Youth Baseball clinic gives young players opportunity to prepare for upcoming season

By Matt Pascarella

Windham’s varsity baseball team conducted its final night of the youth baseball clinic offered at Windham High School on Sunday, March 29. The final night of the six-week clinic ended in indoor scrimmages and field work, giving participants the opportunity to utilize the skills and baseball knowledge from the previous weeks while also having fun.

Windham fifth grader Grayson Matthews returns home to
congratulations after hitting a home run during an indoor
scrimmage at the Windham Youth Baseball Clinic on
Sunday, March 29. PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA

“I love sports and baseball has always been a passion for me,” said Windham fifth grader Grayson Matthews. “I think I started when I was 6 and just wanted to keep playing. (It gave me a refresher course on) catching, pitching, hitting and how fast and accurate I am at pitching. I’ve gotten more accurate pitching and can throw faster. It’s cool to see how good (the varsity players) are and learning from what they are teaching and trying to put it into a game.”

Over the six-week course, Windham varsity baseball coach Chris Doughty, his coaches and his players have done a lot of station work and fundamental training. In the final week they get to work on applying those fundamentals to real-game situations. Some of these situations may include knowing where to go when the ball comes to you, picking up (signs) from the third base coach, and taking a proper route around first base on a ball hit to the outfield.

The goal of the clinic is to help the younger kids understand the game and apply the IQ fundamentals they’ve been working on for the last few weeks, while making them smarter baseball players and know how to apply their skills to game situations.

Windham fourth grader Garrett Dansereau said he loves baseball and has learned a lot about hitting, catching and baserunning. He likes working with the varsity players and likes the opportunities provided by the clinic.

“I really love to play baseball, and I think it would make me better and give me some practice for this year,” said Windham fourth grader Troy Doughty. “(I’ve learned to get) better at outfielding and fielding, getting better at hitting and I think it’s made an impact. It’s really good (practicing with the varsity players). They’ve been playing for a while and they’re really good at helping, because they know what they’re supposed to do.”

The benefit for the varsity players is getting to give back to their community and a lot of the varsity players went through a clinic very similar to this one.

“We get to show these kids how the game is played at the high school level; we get to teach them what we know as varsity players,” said Windham sophomore Mason Rulman. “Getting to teach these kids what I know just plays in my mind to remember what to do on every play.”

Windham third grader Zeke Bryant said he took part in the baseball clinic because he wanted to get better at baseball. Bryant learned more about the infield and outfield, catching and throwing. Bryant said it’s really fun for him to work with the varsity players and he’s learned a lot from them.

“I benefit from being able to give my experience to the kids,” said senior CJ McDonald. “We try to influence them to try to continue playing baseball throughout their life. We’ve been able to grow altogether – it’s gone really well. I focus a lot on hitting in the first half of the week. Then I switch over to first base, trying to teach footwork. It definitely helps me (prepare for the spring season). It’s beneficial to everyone involved.”

Fourth grader Chris Ashley of Windham said he’s learned to pitch and hit better, and the varsity players can teach you a lot.

“For me it shows buy-in,” said Chris Doughty. “They’re committed to the program and the community. It’s fun for them, it’s fun for us. We can sit back and assess and coach the player and have my players throw the flyball ... ground ball.” <