Please join the Washington Township Baseball Advisory Board in welcoming Mike Schatzman and Mike Rucci as our new partners in our youth travel coach and player development program.
Dear Washington Township Minutemen Travel Baseball,
Welcome to the new era of Washington Township Youth Travel Baseball!! My name is Mike Schatzman and I am very excited to be taking a major role for the upcoming 2018 winter, spring and summer travel baseball season. Mike Rucci, an assistant coach at Rowan University and I are partnering with the Washington Township Youth Travel program with a major role in overseeing and managing the travel program along with the BAB travel director. We believe this approach is going to bolster and dramatically improve the travel program and instill a structured, uniform baseball methodology across all age groups to ensure the players will develop through the program with the intent of enhancing their baseball IQ and promote a healthy work ethic. I would like to provide you with some information regarding myself, my approach towards the game of baseball, and the plan for the Washington Township Youth Baseball Travel organization for the upcoming season.
I have been involved with Washington Township sports since 1994. I have been blessed with an opportunity to live and play youth and high school sports in Washington Township. As a Washington Township High School Varsity Baseball assistant coach for the past 6 years, I have had the opportunity to pass some of what I’ve learned along the way to the next generation of Minutemen Baseball players. For those of you who’s son I may have coached previously, you know that I am extremely passionate about the game of baseball, the process of developing player skills, building a strong and united TEAM, and developing not just the baseball player but the person. It is my belief as a coach to ensure that all of this can be achieved while having fun along the way.
The purpose of the Washington Township Travel Baseball Program is to educate and develop the players and provide them with life lessons using baseball as an avenue. We will provide our teams and their players with the necessary tools and competitive environment to showcase their ability under the direction and guidance of our professional staff. Each player in the organization deserves the opportunity to learn, develop, and improve on the baseball field, off the field, and in the classroom. Our goal is to help prepare our youth baseball players for the high school and college level by providing instruction and coaching to ALL.
Not only will we be concentrating on developing players, but we also focus on providing our youth coaches with clinics. The Washington Township Youth Travel program will require each coach to attend 3 clinics during the course of the year. The purpose of the clinics is designed to provide every coach the opportunity to listen and interact with the Washington Township High School coaching staff and Rowan University coaching staff. Our clinic design allows youth coaches to ask questions and get an opportunity to view a High School and College level practice designed to demonstrate fundamentals and drill work.
As for facilities, there are 7 baseball fields located on Hurffville-Grenloch Road. We plan to seek assistance from the Township to provide services to help improve the facilities and we will also seek financial assistance through sponsors, tournaments, and other fundraising efforts so that our players, parents, and members of our community can be proud of our facilities. As for indoor training facilities, we have secured a 4,000 square foot facility located at 218 Salina Road that contains two 14’ wide and 70’ long batting cages that can be separated into 4 batting cages for team workouts. The facility contains various training aids and equipment. We also will be working out at Colossal Sports Academy located in Voorhees one day per week. Colossal is a 18,000 sq. ft. indoor facility that will allow us to focus on defense, base running, and team drills. ALL workouts will be run by Mike Rucci and I along with the coaches at each specific age group. There will be a total of 16 workouts for each team.
We expect our players and coaches to be dedicated to working hard from January through July. We want to develop a TEAM first mentality where players and coaches help every team member elevate their game. We also want to create a positive mental attitude to build confidence in the players and the teams. We will emphasize TEAMWORK and positive behavior on and off the field. Our mission is to provide our coaches and players with the same philosophy throughout the program with a consistency at each age group. We will work hand in hand to help try to create the best possible experience for the players!
Mike Rucci and I will also be running the travel tryouts this fall. The format that you have been use to may change. We’re looking to evaluate the entire player, including coachability and work ethic along with their baseball skills. We’ll also be heavily involved with the selection of players as well as coaches at each age group. We’re looking for players, parents, and coaches that are willing to dedicate themselves to becoming better and committed to the organization not just their specific age group. TWP (TOGETHER WITH PRIDE)
We’re extremely excited about the opportunity to work with Washington Township Youth Baseball. Moving forward there will be information about tryouts, winter workouts, coaching clinics, details about the upcoming season, and facility upgrades. If you have any questions for me, please don’t hesitate to contact me at mschatzman@wtps.org. Looking forward for what the future holds for Washington Township Baseball!
Enjoy the rest of your summer and I look forward to seeing you on the diamond!
Mike Schatzman
Washington Township Baseball
mschatzman@wtps.org.
