All Sport Academy - How Good Do You Want To Be Today?

I remember the first day of baseball practice after we moved to New Jersey like it was yesterday (it was 13 years ago). My oldest son Matt was put on a team coached by three guys that were firm, but fair, very knowledgeable and all-in-all, good guys. After the first practice I told them all that I was happy they were his coaches as I appreciated the fact that even though they were young, they should be taught that being disrespectful isn’t tolerated and discipline is important on a team. Over the years he’s played on a wide variety of teams with a huge range of coaching styles and knowledge and has had a pretty solid “career”. As he grew older we knew the day would come that he’d finish High School and we’d be dealing with college and hopefully college that included baseball, but we knew he’d be off on his own and we probably wouldn’t be there.

We enjoyed the journey, enjoyed watching games, enjoyed the travel, enjoyed the friends we made and enjoyed the joy throwing a baseball brought our son. There were plenty of bumps in the road on that journey, but those are distant memories and we have moved forward and are excited about the prospects of Matthew playing for Rutgers-Newark. He has a new love for the game, he’s excited about the season (he got his number back finally) and he has great respect for his new coaches. For us, we are happy to see him smiling and happy about playing baseball again.

Today marked a new chapter in Matt’s baseball career as he boarded a plane and headed to San Antonio, Texas for a three-game series with Trinity University. It’s killing us to not be there, especially since we found out he’s scheduled as a reliever in Sunday’s game. Fortunately, Trinity will be broadcasting the game over the Internet so we’ll get to see it… (hey dad, that big monitor is certainly going to come in handy now! <g>).

Anyway, parents, enjoy the games you can and cherish every one of them because soon they are going to be done playing or are flying off to areas that you can’t get to and you’re going to be sitting by your phone waiting for the call to tell you how they did. I know Sunday is going to be tough on us and I know Matt’s going to do what he always does, look for us sitting someplace. We’ll be watching, but he won’t see us. It was only a matter of time and it’s hitting me pretty hard today…

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve written, it’s been incredibly busy here at ASA now that everyone is getting inside for winter workouts. Not only that, but we’ve got a million new things happening here, so I figured I should write about it all.

Baseball - First of all, we have two new baseball instructors, Ron Sutter and Andre Harris. Ron’s been doing lessons here for a few months, Andre only about a month and a half. Both guys come to ASA with a wealth of knowledge and experience and both guys are amazing instructors. Ron’s background is varied as he was a head coach, an athletic trainer, an athletic director, an instructor with the New York Yankees Youth Clinics (at Yankee Stadium!) and has been doing private lessons for about 25 years. He’s currently a principal in Brick, so he’s yet another professional teacher that we have on staff. Ron will be holding his annual baseball school at ASA starting January 19th, the nine-week school will meet twice a week for an hour and 15 minutes.

Andre Harris is an ex professional player that was most recently in the New York Mets organization (AAA). He’s played in the Minnesota Twins system and was on the Yankees spring training roster in ‘04 before an unfortunate car accident put him out of the game for a couple of years. Andre’s done lessons since ‘02 and has a steadily growing group he’s working with at ASA. Andre and Ron are currently planning our summer clinics and classes.

ASA is also forming 8u, 10u and 12u teams to play tournaments and games in ‘08.

Softball - Jodie Ricciardi, ASA’s softball coordinator, has recently finished a four week hitting clinic and has scheduled another one for January (10th thru 31st). Jodie’s been doing more and more lessons at ASA and will be working with a number of teams and individuals over the winter months. She’s also in the process of planning ASA’s summer softball camps and clinics.

Mixed Martial Arts - ASA is home to the NJ Combat Club, which is a competitive fight team. We’ve had three guys compete in the recent Grapplers Quest and have two guys competing this coming weekend in kickboxing matches in Rahway. At Grapplers Quest NJCC came home with two second places and a third place! The team trains three days a week at ASA and has grown to 15 members in two months. Head trainer and co-owner Tony Andreocci was recently certified by Shawn Tompkins as a trainer and affiliate of Team Tompkins Katsudo Fight Systems.

Wrestling - ASA has joined up with the recreation departments of New Brunswick and North Brunswick to start rec. wrestling programs for both communities. As a first year program we are looking to just get the group started and teach basic wrestling skills. We hope to get involved with a wrestling league, but will just pick up matches with local towns as we can. Coaches Chris Marshall and Jason McLean are both head wrestling coaches at local high schools (Marshall at Asbury Park and McLean at New Brunswick)

Cheerleading - The ASA Dragons Cheerleading squad has recently formed and will be competing in cheer competitions in ‘08. Coach Nicole Cecchini will lead the Dragons.

