Question and Answer:
Lone Star Baseball Club High School Season.
We have received multiple questions over the past couple of months regarding our program and how it will work. Please refer to the questions and responses below if you have some of the same questions.
- Who is Lone Star Baseball Club?
We are a newly formed organization that merged 3 of the best organizations in central Texas: Austin Elite, Clutch Athletics, and Texas Colts. Each location moving forward will be known as Lone Star north, Lone Star central and Lone Star south, respectively. All of the owners and coaches from the previous organizations are the same. You can find more information about each previous location on their individual websites. www.austinelitebaseball.com, www.clutchathleticstexas.com, and www.texascoltsbaseball.com. The new website is currently under construction and will be operating soon. www.lonestarbaseballclub.com.
- Who are the people involved with Lone Star Baseball Club?
There are four owners: Steven Mazur (Lone Star North) Rob Johnson (Lone Star Central) Niko Gonzalez and Luke Owens-Bragg (Lone Star South). Charlie Thames is the High School Coordinator and recruiting coordinator. Jason Larue is the director of player development. All the above are highly involved, along with the coaching staffs of each particular team. College consulting services will also be available.
- How does Lone Star Baseball benefit my son?
Lone Star comes with a wealth of ex-player experience and a history of excellence. Lone Star is three like-minded organizations that align with their philosophies and how they operate. We have relationships with junior colleges, NAIA, DIII, DII, DI universities around the country. Lone Star baseball has already drawn massive interest from these colleges. Many people want answers or are new to how the college recruiting process works and what events their players should attend. We have the answers, but the #1 most important thing is the trustworthy relationships college coaches have with people running the organization. That alone is how players get the exposure necessary to be seen. Many people waste thousands of dollars in an attempt to gain exposure for their son, we will help direct where your money is well spent or not spent at all.
The high school Lone Star coaching staff is second to none. The coaches are selected by the owners and will provide development and teaching necessary for your player to gain confidence, skill and opportunity.
Lone Star is powered by DeMarini, which provides quality products at a discounted rate and also offers opportunities to play in their national events with that being said we are on of six organizations in the state of Texas with this sponsorship. These are some of the biggest and best “invite only” events in the nation.
You can expect character, honesty, transparency and integrity from the staff at Lone Star. We care about the player and the family. We hold huge importance in developing on field and off field character. We believe it is part of our job to assist you in the development and maturity of your son. We will encourage leadership in our quest to help grow strong and confident men. Our desire is for every player in our program to be taught life lessons through the game of baseball.
- Why did Lone Star decide to merge?
Understanding that each individual organization is aligned and could be of greater impact to the central and south Texas players and families, it only made sense to combine forces. We believe that creating more competition and having a larger reach will push the players to be as good as they can. Furthermore, it benefits every player in the program as we have many college coaches already interested in a scout day that we will run during the summer. In High School baseball there is no such thing as minors, AAA, and majors. The player will get massive exposure in our organization and with the merge the reach is larger for each player. i.e. If a player is on a quote/unquote 3rd team and he is having tons of success then we will make phone calls and promote him as much as possible and maybe a contact that one of us has is exactly what the player needs. This potentially wouldn’t have happened before.
5. What is the time line and itinerary for Lone Star High School summer select.
Dec 9th, 2017 - Tryouts will be conducted at Texas State University.
Dec 10th - Dec 17th - Teams will be selected.
January - Uniform fittings for players
March-April - Opportunities for hit nights with high school coaching staffs
May - During the month we will be holding our “Spring Training” Sunday
Practices. This is an opportunity to get the whole organization together and run individual and team practices. Each practice will be several hours.
June/July - Tournaments
6. How many teams will you have per age group?
We plan to have a minimum of 3 teams per age group. The final quantity will be determined after we host tryouts.
7. How many players per team? Why?
We will be carrying 15 players per team. If that number is higher it is because we are adding “Pitcher Only” to that roster in a larger tournament. If we create a local team we will have fewer players on that team.
Why? One of the main reasons you need to carry that amount of players is because most tournaments that we play in will have a minimum of 5 games. It is necessary to carry enough pitching in order to compete and maintain health of players.
While we believe versatility is important for the athlete, the reality is the older a player gets the more his position and role on a team is defined. Although, many players believe they are position players or pitchers we believe with our experience we can help them put their best foot forward in defining with role will offer them the most opportunity at a higher level. While some players may be a two-way player, we will have pitcher only players on rosters as well. While we want to make sure the athletes are having fun and getting ample playing time, we also recognize this is a large investment and the players that are performing the best will get the most playing time. Playing time is earned through practice and game success. There will be players that through their on field play tell us, “coach you can’t take me out.”
