Bulls baseball camp teaches fundamentals

Published June 30th, 2008

By Mario Sarmento
SPORTS EDITOR

The next wave of high school baseball players is being groomed at the West Boca Bulls baseball camp at the high school. For the last three years, Coach Brian Joros and his staff have taught the fundamentals of the sport to youngsters ages 8-14.
Players are taught the proper way to catch a foul ball, field a ground ball, hit the ball and work on their pitching. The three-week camp ended Friday.

Joros also has contests for the kids, such as who can field the most ground balls without an error. It’s part of a balance the West Boca coach likes to maintain at the camp.

“Just try to have some fun but also teach them some skills so they can be better prepared,” he said.
Each day features different skills. Thursday, the kids worked on their velocity by throwing pitches as hard as they could in the Bulls’ bullpen while a radar gun charted their speed. The kids were also timed in the 60-yard dash. The numbers went into a written evaluation form at the end of the camp that tells the kids what they did well and what they need to improve on in the future.

Many future Bulls attended the camp, most of them younger brothers of past Bulls’ stars.
One of those was Griffin Cornwell, whose older brother Matt starred as a pitcher/shortstop for West Boca until he graduated in 2007.

Griffin too is a pitcher/shortstop for Eagles Landing Middle School. He is entering his freshman year at West Boca and plans to try out for the Bulls in the spring.
“My infielding has improved because I didn’t know some of the stuff,” Griffin said. “And my stretching, I stretch more now because I know the consequences if you don’t.”

Since he is at the age limit of 14, this is Griffin’s second and final year at the camp.
Not all of the kids who attend the camp will be future Bulls. Eleven-year-old Jason Berger of North Broward Prep heard about the camp from his older sister, who attends West Boca, and decided to attend.

Berger has played catcher for his youth baseball team and plans to try out for North Broward this year.
“(I’ve learned) balance and blocking the ball,” he said, adding that his favorite part of the camp was “playing the games.”
Joros is planning a Christmas camp to be held in January next year, and he wants to add to his summer camp in the future.
“We plan to expand and use a couple more fields, go off of softball so we have the field for the little guys to use there,” Joros said.