jorge Villanueva will be throwing to me.”

Takota Sharick (Westview): “My Grandma has cancer so this is really important to me … I’m not necessarily a power hitter, but if I focus on it I can be alright … We use Blast Motion and (Coach Rahn) tells us when we’ve had good launch angle and bat speed.”

Gage Smith (Garrett): “We’ve got three (derby competitors) looking pretty sharp, honestly … I would honestly consider myself a power hitter (with four homers for the Railroaders last spring) … A Garrett cop (Kylan LaMotte) will be throwing to us.”

Evan Snyder (Churubusco): “I was in a home run derby a long time ago in Cooperstown. I hit one … It’s a good thing they’re doing this for, the charity.”

Tristan Taylor (Garrett): “We’re all a tight-knit group (at Garrett). All three of us are chatting and having a competition amongst ourselves. It’ll be fun … It’s a really good opportunity to support this charity. It’s a really good organization … Everything about this is great.”

NECC HR DERBY

At Lakeland

Sunday, Nov. 3, 3:30 p.m.

Bracket 1

First Round

Nick Mortrud (Westview jr.) vs. Brayden Bontrager (Lakeland jr.)

Gage Smith (Garrett jr.) vs. Dylan Eggl (Central Noble jr.)

Camden Harris (Garrett sr.) vs. Camden “Bodhi” Hall (Prairie Heights so.)

Owen Miller (Fairfield so.) vs. Connor Kreis (Fremont sr.)

Bracket 2

First Round

Tyler Curtis (Prairie Heights so.) vs. Evan Snyder (Churubusco jr.)

Nathan Burr (Central Noble sr.) vs. Kolton Taylor (Lakeland sr.)

Tristan Taylor (Garrett sr.) vs. Felipe Arevalo (Fairfield sr.)

Hunter Saggars (West Noble sr.) vs. Takota Sharick (Westview jr.)

The NECC Home Run Derby brackets for 2019. (Steve Krah Photo)

The Northeast Corner Conference Home Run Derby with proceeds to benefit Hello Gorgeous! is slated for Sunday, Nov. 3 at Lakeland Junior/Senior High School in LaGrange, Ind. (Steve Krah Photo)

 

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Angola’s Roddy guides team full of three-sport athletes

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

In this era of specialization, Angola High School baseball is an outlier.

The 2017 Hornets varsity has just one player that is not a three-sport athlete at the school.

“It’s something we preach,” says third-year head baseball coach Roger Roddy, who plans to tackle a 12th season as an assistant football coach at the school of around 900 students in the fall. “Our athletic director (Mark Ridenour), football coach (Andy Thomas), (boys) basketball coach (Ed Bentley) and myself are firm believers in two things — No. 1,  we’re not big enough to compete in 4A in football and we still need all our athletes on the field (or court for 3A baseball or basketball).

“We can’t have one of our best athletes decide: I’m just a pitcher or just a basketball player.

“No. 2, if they choose not to (participate during a certain season) we all have the same message: You’re still in the weight room.”

Angola has all its athletes — from 275-pound football lineman to girls who weigh below 100 — doing the same core strength program during the school year and in the summer.

Roddy, a 1983 Angola graduate, said its not only made stronger athletes of the Hornets, but it has helped with school spirit.

“Everybody’s in (the weight room) chipping in and helping,” says Roddy. “All sports support the other sports because they have respect for them now. They all went through the same grueling workout.

“It’s special.”

When Roddy, 52, was in high school, baseball players did not lift weights. About half the players in college lifted and that was on their own and not organized by the school.

Now, incoming Angola freshmen know they will be spending the next four years gaining functional strength.

While he knows it won’t happen, Roddy would love it if the Indiana high school baseball was longer.

“Football is three months long and is basketball is three months long, four if you make a long playoff run,” says Roddy. “Baseball is packed it into two months. Not a lot of fall and winter sports people understand what a challenge that can be.”

But Angola wants the multi-sport athlete and to have success in each season so they understand there might not be much time for baseball players to get ready for their season coming out of the winter.

A salesman in his day job, Roddy was a junior varsity baseball coach for two seasons before succeeding Jerry McDermott as head coach for the 2015 season.

The former Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets pitcher (Roddy was a senior co-captain with future big league pitcher Jim Poole in 1988 and played for coaching icon Jim Morris) coached an Angola-based Yellow Jackets travel team for eight seasons, got out of baseball coaching for a short time and then answered the call at the high school.

Roger’s boys — Jake (now a Trine University baseball and football freshman) and Chance (an Angola junior) also played for the traveling Yellow Jackets. The Homan brothers — senior Jake and sophomore Luke — were also on that squad.

Jake Honer is the lone senior on a 2017 varsity team that regularly has six sophomores in the lineup.

“They’re very, very talented and they have lofty goals (in all sports),” says Roddy of the athletes in the Class of 2019. “They’ve all been sponges. They are willing to put in the work.

“We can not challenge them enough. Most sophomores are real tentative. Sometimes they’ve got more courage than they have sense, but the figure it out pretty quick.”

Angola is a member of the 12-team Northeast Corner Conference (along with Central Noble, Churubusco, Eastside, Fairfield, Fremont, Garrett, Hamilton, Lakeland, Prairie Heights, West Noble and Westview). The Hornets are in the 3A New Haven Sectional.

While rainouts have been stacking up the games and cutting into practice time of late, early Angola workouts are pretty intense.

“We work on situations, rundowns, first-and-thirds and we demand they do it right,” says Roddy, whose coaching staff includes Dan Hammel and Oshea Owens at the varsity level and Russ Tingley and Brett Neveraski with the JV team. “Us coaches will turn up the heat so when they’re in the game, they can respond. It’s not the first time they’ve been under pressure.”

Angola does a four-corner defensive drill with fielders at each base and home plate.

“We see how fast they can get the ball around,” says Roddy. A bad throw or one not right on-target is penalized with push-ups on the spot. “We explain everything we’re doing. We’re not yelling and screaming to seem like maniacs. When get a ball at third base, you don’t have all day to throw it to first.”

Roddy looks at the new pitch count rules (1 to 35 pitches requires 0 days rest; 36 to 60 requires 1 day; 61 to 80 requires 2 days; 81 to 100 requires 3 days; and 101 to 120 requires 4 days) and insists that his hurlers be more efficient and focused to avoid working so deep into the (ball-strike) count.

“What’s wrong with seven ground balls to the second baseman or the shortstop?,” says Roddy. “We have had three games where Chance (Roddy) or (sophomore Aaron) Chao ended up with 101 pitches and required four days rest. If they had 99 or 100, it would just be three days. Then you look back at the kid that kicked the ball in the third inning.

“But it is what it is. One rule to fit everybody, it’s going to have holes … I’m not worried about what’s going on in your dugout. I’ll worry about my team. It’s a trust factor with the coaches.”

For the first three weeks of the 2017 season, Roddy held his moundsmen to 35 pitches. Not because of any rule, but their arms were not yet eady to go beyond that.

Angola coaches meet each Sunday afternoon during the season to plot out who is going to start or relieve at the varsity and JV levels during the week.

Roddy tries to keep 31 or 32 players in the program with 14 dressing for varsity games.

“We’ll have kids who are starting, one on the manual scoreboard, one on the electric scoreboard, one handling GameChanger, our backup catcher warming up pitchers. Everybody has a job. That works out pretty well for us.

“(Getting all the kids playing time) makes JV coach’s hair turn gray real quick, but I love it.”

Roger Roddy is in his third season as head baseball coach at Angola High School. He is also a longtime assistant football coach for the Hornets.