- How are players selected to a team after tryouts?
Each player will be ran through a pro style workout. The owners, coaches, coordinators and directors will all be a part of the process in deciding teams. The metrics, notes and evaluations of each player will be discussed amongst the staffs. As we make teams for high school, a completely non-bias, non-political approach will be applied. Many people in the program are used to being on major or near major teams. That means our process is not only exciting but also difficult. Each player and the positions they play will be brought into great consideration. An example of this would be if we have 4 catchers and they are the best players on the field during tryouts, we won’t put them all on one team because that won’t allow for them to get the required amount of innings necessary to showcase their abilities. We will split them up into two different teams to provide maximum opportunities for themselves.
9. How many tournaments will you play? What tournaments do you plan in? Where are the tournaments located?
We will be playing in 5 scheduled tournaments. We are also working hosting a Lone Star showcase. Many coaches, scouts and even a large sanction is interested in coming. We are in the process of securing a date and location for that event. We want college coaches to come to us and so this is why we are working hard to nailing this down. If the Lone Star showcase does not happen then we will play in 6 tournaments.
The top two teams in each age group will play in the exact same tournaments. The third team will play in high quality tournaments around the state and potentially neighboring states. If there is a forth team then we will look at tournaments that will match their skill level. Full schedules for each team will be announced when we have a better idea of the amount of teams we have.
*note - each team will have a different price point determined by the cost of each tournament selected. There are tournaments that are as much as $3000 and as little as $900.
We will be playing in Perfect Game events, Wilson Premier Tournaments, Vtool showcase events, Texas Showcase League, AABC events, and potentially a few more.
*The Wilson Premier event is an invite only event and due to our sponsorship by Wilson/DeMarini we automatically are invited into these events because the history and status of our previous and current teams. This is a very big event to play against the best teams in the country.
Some of the teams will travel out of state for 1 or 2 events per year. Most of the tournaments are in state. The two main cities are Houston and Dallas. There will be some other areas that the teams play but it will be based of where the tournaments sanctions have the best tournaments. The out of state trips may be in Georgia, Florida, Arizona, New Mexico, Louisiana, or Oklahoma.
- What is 18u Baseball?
18u baseball is a little bit different than the other age groups. This is age group for graduated seniors that have already signed or are wanting to do several independent showcases. This is a local league for players to make sure they continue to get work and repetitions. There is not much travel associated with this league. We also may have an 18U team that plays in AABC events for a competitive feel before going off to college.
11.Where are practices and how will they work?
Practices will start with our “Spring Training” in the month of May. On Sundays in May we will be holding Lone Star high school practices. Times and locations have not completely been set yet but we do anticipate the practices being several hours.
This time will be spent putting in specialized individual specialized position practice, team practice, lots of hitting, signs, bullpens and much more.
Practices will take place on during the week on Tuesdays. We will play 6 out of the 9 weeks over June and July. The amount of travel for these tournaments limits us on the amount of practice we can do during a particular week. We will play on Thursday-Sundays regularly with the exception of some tournaments that may start earlier. That gives the team Mondays off, practice Tuesdays and travel day on Wednesday.
The coaches from each team are from different locations and so we are not asking a player from deep in the valley to practice in north Austin once a week. What we are doing is holding practices a each week a different locations.
i.e on Tuesday’s, we will hold practices for each age group to get their work in. All practices will be working on the same thing per age group. Each coach certainly has their different coaching personality but the material they will be covering will be consistent throughout. This allows each location to have several coaches to be instructing and running practices in order for the teams to get their work in. You may be from Waco and your head coach is from the Central location but you can still practice at the north location on Tuesdays.
*A coach of a team has the freedom on a day to call a practice at any location of his choosing if time and circumstances permit.
12. Who are the Coaches on each team?
17a - Jason Larue, Reynol Mendoza
17b - Cory Cummings, Matt Gonzalez
17c - Tom Shearn, Mike Hoffman
17d -
16a - Kory Moench, Bryan New
16b - RJ Perucki, James Coon
16c - Dustin Lindeman, Mateo Gatica
16d -
15a - Adam Pena, Ryan Smith
15b - Niko Gonzalez, Ryan Simpson
15c - Will Miller, Stephen Corkhill
15d -
18a - Scott Little
12. What is the cost?
The cost to play for a High school team in our organization is dependent on which team you make. Each age level is a little different in cost along with each team cost as stated above that different tournament costs directly affect the cost of the season. At tryouts we hope to have the schedules set in order to give you a better idea of cost. The cost ranges from $1600-2500 dependent on position, pitcher only, and what age group and team.
