PORT ANGELES — A unified American Legion summer travel baseball effort between Wilder Baseball Club and the Olympic Crosscutters will begin with a co-hosted tryout session at Civic Field at 5 p.m. on May 19.
The programs aren’t combining, instead uniting efforts to provide the best training and competition opportunities for area ball players from seventh grade through high school across the three levels of play.
“Our goal is to come together and create a program that will maximize opportunities for kids from the [Hood Canal] Bridge to Forks,” Olympic Crosscutters coach John Qualls said.
Wilder Junior will continue to be coached by Zac Moore and Wilder Senior will be headed up by Port Angeles High School head coach Karl Myers.
The May 19 tryout will allow coaches to choose rosters for the Crosscutter’s Single-A (seventh through ninth graders) legion team and the Double-AA Wilder Junior (high school freshman-juniors) squad.
Wilder Senior’s own tryout is tentatively planned for 5 p.m. May 28 at Civic Field after the prep baseball season wraps. But players on high school teams that have been eliminated from the postseason are encouraged to attend the May 19 tryout date.
Moore is looking forward to seeing all three teams work together to develop talent.
“The first step is getting the kids together all on one field for the tryouts and then making sure as teammates our guys care for each other and help each other grow as players,” Moore said. “In the summer time it’s time to drop the [high school] rivalries and work together.”
Qualls agrees.
“There’s one choice now and it’s really a no-brainer,” he said. “Our guys will stay dedicated to their high school programs during the season and then work together to get better during the summer.
“It’s hard to compete with the teams fed by the bigger schools, the bigger communities, if you don’t come together like this. You get like-minded kids together and magic happens.”
The combined approach in developing youth athletes at the club level has done wonders to raise the level of play of area high school soccer, basketball and softball teams.
Players from around the North Olympic Peninsula have teamed together on club soccer teams such as Storm King, trained together with the Peninsula Soccer Academy, played on AAU basketball teams and honed skills in practices and also played for travel-ball softball squads.
The Single-A Crosscutters will be based in Sequim with practices and games held at Sequim High School. Qualls said his team will likely play between 35-40 games this summer.
Double-AA Wilder Junior will practice and play most of its games at Volunteer Field, with Wilder Senior sharing Civic Field with the Port Angeles Lefties. Moore said the Wilder squads will likely play a 30-game summer slate.
Qualls and Moore are assistants on the Sequim and Port Angeles high school teams and can’t technically coach practices until those teams are out of the playoffs, so assistants will handle tryouts and the initial practices that week if the Wolves and Riders are still alive.
“We will do some hitting and throwing practices the week of the tryout,” Moore said. “We understand families are finishing out the school year and kids playing Olympic Junior Babe Ruth need to finish out their commitments to their teams.”
Qualls and Moore all feel comfortable in the abilities of each head coach.
“We feel 100 percent confident that those kids will be in good hands and their specific needs will be met across all three teams,” Qualls said.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
Silas Thomas of the Olympic Crosscutters pitches against Shadle Park in the 2018 American Legion “A” State Tournament.
