Coral Park Seeks Stability Under Carnicero

Coral Park Manager Juan “Butch” Carnicero will begin his first season in charge of the baseball team, but he is anything but a new face around campus. He graduated from Coral Park in 1999 and served as an assistant coach on the Rams staff as recently as 2007.

After playing on the team during the late 90s as they captured multiple district titles and competed for state championships, he knows the Rams have the potential to be great despite the recent struggles over the years.

Carnicero will try to bring stability to Coral Park while facing the challenges of rebuilding a program that competes in one of the most unrelenting districts in South Florida.

“In the last six, seven years we’ve had five different managers and it is a rebuilding process to build the program back to where it used to be,” said Carnicero, who went on to play college baseball at South Alabama.

Coral Park’s last district title came in 2007 when Carnicero was an assistant coach. Since then it has been a steady decline as new coaches have shuffled in and out of the program. However, the staff hopes to right the ship as the 2014 Rams feature a solid core of young players that he hopes to mold into contenders.

One major obstacle will be their district schedule. The Rams compete in District 8A-15 where each team is capable of making a deep run in the playoffs every season. The district slate includes Columbus, Coral Gables, Ferguson, Braddock, Southwest Miami, South Miami and Sunset this season. Last season, Coral Park finished 7-13 overall, 1-11 in district play and the goal is to improve upon those numbers this year.

“This district is never easy, I always say its the toughest district in Florida,” Carnicero stated. “When I was a player it was the same district with Coral Gables, Braddock, Columbus and Southwest, and its a war everyday. There are no pushovers or easy games.”

For the Rams, their gameplan is to remain a “small ball” team that manufactures runs anyway possible and limiting opponents by playing solid defense behind their pitching. To compete in this district, Coral Park needs to minimize their mental mistakes during games.

“We’re not gonna hit many balls out of the yard, however we should pretty solid defensively and give teams battles,” said Carnicero. “I expect us to be somewhere around .500.”

He will count on three seniors to step up and take the leadership role this season. Seniors Matthew Perez, Danny Lopez and Jossuan Gonzalez (.317 B.A., 13 R) will have to set the example for the younger players this season.

Perez is a starting pitcher that also doubles as a quarterback on the Coral Park football team.

“I’m expecting a lot out of him as far as leadership goes, work ethic, and showing those other guys how its done on the hill,” Carnicero said.

In addition, the Rams younger players like juniors Andre Ruche as well as Columbus transfer Ramon Ferreiro to provide a spark in the batting order.

“Coach likes to play a lot of small ball,” said Ruche. “He’s very in tune with the game, likes the fundamentals and very disciplined, he likes kids to be calm; not rambunctious and all over the place.”

The players seem to be on board with Carnicero’s message, but they know the responsibility falls on their shoulders to perform on the field.

“We’ve got to make plays and we can’t afford errors in this district,” said Ruche. “We have good hitters, but we don’t have that power in the lineup to come back from a five or six hole against a pitcher that is throwing like 86. It was a mess last year, but this year we’re getting better, fixing ourselves up and we’re ready to win some games.”

Although the Rams are making strides to improve this season, the real progress may be in 2015 when the team will have nearly 10 seniors on the roster with playing experience.

“We have a big junior class going into this year, so everybody is close since we’ve been playing together since freshman year,” Ruche said. “Altogether we may have about nine or 10 seniors next year.”

No matter how many veterans are on the roster, the Rams know just as well as anybody that it will take more than depth to be successful in a fertile baseball region like Miami-Dade County.

“It’s no secret that hard work and dedication breed success,” Carnicero said.

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