'Winter Workouts at the Y' A Hugh NKW Little League Success

This past December, I sent an email to Greater Providence YMCA CEO Steven O'Donnell. In that email, I asked Mr. O'Donnell about the possibility of my North Kingstown Wickford Little League team using the facilities at the West Bay YMCA in North Kingstown for training purposes. Most teams throughout Rhode Island have indoor workouts for their baseball teams. I wanted NKW players to get an opportunity to work on some skills indoors prior to the spring season. To be honest, I wasn't expecting a reply for a few days. But in fact, my email was replied to that afternoon. Mr. O'Donnell got me in contact with Kim Donald and Nancy Hanks at West Bay for a meeting the following week.

After touring the facility with Kim, we settled on one of the aerobics rooms in the lower section of the West Bay YMCA. Kim, Nancy and I set down some parameters in terms of equipment to be used, baseballs, and scheduling. They were easy to work with and I appreciated their drive to get this program off and running successfully. The Y and NKW worked on a marketing campaign with social media posts, in house information brochures, and a booth at their Open House in January. Throughout this early process, the team at the West Bay YMCA was responsive to emails and calls and made our program a reality easier than I imagined.

From the opening weekend of workouts to this past week, North Kingstown Wickford Little League players came to the West Bay Y to work on their baseball skills. I had the honor of running the clinics along with Giulio Lugini, whose son Nathan participated. Coach Lugini and I had players as young as 5 and as old as 13 work through a series of fielding, throwing, and hitting drills. We used soft Tee Balls, tennis balls, and Wiffle® balls for the training sessions. The players came in two groups - Tee Ball and Coach Pitch from 6-7 and AAA, Majors, and Juniors level from 7-8. The energy in the room was always at a high level. The players learned how to properly field ground balls, catch pop flies, hit off a tee, hit off live pitching, and much more.

We finished our Winter Workouts at the Y program this past Monday with a spirited game of Wiffle® ball in the yard just outside the Y. Each player got to hit, pitch, run the bases, and it was an absolute blast. It was a perfect way to end our program and I'm really happy I was able to get the kids outside for a game.

Thank you to the parents for making the commitment to bring your NKW Rising Star to the Winter Workouts at the Y. I thoroughly enjoyed working with each and every player this winter. Practicing ground balls, pop flies, and throwing to a target may seem like a boring way to spend an hour but that was never the case with these workouts. Everything I asked of the players, they were able to do practice wise. They each improved tremendously each and every week. Some players got to try out for AAA, Majors, and Middle School teams and I hope that this practice session helped boost their chances for those teams. I hope to see players and parents out on the baseball fields in North Kingstown this spring and summer.

Thank you to the West Bay YMCA for opening your doors to our North Kingstown baseball community. To the casual observer, it was just an empty aerobics room. But, to these kids, for the better part of two months, it was perfect. The front desk staff was always friendly, the room was always clean and ready to go for our practices, and the experience for the parents was very positive. I appreciate your dedication to the community of North Kingstown and these players, the coaches, myself included, thank you so much for letting us run the Winter Workouts at the Y at your facility.

Spring is here. Opening Day is tomorrow, March 28th, for our World Series Boston Red Sox. Roughly a month later, our NKW Little League will have its Opening Day - April 27th. After another long winter, baseball is finally here. See you at the baseball fields. Go NKW!!!