Boys of Summer: Hamp's Cal Ripken teams head to New England tournament
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NORTHAMPTON - The Northampton Cal Ripken baseball program had never captured a western Massachusetts state championship in its six years of existence.
This year it won two.
Both the 12-and-under all-star team and the 10-and-under all-stars were victorious in their respective state tournaments and will compete in the New England Regional Tournaments, which begin this weekend.
"This is a huge accomplishment," Northampton League President David Sullivan said. "This is a real exciting time for baseball in Northampton."
The magnitude of the feat is multiplied by the fact that Northampton's program is significantly smaller than most of the programs it competes against and that the 11-and-under team is still alive in its state tournament.
To have three teams advance to New England play "would be unheard of for any program, let alone one that only has 150 kids," Sullivan said. "Any team winning western Mass. is always huge; never mind two or even three from the same town."
Cal Ripken has four western Massachusetts state tournaments for age groups 9-12, spreading Northampton's already small player pool thin.
"You're taking an overall small group of kids and making them even smaller," 12-and-under coach Bret Denhart said. "Then to have two of those four groups that we have make it to a regional level, that really is impressive."
The two titles are no coincidence. A full community effort has been put forth, and coaches, parents and especially the kids have made great commitments to the program.
Before the regular season starts, all coaches attend clinics through the Babe Ruth network. Western Massachusetts Cal Ripken is a division of Babe Ruth League Inc. Coaches then hold spring training sessions to help players perfect the fundamentals of the game and become better players. After the regular season there is another "crash course" training session before the postseason begins.
"These kids have been playing baseball since the last week of March, and here we are pretty close to the last week in July," 10-and-under coach Kevin Heafey said. "These are great kids and we have a lot of fun."
Denhart said families have had to make sacrifices as well.
"It's in the middle of the summer and a lot of families have vacation plans and are doing other things," Denhart said. "They really step up and put everything else aside to commit to this."
Sullivan credits the recent success to a "league first" mentality. "We have a league philosophy as opposed to a team philosophy," Sullivan said. "The kids have committed themselves to this. They're passionate about baseball and committed to show up to every practice and go to every game. We have almost perfect attendance for practices and games in the regular season and in all-stars it goes up ever more."
This mentality guides the actions of the players on the field but also stretches into their lives at home. When Heafey holds team meetings before practice, the first thing he asks the kids is, "How many offered to help out at the house today?"
"We have two messages that we try to get across," Heafey said. "The first is to be the smartest team on the field. The second goal is to give 100 percent effort on everything we do. That not only includes hitting a baseball, catching a baseball and throwing a baseball, but doing your chores at home and helping out around the house. Whatever you do, do it 100 percent."
The 10-and-under all-stars certainly gave it all they had in their state championship game on July 15. Heafey's squad pulled off a staggering 16-6 victory over a Milford program that Sullivan said has been a powerhouse for more than 30 years. That Milford team consisted mostly of players who beat Northampton last year in the 9-year-old state finals. "A lot of us were not too happy about that" loss, Heafey said. "That's why when this year's group came back and beat them, it was very sweet. It's a little-engine-that-could type of story."
Denhart's 12-and-under team edged Marlboro 7-6 in the state championship game. Marlboro has a program astronomically bigger than Northampton, Denhart said.
"At the 12-year-old level we have struggled a little bit in the past," Denhart said. "So being able to take a group of 12-year-olds and to win a state championship and go onto a New England Regional championship is a remarkable achievement."
In the New England Regional Tournaments, the 12-and-under all-star team will open against Kearsarge Valley (N.H.) Saturday at 3 p.m. in Marlboro. The 10-and-under team face Dover (N.H.) at 5 p.m. Saturday in Winchester.
Both teams consider themselves heavy underdogs, but win or lose, what they have done this season will not be a lost cause.
"I honestly can't compare it to anything," Heafey said. "It's one of the best accomplishments I have seen in Northampton. There's a lot of special things going on right now and we hope these kids appreciate it most importantly."
