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Around Town / By Rob Smith In what could be a good sign for future high school teams in the area, two 11-and-under travel baseball teams from Algonquin won tournaments April 25-27. The Algonquin Hawks won the Illini Baseball Blast in Champaign, and the Algonquin Storm won the Vernon Hills Cougar Kickoff. The Hawks began travel play last year and fielded four teams, including the 10U team that moved up this year. Hawks coach Bob Mamrot said the team struggled last year, ending the season 10 games under .500, with its best showing at a tournament being a fourth-place finish. Mamrot said the team had a successful tryout in the fall and entered the season optimistic. The experience of playing together for a season also helped the team. “I think that’s a big impact,” Mamrot said of the experience. “The kids that are returning players from last year are playing at a much higher level. We can do things with them that we could not do last year.” The Hawks played in the Illini Blast last year as a 10U team but went 0-3 in the tournament. Despite the optimism, Mamrot said he and the other coaches were simply hoping to qualify to play in the tournament’s championship round. “You don’t expect to jump right out of the gate and win a tournament,” Mamrot said. The Hawks cruised through pool play, winning each of their three games by the eight-run slaughter rule. They beat Chatham, 10-1; Champaign Dream, 11-3; EPIR, 10-2; and the Champaign Titans, 6-1. In the championship game, the Hawks played a familiar nemesis, the Lake Villa Storm. Mamrot said his team played them twice last year and the Storm “had their way with us.” Despite the history, Mamrot said his team was eager to prove it had improved. “Our kids were eager to play,” he said. “I don’t know that there was that much intimidation.” In a back-and-forth game, the Hawks got by the Storm, 8-7, in extra innings. “The whole championship was a huge steppingstone for our team,” Mamrot said. “I’m sure people didn’t expect for us to be in that game, much less win.” As an added bonus, Mamrot told his players they could shave the hair off his head if they won the championship. The coach was happy to trade his locks for a tournament championship. “There was a little incentive for the boys,” he said. “They kept reminding me [during the game] that I was going to be bald.” After losing in the finals of the Vernon Hills tournament last year as a 10U team, the Algonquin Storm finished the job this year by winning the 11U championship. Algonquin Storm coach Matt Schmid said his team entered the tournament expecting to face tough competition. “We saw some tough teams,” Schmid said. “We just played some good, solid baseball.” At the tournament, the Algonquin Storm finished with a 4-0 record. They beat Arlington Heights, 7-0; Aurora, 8-5; Lake Zurich, 14-4; and won the championship game against the Richmond Rockets, 10-0. The team worked on fundamental skills during its indoor practices this winter. “I personally think that the fundamentals are as important as anything, from high school to college to the majors,” Schmid said. “We spend an awful lot of time on situation play.” Schmid said that a lot of credit for the success of the team goes to his assistant coaches Paul Coletti, Jeff Addante and Jim Sargent. Although he said the team received excellent coaching, none of the coaches are professionals. “We’re just a bunch of dads coaching,” he said. Members of the Algonquin Storm included Joe Addante, Kyle Wolinski, Matthew Kozlak, Kyle Wright, Matthew Goldby, Tyler Jones, Ryan Sargent, Vince Coletti, Frank Mangieri, Bradley Parchutz and Raymond Schmid. Members of the Hawks included Frankie Angiulo, Matt Bindi, Ethan Douglas, Frankie Fragola, Ryan George, Jeremy Gregory, Tyler Mamrot, Patrick McCabe, Brendan Ruffolo, Dakota Siwula and Nathan Wroten. Mamrot was assisted in coaching by Frank Angiulo, Mike Bindi and Fred Ruffolo. • Rob Smith is a sportswriter for the Northwest Herald. Write to him at rsmith@nwnewsgroup.com. Northwest Herald Sports Page page 2 Monday, May 5, 2008 |