Soccer - Louis Ken-Kwofie has recently joined the ASA instructors crew and will be offering individual and team soccer training. Louis formerly played professional soccer in Europe and was a member of the MetroStars in the 90s.

Track - ASA will start a track club in the spring so that the athletes that are training here can compete as a team in the ‘08 AAU and USATF track meets. We currently have four high jumpers training here that all have tremendous potential to be amazing jumpers over their high school careers. ASA’s own, Derek Forthun (yes, my son), finished the ‘07 season officially ranked 19th in the USA in his age group by an independent ranking organization, which qualified him for All-American status. His middle school record jump of 5′9″ would move him up to a tie for 12th place in the country, but because school meets aren’t recognized, it’s wasn’t accepted. We believe the four jumpers (three freshmen and a sophomore) we have will not only do well in the summer meets but will compete for points in their counties. We are looking for more athletes to join the ASA track club in any event, as we get members, we’ll bring in coaches.

Personal Training and weightlifting clubs - ASA strength and conditioning instructor JR Papernik will be starting a weightlifting club. Individuals interested in Olympic lifting or Powerlifting are welcome to join the group. JR is a former NJ State record holder in the bench press and has trained numerous lifters.

Misc. - As many know, we’ve brought in a variety of pieces of equipment here at ASA to allow us to offer different items to our clients. We have embroidery, screen printing, photo enlargements, full color banners and recently purchased equipment to make a variety of personalized items such as plaques, mouse pads, car license plates, clocks, etc

Yeah, the warm weather must be behind us, my phone’s ringing off the hook. Not that I’m complaining, of course, but it’s pretty funny. Today was one of those nutty days where I think I only had enough time to sit down while I was watching our newest instructor, Andre Harris, work with some guys on their swing.

What was great about it though was at one point we had a cheerleading squad working out getting ready for a competition this weekend, wrestlers flipping tires and other conditioning drills, Andre was working out a baseball player doing speed and agility and a couple of other guys were hitting in a cage. Lots of fun things going on and all different.

I’d rather it be warm so we could be playing baseball, but I guess I have to resolve myself to the fact that it’s basketball season, I’m not happy about it, but it was bound to happen…

If you haven’t done so, check out all the things we have scheduled for the fall/winter months, plenty to pick from right now.

OK, that’s pretty lame, but hey, we’ve got ‘em all here at All Sport Academy, so come on down (sorry, I’m all wound up now that I heard Joe Torre’s going to the Dodgers!).

So, what’s new at ASA this week? Well, we’ve scheduled a number of programs for softball and baseball and have recently worked out an arrangement with New Brunswick Recreation to run their Youth Wrestling program. We are very excited to be working with them on this and think that it’s a great way to kick start both our and NB’s wrestling programs.

First, softball - ASA Instructor Jodie Ricciardi, who’s a former assistant coach at Princeton University and a former All-Big Ten softball player, is heading up our softball program. Jodie has set up four programs for us for the winter: 1). A Fall Clinic, which will be four Tuesdays starting mid-November; 2). A Softball hitting league, which will be an league consisting of eight, four-player teams that will play games in the batting cages. It’ll be a great way to keep swinging the bat in the fall/winter; 3). Softball pre-season workouts, eight weeks, twice a week. One hour of softball skills and an hour of conditioning with J.R. Papernik, ASA’s strength and conditioning instructor; 4). Private instruction - Jodie has done hundreds of lessons with girls from elementary school through the college level and is nothing short of amazing with the girls. She’s also going to help us with teams, camps, tournaments and whatever else we can think of to do next year.

Baseball - Ron Sutter will be basically doing the same things that Jodie will be doing, with that addition of running his baseball school. Every year for many years Ron has run his school for players elementary school ages up to middle school and this year we are fortunately enough to have him at ASA. Ron’s been a great addition to the team here as he, like most of our instructors, comes from an education background (he’s a principal in Brick). What I love about all these teachers around here is that when they aren’t trying to get a player to hit better or pitch better, they are doing what’s really important, teaching our kids how to read, write, do Algebra, etc. They have a different personality when it comes to dealing with kids and a deeper level of patience than non-teachers. Anyway, Ron’s available for lessons and will be running camps, clinics, coaches clinics and whatever else I can talk him into (which isn’t tough, he loves this stuff!).

