Sports

Solon's Boys of Spring Prepare Indoors for Success on the Diamond

Baseball in the gym isn't the best way to evaluate talent, but it gets the team ready for the season

Call it Spring Draining.

While their major league counterparts enjoy the sun of Florida and Arizona, the Solon Comets baseball program conducts its drills in a gymnasium.

Spring weather in Northeast Ohio is rarely a day at the beach so Solon must make do with its own unique approach to training before the start of the season.

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This was the second week for pitchers and catchers while actual tryouts for the team begin Monday. A solid turnout of 35 upperclassmen and 11 freshmen have been working out under the watchful eye of head coach Damien Kopkas, in his second season as the varsity leader.

“Solon is a big football school, but we have always had big numbers for baseball,” said Kopkas. “The Solon Rec Department does a fantastic job of promoting baseball in the area.”

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With a 27-game schedule played in a short amount of time, pre-season conditioning is a must for baseball. Particularly for pitchers, who are working on stamina for the coming season.

“We can get done indoors what we need to get done with the pitchers and catchers,” said Kopkas. “We have indoor mounds that we use but hopefully we will be able to get out and use the turf and the parking lot. Right now we’re just trying to build up pitchers’ arm strength and building on their pitch counts.”

The Comets also have use of batting cages in both the auxiliary and main gyms.

“Anything that we do indoors is a miniature version of what we do outdoors,” said Kopkas. “We can do walk-throughs and team drills and take sets of ground balls in the main gym.”

Due to the close quarters, players and coaches must be extra alert for the random baseballs bouncing around.

“I’ve been hit by balls on a consistent basis,” Kopkas said. “When you have 35 guys in a confined space that will happen.”

The biggest challenge for Kopkas each spring is keeping the players from getting stale until they can move outdoors on a consistent basis.

“I try and stay creative,” he said. “We do things like have Wiffle-ball games in the gym. It’s cabin fever in here but that’s the time when the camaraderie gets built into a team.”

While hitters and pitchers can get head starts, indoor practice is tough on the outfielders. “It’s tough to evaluate them indoors,” said Kopkas. “You have to see what kind of arm strength they have and the way they run down balls hit to the gaps.”

Solon is coming off a 16-7 season, sharing the NOC Valley Division title with a 7-3 mark. Nine seniors have graduated, but Kopkas has eight returners and players from a JV team that won more than 20 games.

“As long as we stay healthy, pitching will be our strength,” he said.

Solon will stay home this spring while some teams go to Florida and South Carolina for games prior to the start of the regular season. “I don’t think we lose anything by staying up here,” said Kopkas. “Everybody has to play in 40-degree weather eventually.”

For baseball players, hope springs eternal, even if spring takes its time getting here.


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