CBC COUGARS TRYOUTS

This was my first visit to CBC and to say I was impressed with their facility would be an understatement. It is the finest sports center in Charlotte. Equally impressive were the guys running it. Initally, I walked around just observing. I wanted to watch how everybody interacted with each other and how the instructors interacted with the players and their parents. I wanted to get a sense if it was a relationship built on growing a business or if it was about growing relationships.

I was not disappointed. Jake Robbins had not met me before, but I stood near him watching as he was talking with each parent that walked by. He took the time to say something personal to each one. I finally introduced myself to him and what a wonderful personality the young man has. He is a perfect ambassador for CBC.

I must be honest; I’m not an advocate of many ex-MLB players becoming instructors. Many have no idea how to relate their god given talent to a young player and often times I found them to be a bit condescending in their tone. But not Jeff Schaefer…what a pleasant surprise to see this charismatic fellow lead his facility. He gets it! It’s evident that Jeff cares about teaching, but he understands how to relate to the young players and while watching him work, anyone can see he loves what he does.

Okay, enough of this lovefest, let’s talk about the players. I tried to get a list of names, unsuccessfully, so I was at a disadvantage. But what I saw were a number of gifted athletes. In these type workouts I look for different things: Body type, arm strength, athletic and how they carry themselves. It is difficult to evaluate anything else.

- There were a couple of catchers I really liked—tall, big, strong arm and athletic.
- There were a couple of guys wearing Charlotte Christian hats that were impressive
- One infielder with long red hair and athletic body
- I did know this name: Leighton Daniels East Meck SS. I was pleasantly surprised how strong Leighton is. He obviously has been spending time in the weight room. I also know the kid is a gamer.
- I was surprised with the arm strength of Spencer Allison,Weddington. The lefty proved again that no matter how much over the top a lefty releases the ball….it still will not go straight

I didn’t get a chance to watch the pitchers and hitters, but my impression is the guys at CBC were happy with the overall talent that came out yesterday. I’m sorry that I did not get the names of all the players that stood out, but I plan on attending more functions with CBC to get a better idea of whom the players are.

Also, I gotta tell ya….I’m thankful they held the tryout INSIDE!!!!!

 

Braves,
Thank you for the kind words regarding CBC. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to come by CBC and watch our tryout. It was a pleasure meeting you. We know your son and he is a class act. I am sure you are very proud of the person he is. We hope all things work out for him on the baseball front.

Overall we were pleased with the talent that posted this Saturday. We have another date set for next Saturday and look to have another strong showing. Please come back out and I will make sure you have the player sheet.

I hope you will attens of our skills camp on January 17th. We have committments from over twenty schools to work the camp. Last year we ran over 90 kids through the camp. This is an event is for kids graduating 2009, 2010,2011. Last year we had players from all corners of both SC and NC. The list of talent that has already registered is extremely strong.

As far as Jake Robbins goes...he is everything you mentioned. Jake has embraced teaching baseball to the area youth from the day he hung up his spikes a year ago. I am very proud of our entire staff. We have a great mix of baseball people who understand that we are no longer players, we are teachers of the game. Yes, many of us have major league time (7), many of us have minor league time and the balance have played at the highest levels of college baseball. I encourage everyone to go to www.cbcbaseball.net and checkout or staff. Each one of them love the game and want to see the Greater Charlotte area become the hot bed for baseball talent. We recently added Lee Heath (Braves) and Mike Trombley (Twins/Orioles) to our CBC Cougars Staff.

Again, thank you for being present this past weekend

 

It was my pleasure. I'm looking forward to attending your future events and I'm looking forward to your future endeavors (a new baseball complex); when you are ready to announce it. I hope you won't mind me saying this will become the most exciting event in and around Charlotte. Good luck in that adventure and I look forward to seeing you again in the near future.

 

last weekend for Cougar Tryouts

 

I was just going to post something as a reminder. I hope I get a chance to meet many TBR'ers Saturday. I'll be with Don Hutchins, but if you don't know Don, ask around, I'll be the handsome one.

 

Expecting a good turnout tomorrow?

 

Cougar Teams

Many have shown well for the cougar tryouts. Going to be real tough to make cuts as the teams formed will be solid up and down the board!

Good luck to everyone who is coming out for the second tryout date tomorrow morning and afternoon.

 

When will the cut's be made?

 

Those fortunate enough to make this team will be connected to some fine quality folks. Jake and Schaef are top shelf. Patrick is a gem also - great with the kids.

 

95% of the team will be announced after the the xmas break. Some of the kids that wanted to tryout have either been shut down until January or are injured and won't be able to tryout until a later date. We want everyone interested in trying out to have a opportunity.

The number of kids and the talent that has showed up has been extremely impressive. This will be a very tough process. I wish you could keep every kid who still has interest in playing the game, but at this level the landscape changes. The coaches and their level of baseball experience is critical to the CBC Cougars program.