On a humid, cloudy July morning, workers are digging up dirt to form a pitcher’s mound, as the main baseball field on the Monsignor Edward Pace High School campus is close to finishing its renovations. Just a few hundred feet away, the Pace Spartans baseball team is in the midst of continuing its own rebuilding.
The 2012-2013 Spartans team was one hit away from winning the Class 4A state finals only to lose 7-5 to Pensacola Catholic in the final hard-fought game. That year, the team graduated 17 seniors who went on to college. In contrast, the most recent 2013-2014 team was one of the youngest in Pace history, with five freshmen starting on the varsity team and only two seniors graduating.
After a rough 0-6 start to the season, the team matured and made it all the way to being within two outs from advancing to regionals before losing the game in extra innings on a player error. Thomas Duffin has been a baseball coach at Pace for 20 years, with 15 as head coach. He is a part of the Pace Hall of Fame, and has brought numerous state championships to Pace.
In order to continue the rebuilding started last year, he decided to hold an intensive seven-week summer training camp on the Pace campus for current and incoming players, something that had not been done in previous years.
The camp has been running from Monday to Thursday since June 16 and ended on July 31. The training camp has involved a combination of conditioning with weight, plyometric, agility, and speed training, along with skills-focused training such as throwing and infielding programs. Duffin revamped all of the workouts to be specific to a position, so that a player such as a pitcher would be receiving the specialized training he would need as opposed to general training. In addition, conditioning has been changed to focus more on core body training in order to avoid injury.
“Everyone’s going to get stronger, so we’re going to be working as a team better,” said Michael Arce, a junior who is both a pitcher and outfielder. While Duffin has hopes to get back to the state championship and win, he also wants to see the rebuilding that began last season continue as his players keep on improving.
“Personally, I want to see the growth and level of play rise above what it was last year,” says Duffin.
Last season’s younger players have a different attitude with more maturity and better mental and physical preparation after being “baptized by fire” last season, according to Duffin. He also expects the older players who were juniors last year take a bigger leadership role as seniors.
“I think there’s going to be a new attitude, a new start,” said Coach Duffin.
Kayvon Wright, a sophomore outfielder, is a part of that new start for the upcoming school year. “[The camp has] made me better as a player,” said Wright. “I expected it to be hard and help at the same time…to bring out the best in me.”