Columbus Rolling Along With One United Goal

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The expectations to do well are always high at Columbus. The team has seen lots of great baseball players pass through the program over the years, and those great players are always expected to succeed on the diamond.

Even though the club graduated a lot of seniors, there are plenty of guys who are just as good coming in behind them. The program has strong JV and freshmen teams and there are a lot of good younger kids coming up ready to show what they have too. They have paid their dues and it’s their turn.

The Explorers are doing everything in their power to get bigger, stronger, faster and better. The team spent a huge amount of time preparing for the season ahead, playing 60 games over the summer and fall, traveling to big tournaments, spending time in the weight room, doing yoga once a week and also working with a speed and agility trainer.

“We’re lucky that we have fantastic kids who want to get better everyday, and it’s a joy coaching here,” Columbus Manager Joe Weber said. “They come here and want to get better everyday, which makes our job as a coaching staff much easier.”

Since the program is so well established, there is a strong standard in place. Players thrive on the motivation they find in wanting to live up to such high expectations, and wanting to also succeed and ink a spot in the program laurels forever. Guys do not question what it takes; they just follow and trust in their coaches. While yoga is not typically a part of a baseball practice, the guys admit their weekly session is a welcome addition to things.

“I like it. It gets us more flexible and focused, and also I think it builds a lot of team chemistry just to be around the guys all the time,” senior Matt Marini said. “Everyday in the school and on the weekends we hang out. We build chemistry, and in my opinion that is the most important thing you can have in sports. That is the way we play.”

The Explorers are in the playoff hunt every year. The program has won a state title and has been to the big dance several times. Last year Columbus won its district and then fell to eventual 8A state champion South Dade in the regional playoffs. Weber admits he did not think anyone was going to beat South Dade with Erik Manoah on the mound during the playoffs, and that he was happy for Fred Burnside to win a title for South Dade. But that doesn’t make it any easier for them.

“I don’t know if losing is ever a good experience,” Weber joked. “I think every year you’ve got to be pretty good and you also have to be lucky at some point. I’ve had much better teams achieve less and much lesser teams achieve more. It’s a crap-shoot and anybody can beat anybody in one game. You just hope to be healthy at the end and playing well.”

The Explorers expect to be in every game thanks in large part to the strong starting pitching they have. Weber admits he does not mind being young in places as long as it is not on the mound. Matt Marini and Christopher Copiel are both their top two hurlers, and both return healthy and experienced. These two posted impressive numbers last season as juniors, and now seem capable of doing even better this year.

Marini feels like he learned a lot from the seniors that graduated ahead of him, Mike Vincent his freshman season and Brian Garcia two years ago. Now he is trying to set that sort of example for the guys beside him. Last year he got a bigger role and he got good experience from it, and now is his time to lead.

“This year I am just ready to put the team on my back,” Marini said. “We’ve got a good pitching staff and I feel like we can still compete. We are a great defensive team and there is a lot of speed in the infield and the outfield. There are guys who can throw with a lot of range, cover a lot of ground and score runs. From the end of last year losing to South Dade and all through to now in the fall we have been working as hard as we can everyday, and I feel like we are going to be really competitive this year.”

Everything else starts up the middle for this team. Catcher Nick Rocha runs the defense from the dish, controlling the running game with a very strong arm. Each player on defense has a lot of range and speed, and they function well as a unit. Then the team captain is supplanted at shortstop in senior Danny Casals, a talented veteran both in the field and at the plate.

Casals is excited to be a senior and a captain, both things he hopes everybody wishes for when they are growing up and playing the game. He has played with a lot of great ball players, and he points out how guys like Ryan Alvarez and Nelson Mompierre taught him a lot about leadership.

“Most of these guys have been here for a while, so everybody plays a big role in itself,” Casals said. “My role has changed from last year where I used to be about getting on base and getting in, and now it is about bringing the runner in. I also have the leadership role and it’s another role I have to pile on myself and focus on helping the team in every sort of way.”

Casals is also one of the guys that have already committed to play college baseball, as he is headed to the University of Maine next year. Marini is committed to UC Irving and Copiel to FIU, and many others figure to follow with more commitments during the season.

“That’s the best part of this job,” Weber said. “You can be home on a Sunday and turn on a college baseball game and see Justin Gonzalez at FSU and Andy Suarez at UM, Mike Vincent at Florida and guys all over the country that we have playing. It’s nice to follow their careers and it’s really enjoyable when they come back and talk to the kids about their experiences coming up through the program and then their experiences moving forward.”

Casals is also a guy who can share with his younger teammates about the college recruitment process. He knows the college process is real special, and that the coaches do a lot to tell the guys what to do and what not to do. Coach Weber gets a lot of college coaches to come see them, and guys have to be patient that the right school will get to them.

“If it’s meant to be it will be,” Casals said. “It’s something you have been looking forward to your whole life and it’s a goal you set for yourself for a long time. Once you verbally commit and actually sign its real pleasing. You never want to get too complacent, but it’s the one time that you can sit back and say ‘I’ve actually been successful in that area’.”

The grueling schedule that the Explorers play does not hurt their chances of getting college scouts out to see them. Columbus has always scheduled to play the best of the best, and the Explorers do not shy away from the toughest competition. Coach Weber admits that he has a preference to play teams in Class 8A, rather than some of the best private schools that are vying for a game. Weber likes to get better by getting as much experience against teams in their own classification, since they may face them again down the road in the playoffs.

Each year the team retools the roster with guys coming up through their system, and it helps that the younger squads also face their peers along the way. Nearly every guy on the roster started at Columbus as a ninth-grader, which is something few schools both public and private can say. While transfers are a part of the sport, Columbus continually molds from within at the lower levels and brings guys along who are waiting their turns. Now and again a guy may leave to play elsewhere, and perhaps one may come into the school at an older age. But for the most part it is all guys who have come up learning the Columbus way of doing things.

“The biggest thing is you try to move kids on to the next level,” Weber said. “Hopefully when somebody chooses Columbus High School they know we are going to work on every effort, not only in the season but in the summer and the fall, trying to get kids to the next level. That’s mainly what we take our most pride in, not just wins and losses. But certainly winning is a lot of fun if you can do that as well.”

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