Titans’ Youth Baseball Clinics for Sport Aurora are a Big Hit

The Titans Baseball Club travelled to the Aurora Family Leisure Complex on  Saturday afternoon to conduct four youth baseball clinics for first-time players.  The end of September clinics were part of an All-Sports Initiative by Sport Aurora in which children from around York Region could try four sports for the first time.  The sports featured in the afternoon portion of the program included martial arts, ultimate Frisbee, football, and baseball.  

Fifteen Titans Player-Instructors earned five Community Service hours for their excellent volunteer work.  All our student-athletes conducted themselves in a professional and congenial manner as they worked with baseball beginners on a brilliant sunny afternoon. The Titans invited all levels of participants into the game of baseball with enthusiastic and supportive tones. The clinic attendees rotated through a series of stations and some whole group activities set up across AFLC Diamond 1 including:

• a dynamic warmup in right field led by 18U Titans veteran catcher George Medrano who demonstrated to the young campers the importance of effective stretching before participating in baseball—all 15 player-instructors stretched and helped along the participants;

•  a pitching station that was run enthusiastically and effectively by Matteo Sersta, Philip Sato, Lucas Seto, and Owen Norris who taught the campers how to grip a baseball as well as the four steps of pitching (Set/Lift/Stride/Throw) while the four catchers—Medrano, Ryan Barbeau, Dominic Williams, and Myles Hazen-- framed the pitches from the prospective young hurlers and encouraged their progress ; 

• an outfield station in left field that featured high energy whiffle ball catching, throwing drills, and quarterback drills led quite ably by Eric Gregato, Mark Gregato, James Colello, and Rylan Copeland;

• an infield station led by Cooper Read, Scott Lewis, Lucas Dunn, and Lucas Seto who guided the beginners through fundamental skills like throwing a baseball and fielding a grounder;

• a hitting station at home plate in which all beginners hit off a tee after one-on-one instruction with Titans’ hitters while the balance of the Titans fanned out across the infield to field ground balls and liners off the bats of the novice batters;

• a warm-down jog around the bases led by two Titans baserunners who guided the baseball aspirants along the bags and baselines to a line of Titans waiting down the third baseline who high-fived the runners on their way to home plate.  The four Titans catchers gathered the clinic attendees as they crossed home plate and a “1-2-3 Titans” cheer closed each session vocalized by the Titans players and the campers.

The 5-hour baseball clinic was planned and coordinated on-field by veteran Titans’ Coach and Education Compliance Officer Jim Stewart. 

Congratulations to the 15 Titans volunteers who were terrific brand ambassadors for our baseball program on Saturday afternoon.  The Titans Baseball Club is proud of your efforts on the field to present and grow the game at Diamond 1 of the Aurora Family Leisure Complex on September 24.