HIGHLANDS RANCH — At the time, no one knew. The coaches didn’t. The parents didn’t. The kids sure didn’t. How could any of them know that of 15 players off an 8-year-old youth baseball team in 1999, nine would either turn pro or play college ball, in a variety of sports, and four more would play varsity baseball?
When these 8-year-olds weren’t pounding homers like Albert Pujols over 200-foot fences, or beating Puerto Rico in a national tournament, their biggest goal in life was getting the best burger after the game.
It has been 10 years since that magical Roberto Clemente baseball team, the Colorado Apache Arrows, went 67-7. If they had a reunion, they wouldn’t talk about the weird drills coach Glenn Bonnell devised, or the times they trounced teams of 10-year-olds.
They would swap college recruiting stories and tales about overzealous agents. Their reunions consist of battles on the field, such as in a Class 5A state baseball semifinal last month when Eric Anderson pitched Mountain Vista High past Cherry Creek and reliever Alex Blackford, his former Arrows teammate.
The Arrows’ story isn’t so much about what they did but what they will do. In the Major League Baseball draft that begins today, Anderson, a pitcher-shortstop on that team, is expected to be selected by the sixth round.
Blackford signed with Arizona State but will likely also get drafted. Others are going on to college, or finishing their junior season and entertaining recruiters.
“I’ve coached now 30 years,” said Bonnell, “and I have never seen seven or eight guys go on to D-I from a baseball team.”
It’s not just the nine moving on past high school. Only two players did not become varsity athletes.
“I’m surprised, but in a certain sense I’m not because we were so talented at such a young age,” said Jonny Miller of Mullen, a former pitcher who has college football recruiters after him as a quarterback. “Some kids were so good, it doesn’t really surprise me to see where some of these kids ended up.”
The secret, besides talent? Bonnell is a pretty good recruiter. A product of the William S. Hart Boys Baseball program, which has 7,000 kids age 5-18 in his hometown of Valencia, Calif., Bonnell roamed area fields around Denver looking for kids who could do more on a field than draw in the dirt. The Arrows were one of the growing number of traveling all-star teams that have made youth baseball into a year-round sport.
“He’s a gym rat,” said Dave Blackford, Alex’s father. “He calls me out of the blue. He said: ‘I think your son is pretty good. I’m trying to put together an all- star team.’ He can pick out kids.”
Bonnell assisted former USC coach Mike Gillespie at College of the Canyons in Valencia and learned some drills you won’t see in many instructional videos. Bonnell would take infield with all players facing the outfield. They moved at the sound of the bat.
Or he would throw soft toss. Except instead of throwing underhanded a few feet away, he would throw overhand with the batter facing away from him.
“Even a high school kid can’t hit it,” he said. “It helps your bat speed tremendously.”
Keep in mind this isn’t your or your father’s Little League team. They didn’t play in a round-robin, eight-team league, then go for ice cream.
The Arrows went year round, practicing three or four times a week, and traveled to Arizona and Nebraska for tournaments.
“I instilled competitiveness in them,” Bonnell said. “Winning isn’t the ultimate thing, but it is the goal you want to work toward to be competitive as you get older.”
Yet burnout apparently wasn’t a problem. No player flamed out.
“The coaching was so good, it made it fun for us,” said Anderson, who has also signed with Missouri. “Every day was exciting. Something new was going on.”
Such as the time in Omaha when they played in a tournament all day and Dave Blackford was alerted to a noise outside. He looked out, and the team was in the motel parking lot playing Wiffle ball.
“That’s when I actually said, ‘I’m not going to burn this kid out,’ ” he said of his son.
The Arrows wound up third nationally when Puerto Rico, which they beat at nationals in Wheat Ridge, beat them in the semifinals. But who remembers those details after 10 years?
After all, this group has so many more memories ahead of it.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
