OC Baseball to host high school prospect camps

Photo by Roxie Gonzalez

 

Oklahoma Christian University’s baseball program is preparing to host high school seniors at their one-day prospect camps held in October and December.

The prospect camps, which take place on Oct. 25 and Dec. 20, are held for one day and run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Head Coach Lonny Cobble oversees the camps and looks for unique talent that comes from all across the country.

“You get lots of locals but we also get some from Texas, Kansas, Arkansas [and] New Mexico,” Cobble said. “We’ve had them come as far last year as Arizona and California.”

According to Cobble, the prospective players come into town on Thursday or Friday before participating in the camp on Saturday.

“You want to make sure they see campus, see how we work, be able to experience it before they get here and make sure it’s the right fit,” Cobble said.

The structure of the camp starts with check in at 9 a.m., followed by a series of physical tests that take up the entire morning and afternoon.

“We’ll run 60 [meters], we’ll test arm strength [and] we’ll evaluate these guys in hitting, fielding and knowledge of the game” Cobble said. “We’ll break for lunch and then, weather permitting, we’ll play a game and see them in game situation.”

Cobble is not alone in managing the camp. His assistant coaches Andrew McGuire, Ty Weeden, Chance Stevens and David Walsh also evaluate each of the players and supervise the tests.

Assistant Coach Chance Stevens, who has worked with Cobble for over two years, is the Eagle’s pitching coach and concentrates mostly on the pitchers and catchers during the camps.

“Our main job as assistants is to make sure everything is organized and in place for the day to run smoothly,” Stevens said. “We like to be organized and [as] efficient as possible but at the same time make the future prospect feel welcomed and important.”

Each coach looks for certain qualities in each player that will make some stand out more than others.

“I look for skill set and overall athletic ability,” Stevens said. “I also look at their body language while they are playing and hustle on and off the field or between drills.  I like a player [who] is approachable and [who I] can carry a conversation with. I usually do just specialize in pitchers but also have no problem working with position players as well.”

Assistant Coach Andrew McGuire, who works primarily as a hitting coordinator and the infield coach, looks for three specific things in a prospective player.

“Grit, hustle [and if they’re] baseball savvy” McGuire said.

According to Cobble, in order for someone to be a smart baseball player, they must know where to go in certain situations, make the right throws and handle a bat well.

While the majority of the prospective players may know where to go, how to throw and how to bat, there’s a limit on how many freshmen earn the opportunity to play on a collegiate team.

“Every year we try to get anywhere between 10 and 15 [freshmen],” Cobble said. “Of course we’ll bring some junior college kids in with those guys too. It just depends on what you lose and what you’ve got. We’re a lot younger than we were last year, but we’ve got a lot of good young guys.”

There is a limit of 40 participants for each camp, but both camps are geared towards different players.

“We do one during school for kids that are non-football players and then we have the one in December once football season’s over.” Cobble said. “A lot of the football kids want to come for camp but they can’t travel, so we have two and we spread them out for your baseball players only and then the kids who play other sports. December is usually a good time because there’s not a whole lot going on then.”

The coaches are not the only ones who look for good qualities in the prospective players; Oklahoma Christian’s current players do as well, and freshman Peyton Blass, a pitcher for the Eagles, hopes for the best in the new recruits.

“Something that I would want in incoming teammates is just a good all around attitude,” Blass said. “Baseball takes a lot of teamwork and the ability to come together as a team is very important. So I guess one thing that I would want a new player to be is selfless [and] to have the ability to put the teams needs in front of their own.”