Wrestling - Chris Marshall and Jason McLean will be running our wrestling program. Chris was a Division I All-American and head wrestling coach at Asbury Park and Jason was a Division III All-American and is the head wrestling coach at New Brunswick High School. All I’m going to say about these guys is if you want to learn how to wrestle the right way, get in here because these guys know what they are doing. Not only are we starting the New Brunswick Recreational Wrestling program, but we have a year-round program for wrestlers of all skill levels. Marshall’s Law is our club wrestling team/program that will be kicking off soon. We have a number of guys working out with Chris and Jason now and have been competing in tournaments, but it’s going to grow into a full program once the wrestling season is over in the spring. Best thing is they have the coolest singlets on the mat…

Mixed Martial Arts - ASA is now home to our own fight team. The NJ Combat Club took up residence a month ago and has been working out three days a week. Any one interested in mixed martial arts is welcome to come in and check it out. If you’re interested in working out, speak to Tony Andreocci, the team’s manager. The guys are working out to compete in Grapplers Quest on November 10th. We are also hosting a seminar with Shawn Tompkins, ex-coach of the IFL’s LA Anacondas and currently the head trainer at Randy Coutre’s gym “Xtreme Coutre” in Las Vegas. Tompkins will be here on November 17th, the morning of the UFC matches in Newark at the Prudential Center. First 10 registrations get soap. You know you want to know why, so pay your money and get some… Yeah, that’s right, we’ve got soap and if I have anything to say about it’s gonna be our own soap…

Well, that’s way more than I had intended to write tonight, so that’s enough. I’m not discussing Torre, Mattingly, Girardi, A-Rod, Papelbon on Letterman, Marion Jones, Floyd Landis, this new team that all the Discovery riders and managers are going to or even the fact that I’m really not interested in the fact that the NBA kicked off their season. Although, I better make a note to touch on them all soon…

No, I’m not flipping over and rooting for the Red Sox in the World Series, but you’ve got to admit their bats are hot right now and it’s a lot of fun to watch. How long will it last is the big question, but I don’t see any of them cooling off anytime soon. Lots of talk about the Rockies having eight days off and it messing with their timing, but I’m not buying that. These guys are professionals, they’ve been working out, they’ve been scrimmaging, they’ve been playing this game since they were five, they just got beat up on tonight, nothing more, nothing less. Beckett was amazing and quite frankly I thought they should have pulled him at about 70 pitches when the game was already out of hand. But, that’s why I’m not coaching in the bigs, what the heck do I know. Anyway, I certainly wouldn’t want to be pitching to the Sox right now, although my blazing 70 mph fastball might be what’s needed to mess up their timing…

Nearly every time I watch a sporting event I get asked by someone in my family, “Who do you want to win?” Nearly every time, unless one of my favorite teams are playing, I give the same answer, “I don’t really care, I just want to watch a good game…” They roll their eyes at me and mutter how dumb it is that I don’t care who wins. Well, this time I had a preference, I wanted to see a Denver-Cleveland World Series. I’m thrilled about Denver’s run through the end of the regular series and the playoffs and was very happy to see Cleveland get up 3-1 on Boston, thinking that they were sending the Sox packing early. I guess someone forgot to tell Boston the plan and the Indians must have packed up all their ’stuff’ and sent it on to Denver early.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a Red Sox hater, not by any stretch, but I wanted to see two underdogs fighting for the rings. I’m not a fan of the Rockies, nor a fan of the Red Sox, but I’m a baseball fan, I love watching baseball and I’m not ready for it to be over. This time of year is especially difficult for me as we wrap up high school fall ball, major league baseball ends and it gets cold, all three things I’m not fond of. This season I got to coach two teams through ASA and they are a great group of guys, but we only have a week or two left in the season. I think last year both ended on the same day, we finished our fall ball season the same day as the World Series wrapped up, so I was hit doubly hard, not a fun time. I cherish my baseball package on the satellite service, I can watch games for hours every day since there are games starting early and ending late every day and then I can watch the Yankee or Mets rebroadcast after all the West Coast games are over! Unfortunately I don’t have the package at ASA, so I didn’t get to watch as much, but there’s always MLB.com… Yes, this time of year is great for baseball junkies like me, the ultimate series, but then that void is nearly paralyzing the day after it’s over. Maybe this amazing weather we’ve been having will last another month or longer so we can keep the high school guys on the field, or should we all collectively think thoughts of moving this weather to Denver, I’m not interested in seeing Papelbon and Beckett doing the River Dance in a snow bank…