|
Holyoke Giants like their roster HOLYOKE - It did not take a yeoman's effort to build the Holyoke Giants.
The Giants begin practice Monday and open their initial NECBL season against the Vermont Mountaineers June 11 at Mackenzie Stadium at 7. They filled their 25-man roster just by Moffie's answering the phone and checking his e-mail, he said. It started with the head coach. "Joel (Southern, a Western New England College assistant) called me looking for a position as an assistant coach," Moffie said. "We had lunch, I was impressed and I said, 'how would you like to be head coach?' "So far, I couldn't be more pleased with my choice," Moffie said. Southern's first responsibility became selecting players from the legion who contacted Moffie, either directly or through their college coaches. "I'd take a call and pass it on to Joel to follow it up," Moffie said. "Joel would talk to the coach, and determine that the kid was up to the caliber of this league. "It just doesn't serve anyone's purpose to overstate a kid's ability. That's how we know we're getting competitive players. "We did no recruiting," Moffie said. "Honestly, if we had recruited, we could have fielded a team of 100 players. I still get calls from all over the country." There are several reasons players look to the NECBL, which accepts only collegians who have played one season, but still have at least one college season remaining. "I want to get experience," said two-time Easthampton High School All-Scholastic pitcher Jeremy Demers, a senior at University of Massachusetts, who was a medical redshirt as a freshman and still has two years eligibility remaining. "My college coach (Mike Stone), assistant coach (Ernie May) and pitching coach (Dave Bettencourt) were looking for a place for me to play," Demers said. "Earlier, we'd looked at the Coastal Plain League (a North Carolina-based league similar to the NECBL), but the Giants were in the town next to me. The convenience was huge." Another reason players flock to the NECBL is exposure. The league boasts it had 68 players drafted last year. Not all signed, of course. But Moffie expects to lose at least one player to the June Draft. "We may lose (pitchers) Brian Winings and/or Kevin Salmon to the draft, and maybe a couple of others," he said. Holyoke's own Joe Westcott, who will be a senior at Trinity next year, is hoping to get the kind of exposure this season that could lead to his eventually getting drafted. "It's been my dream to make it to the next level. I think I'll get seen here," said Westcott. Westcott and Demers will be joined on the Giants by Western Massachusetts products Jon Davis, a sophomore pitcher at Springfield College, and Justin Vincent, a junior outfielder at University of New Haven. "I'm from the New Haven area, so I followed Justin, and I knew he had a great year at school," Moffie said. "Joel saw Jon Davis pitch first-hand. One of my goals was to take a real solid core group from the Western Massachusetts area." GIANTS NOTES: The biggest contributor to Holyoke's roster is University of Pennsylvania. Moffie's son Nathan, the only holdover from when the team played in Middletown, Conn., last year, is joined on the Giants by three Penn teammates ... Josh Corn, a backup catcher at No. 1 Stanford, will join the Giants when the Cardinal season is finished ... The Giants' first exposure will be at an open to the public scrimmage June 9 at 7 p.m. at MacKenzie Stadium.
|