Baseball is often called "America's pastime,” and for many of us, it is no more than that; a pleasant way to have some leisurely fun on a summer day. Some, however, take baseball very seriously, and for good reason. Professional baseball, after all, has turned many young men into overnight multi-millionaires. 

Others, who have not achieved stardom, have made good livings from the sport as coaches, managers, and in businesses related to the sport, and many more have earned college athletic scholarships from the game. Even those who never gained anything of monetary value from baseball have often used it as a way to perfect their overall athletic skills, gain self confidence, earn a school letter sweater, and generally enhance their lives by learning to do something well.

For those who take baseball seriously, the Niceville Amateur Youth Baseball All-American Baseball Camp was a chance to learn more about baseball from some of the best players and coaches in the game. Throughout last Friday and Saturday, youngsters from the Twin Cities area came to the new Brett's Pitching & Hitting Center in Niceville, to meet and learn from professional players and coaches they would otherwise have seen only on television or from a seat in a huge stadium. Kevin Berry, coach of the Traveling Eagles, the Niceville area's competitive youth baseball team, and former head baseball coach at Niceville High School, told the Beacon Saturday that the baseball camp, like the Traveling Eagles program itself, is a way for youngsters who possess the natural talent and dedication to excel in baseball to obtain the top-quality instruction they need to perfect their skills. The professional players and coaches who taught at the weekend camp were paid for travel and expenses, he said, but otherwise worked for free, because they enjoy passing on their skills to a new generation.

The Traveling Eagles, Berry explained, is a highly competitive program. Unlike purely recreational baseball programs intended just for fun, and in which everybody plays,” the Eagles program is intentionally designed as an elite team, to help identify and develop players who have the potential of excelling at baseball and going on to play on varsity high school teams, and perhaps advance to college scholarships and even professional contracts leading to fame and fortune.

Joe Nedoroscik, who founded the Niceville Eagles in about 1996, said he began the program because he saw a need to give the Twin Cities area's most talented and serious young players a way to perfect their natural abilities that wasn't offered by recreational baseball. Playing with the Eagles, he explained, is still fun, but it is not for the faint of heart.

I coached Little League at Eglin Air Force Base,” Nedoroscik said,“ but I saw that above a certain level of competition, our teams usually lost because they encountered teams that were better prepared than ours - teams that chose only the best players, had professional coaches, and played much more often then we did.”

Nedoroscik met with parents of some of his more talented and serious players, and the Traveling Eagles were born. He also worked with local school coaches, and got approval to adopt the same team colors and team name as Niceville High School, since most of his players were from communities that feed students to NHS, which has a widely respected high school baseball team.

Nedoroscik is not hesitant to say that the Traveling Eagles run an elite program. The Eagles, he said, are more about education than recreation. Like special programs for gifted children in other subjects such as science, art, and music, the Eagles seek out the most talented students they can find, and help those students become the best they can be at baseball, much as a music conservatory would do for youthful musicians, or a summer science camp would do for kids who have the potential to become professional scientists. About 107 players, aged 8 to 18, now play in the program, he said.

Playing with the Traveling Eagles, said Nedoroscik, costs about $175 for a student in the Niceville High School area, or about $350 for nonresidents. Scholarships are available for kids who have the talent, but not the money, to participate. Local businesses also help sponsor the program by buying ads on the Niceville Amateur Youth Baseball web site.

Natural ability alone is not enough to enable a young player to soar with the Eagles, said Kevin Berry. It takes dedication and self-discipline. Our players have to be willing to play at a higher level.”

Eagle players may play two or three tournaments a month, and practice throughout the year and on weekends, not just a couple of days a week during the summer. Such players are expected to take baseball as seriously as if they were in a gifted student program in an academic subject that could prepare them for a professional career.

