Young HML Trojans Starting From Scratch

There was a time when the baseball program at Hialeah-Miami Lakes High held the standard for success in Miami-Dade County. The Trojans won an unheralded four state championships within a ten year stretch in the 1970’s and 80’s, including a national championship in 1985.

Today, those great teams of years past only serve as memories of what used to be at Lakes. With the construction of numerous high schools over the years in the northwest section of Miami-Dade County as the population has grown, the Trojans’ talent pool has spread thin.

In addition, the team’s baseball field is a shell of what is used to be. Weeds have taken over the infield dirt, the dugouts are in major need of repairs and the soccer and football teams use the outfield grass for practice and games during the fall, making baseball practice alone a challenge in itself.

Although its’ glory days are in the past, Lakes still doesn’t bow down to anybody on the diamond. Manager Mario Morffy coaches with a zeal, leading a scrappy, hard-nosed Trojans program as a consistent playoff contender without fielding elite talent. This season, the challenge is to mold a group of young players who lack baseball experience to compete with some of the best teams in the area.

“Its going to be a rebuilding year and we’re going to do a lot of teaching and coaching to get us up to par, but I still see us battling for a playoff spot,” Morffy said.

Lakes only lost six seniors to graduation, however the team also lost five transfers who were expected to play key roles this season. With many of those transfers being infielders, Morffy will count on his veteran outfielders for leadership. Seniors Gilberto Rivera, Marcus Smith, and four-year starter Brandon Morffy will lead the Trojans into battle this year.

“I may end up having a freshman catching and possibly even one of the middle infield spots, so we’re going to be young in some key positions and experienced in others,” Morffy said.

The Trojans are two years removed from an improbable run to the Class 6A regionals after upsetting top-seeded Mater Academy in the first round of the district playoffs. That team only featured one senior and the Trojans were expected to be a contender with many of the same players returning the following season. However, with a number of transfers, the Trojans fell short of expectations in finishing 9-12 and falling to Belen Jesuit in the first round of the district playoffs.

This season Lakes was caught in the wave of district realignment and moved up to District 7A-16, a district with state title contender American as the early favorite.

“We graduated quite a few of our pitchers and the plan was to have our juniors and seniors to be returning and I thought we’d be favorites to battle with American for the district title,” said Morffy. “But we did have some drop off with some players, we lost some guys and we’ve gained some new ones.”

Despite roster shake up, Morffy’s son, Brandon has served as a leader and mentor to the younger ballplayers.

“I just tell them to watch and pay attention, just go to work and not to play around,” the younger Morffy said. “Right now we just need the fundamentals.”

Morffy will double as a pitcher and outfielder and worked in the offseason to improve his durability and velocity.

“I feel a lot stronger coming in already,” Morffy said. “This time last year it didn’t feel so strong, but now this year it feels good.”

The rest of the Trojans are using the rocky offseason as motivation to prove their doubters wrong. Gilberto Rivera tells his teammates that they each have a responsibility to make each other better.

“It’s the person you are and that is what helps to make a team,” Rivera said. “Its going to be a new goal that we have to bring our team closer, do better, work harder and that’s how we plan to complete our goals.”

On the baseball side, Lakes feels that its in a wide open district with other teams like Westland Hialeah, Reagan, North Miami Beach, and Miami Central on the schedule. Coach Morffy believes that youth is not an excuse to why the Trojans can’t compete for a playoff seed this season.

“On any given day a good pitching performance and solid defense can keep you in a ballgame, and then some clutch hits can beat anyone in high school baseball,” Morffy said. “At HML the key is to be solid in the pitching department, which we will have some depth pitching and be solid defensively.”

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