ALIEF ISD HOPES MIDDLE SCHOOL PROGRAM REJUVENATES BASEBALL

BY COREY ROEPKEN - COPYRIGHT 2013 HOUSTON 5A BASEBALL

When Chris Frost was growing up in the Midwest he could not get enough baseball. He played every chance he could. Even on cold days he and his teammates found an indoor facility to practice the game they loved.

Fast forward to today, and Frost is the athletic director at Alief ISD's Albright Middle School where baseball is far from important. In fact, it's non-existent.

Through the cooperation of Alief ISD superintendent HD Chambers and athletic director Thomas Gerber that soon will change.

Frost has been put in charge of the startup middle school baseball league that will debut in April. Each of the six Alief ISD middle schools will have one seventh- and one eight-grade team.

The goal is to build a feeder program that will benefit the high school teams that often get players who never have played the game when they show up to freshman tryouts.

"Some of our better athletes need to be exposed to baseball," Frost said.

Baseball used to be a big deal in the area. About 15 years ago the Alief Youth Association had leagues that ran through the summer. Now shuttered, the only option is the fledgling West Oaks Little League.

Participation is not as high. Alief ISD can't do anything about that, but it can provide structure for its students to play the game earlier than they typically do now.

"To have a successful program you have to get started young," Gerber said. "Kids these days don't go out and play like we used to. They have so many more things to do."

Robert Copley spent 30 years as the baseball coach at Elsik High School and saw first hand the downfall of baseball in the school district.

In 1990 Elsik advanced to the third round of the playoffs with the help of Vincent Moore, who later was voted the Atlanta Braves organization rookie of the year. Moore was so highly touted by the Braves that they were reluctant to give him up in a trade with the San Diego Padres to get Fred McGriff.

The Padres wouldn't do the trade without Moore in the deal. The Braves finally relented. Moore's career ended due to an injury at the AAA level.

Hastings made it to the third round in 1991. Though there have been some playoff qualifiers since then, no Alief ISD team has advanced in the postseason since that Hastings team.

Copley pointed to an incident with a parent after a game in a recent season as an example of the meager success.

Elsik had just been beaten badly by Cypress Falls, and an Elsik parent asked him why the Rams can't hang with other teams.

A Cy Falls player happened to be walking by. Copley asked the player when he began playing baseball. The kid said he played T-ball when he was 5. Copley asked his player's mother when her son began playing. The answer was the ninth grade. That means the Cy Falls player had about a nine-year head start.

"The more you play the better you get," Copley said. "The disadvantage to the kids in Alief today is they don't have the opportunity to play at a young age. As a result they don't have the same experience as the teams they are required to play."

The inexperience in Alief these days is so rampant that high school freshmen often show up to baseball tryouts with work gloves rather than a baseball glove because they don't know any better. Copley also had to teach some of them which way to run after hitting the ball.

That never will be the case again if the new middle school league is successful. Players will learn the fundamentals and terminology. Frost said those are big obstacles for new high school players these days.

The league will play games on five Saturdays and teams will practice every day. Frost said he's already looking forward to the first day on the diamond. At Albright, more than 50 kids already have signed up to play.

"We want them to have more time with a mitt in their hand and a ball in their hand.," Frost said. "Anything to get them more acclimated to the sport."

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Editor's note: In the 1980's and early 90's the Alief Youth Association was host to as many as 100 youth baseball teams from ages 5, to 18, each season playing games seven days a week.