A D V E R T I S E M E N T A D V E R T I S E M E N T A D V E R T I S E M E N T
A summer baseball camp
featuring skills and fun
DENVILLE - For the 30th straight year, Frank Elias went to "summer camp" at Gardner Field here in the township.
Elias, who retired from coaching at Morris Knolls High School in 1999 after putting in 19 seasons and winning 300 games as the Golden Eagles head varsity baseball coach, has also spent the last 30 years as the director of the Denville Recreation Summer Baseball Camps.
Elias and his staff spent the last week of June and the first two weeks of July working to improve the baseball skills of 70 youngsters between the ages of 5-16 ... and they loved every minute of it.
Elias and his coaches give out baseballs - brand new, brilliant white baseballs - at the end of each day to campers who not only win contests, make great plays or get big hits in the mini-games they play at the end of each session, but to players who have put into practice what they have just learned and show good sportsmanship.
There are also most-improved and outstanding camper plaques awarded on the last day. The younger players get plastic bats and balls and a very popular ice pop party on the last day of camp.
"The kids eyes just light up when you hand them a real baseball," Elias says. "We gave away 13 dozen ball this past summer ... we do our best to get a ball to each camper.
"The baseballs are great for a player's self esteem ... it is not about winning with a young player, it is how the feel about themselves and what they accomplish from their experiences ... we�ve seen too many youth baseball coaches forget about this."
The older campers are part of a program that started a few summer ago when parents expressed an interest in seeing their children get a jump on going from the smaller Little League fields to the regulation baseball diamonds.
Each of the older first-year campers gets a "Welcome to the Big Diamond trophy" and second-year campers get trophies inscribed with Bobby Knight's "Perfect practice makes perfect" motto.
Each daily session starts out of a warmup period. The campers are broken into groups by age and demonstrations and drills on proper fielding, throwing, base running and hitting follow. Contests utilizing what the camper has just learned highlight the drills.
After the campers gather together to take a break and cool off with some iced "bug juice," the groups are reformed and games are played. All age groups hit off a tee with a counselor talking each camper through his at-bats to remind him of proper hitting techniques.
"We stress fundamentals, giving them a lot of stuff to think about during the week even though we know all of it won't sink in," Elias says. "Still, it's great to see a kid improve throughout the week whether his throws or more accurate or he�s making better contact with the ball at bat - it�s all progress and is good to see."
Elias points out that the techniques stressed in the camp are techniques that will be used throughout each camper's baseball playing days.
"It's baseball .. we want to make the camper a better baseball player," Elias says. "Our goal is to have the skills we teach will stay with the campers in whatever level of baseball that they play."
Elias' main counselors for the summer of 2009 included Adam Bonfiglio, who has coached the Morris Knolls varsity since Elias retired; Rich Luttenberger, a former varsity assistant and JV coach under Elias; and Elias' son K.C., a volunteer coach at Knolls this past spring who has practiced the drills he now teaches under his father ever since he first picked up a baseball.
Other counselors include: Eric Madrabo, the Knolls pitching coach, works with pitchers; Jason Wetzel, a former Knolls pitcher, has been a counselor for five summers; and Craig Miniter, the JV coach and a special education teacher at Knolls, who works with the youner campers.
Some of the older campers also help out with the youngsters. Brendan Stempert, a Denville resident who attends Parsippany Christian High School; Zack Hopler, who played freshman ball at Knolls last spring; and Jonathan Hyer, a Denville resident who will enter Knolls as a freshman in the fall, worked as junior counselors for two weeks before attending the "Big Diamond" session.
"These guys love the game and it shows in the way they work with these kids," Elias says. "They all have patience, a willingness to help, and are students of the game as well.
"Luttenberger, for instance, is a natural with the younger campers ... he has a great knack for holding their interest throughout the day. They all listen to 'Coach Lutt.'"
Tuition for the camp is $40 for five 90-minute sessions for campers 5-6; $120 for five three-hour sessions for players 7-12; and $140 for the older players who participate in the "Welcome to the Big Diamond" week-long program. There are also rates for families that send two or more players to the camp.
Additional information on the camp can be obtained from Elias by email at F50843je@aol.com or by calling him at 973-895-4643.
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