Brett DeVall, whose facility on Hart Street hosted the weekend baseball camp, is a former Traveling Eagle and a 2008 graduate of Niceville High School, where he played baseball and attracted the attention of professional scouts, becoming a first-round draft pick for the Atlanta Braves organization. The left-hander now pitches for one of the Braves' minor league teams, and hopes to move up to the major league team within the next couple of years. DeVall said he started his baseball practice and instruction business in Niceville as a way to give back to his home town, as well as having his own business. The facility, he said, provides batting cages as well as other athletic workout machines, along with professional coaching to local athletes interested in improving their baseball and softball. Prices range from $7 for 15 minutes on an outdoor pitching lane for a member ($8 for nonmembers), to $95 for 90 minutes in a professional-quality batting cage for a non-member. Memberships cost about $45 per month.

Pat Listach was one of the pro coaches during the baseball camp. He was the 1992 Rookie of the Year for the Milwaukee Brewers, where he played until 1996 before moving to the Houston Astros, where he played until 1998. He is now third base coach for the Chicago Cubs, and is also a scout for the Washington Nationals. He said there is a growing market for the kind of training offered by organizations like the Traveling Eagles and businesses like Brett's Pitching & Hitting Center.

Professional-level training is becoming a big business in the United States a trend Listach is glad to see. You've probably noticed how many foreign players are appearing in American major league teams, ”he said, Players from Japan, Venezuela, and South Korea, for example. Such countries have baseball academies, where students study and play baseball full-time, year round, in order to train for possible professional careers.”

If America wants to continue to compete at the game we invented, we need to provide top-level training to our own youngsters, Listach said. He said parents who pay to send their children to baseball camps are much like parents who hire tutors to help their children prepare for college admission tests in order to gain entry to Ivy League universities and go on to careers in law, medicine, or science.

Even for those players who never achieve professional status in baseball, Listach said, the experience of baseball camps or teams like the Traveling Eagles is worthwhile. Such training, he said, helps a youngster prepare to make the varsity team in high school or earn a college scholarship. It also is a character-building experience, from which a player learns about self-discipline, teamwork, self confidence, and how to work toward a goal and improve himself.

Listach was asked whether such training puts too much pressure on kids, or teaches them to emulate some of the bad behavior seen among some professional athletes, such as steroid use and criminal acts. 

Not really,” he replied. Kids who see that kind of behavior also see that it has consequences. Major League Baseball has been taking steps against steroid use, for example. More users have been caught, and have lost their careers. Others have suffered serious health damage from steroids. Kids know about that, and learn that there is a right way and a wrong way to get ahead.”

Training programs like baseball camps, Listach added, include instruction about sportsmanship and ethical behavior, and about personal health, as well as instruction in how to hit, catch, and throw.

Brandy Merrifield is a Niceville mom who said she is glad to have enrolled her 10-year old son, Alex, in the baseball camp. It's worth the expense, she said. We came to the right place. I played softball in school, said Merrifield. It's good discipline, and improves self-esteem.” Programs like the baseball camp, she said, teach skills that parents can't always teach themselves, and kids love being able to say, I got taught by a famous player. Asked if she thinks such programs put too much pressure on young kids, Merrifield replied, I don't agree with that. I think there are not enough programs like this. We should be striving for our children to be more than mediocre. Children in this program gain experience in teamwork and self discipline— things too many children lack nowadays.”

Alex said he enjoyed the baseball camp, and thinks it will help him improve his game. I played for the city league this year,” he said and I could see that I need some improvement in order to play for the big leagues like the Eagles. Asked what he learned most about during the weekend camp, Alex replied, I learned how to bunt.”

When asked if he plans to become a professional ballplayer, Alex shrugged and said, Well, maybe.” What if he doesn't achieve a career in professional sports? In that case, said Alex, I'd like to be an inventor.”

Additional Note from NAYB:

We would also like to thank our former Traveling Eagle players Austin Wood (Florida State University), Blake Dean (LSU), Tyler Hastings (University of West Florida) and Josh McDorman (Pensacola Junior College) for volunteering their weekend to work with our players.

Special thanks to coaches Kevin Berry (11U Eagles), Joe Nedoroscik (12U Eagles), Greg Dunning (8U Eagles) and Chuck Cary (13U Eagles) for providing their time assisting the pro instructors with the nearly 60 camp attendees.