Baseball season starts early with spring training in Red Bluff

The U.S. Baseball Academy spring training is underway at Red Bluff High School and according to Joe Gallaty, coach for Red Bluff High School; they have had an excellent turn out for their first camp, 79 young ball players. According to Gallaty, there will not be another camp within 100 miles of the one in Tehama County.

Young baseball players from Redding to Chico have gathered at the high school's gym for a little spring training to help kick off the upcoming baseball season. According to Gallaty, this camp has been a huge success, and there has been good positive feedback.

Over the course of this six-week training, 36 drills covered will be covered, which breaks down to six drills per every one-hour session. The program is for kindergarten through 12th grade players, but Gallaty said mostly kindergarten through 9th grade players signed up for the camp.

The U.S. Baseball Academy is set up so that only high school, college, or former professional players can qualify to hold a program in their area. This is done to ensure that young players attending these training camps are getting the quality instruction they expect from U.S Baseball Academy.

Each week the pitching, catching, and hitting coaches are given a DVD to watch demonstrating the techniques they will implement that week. According Gallaty, the coaches then have time to study and review, which is like giving them a mini-refresher.

"It (the training camp) helps everyone get ready for the upcoming season," said Gallaty. He added that many of the drills being taught to the kids at the camp would also be used to help the baseball players at the high school.

Each drill continues to build upon the previous to help improve the young ball player's skill. There are six coaches area coaches training the young players, four of whom are from Red Bluff High School. There are also many of the high school's baseball players acting as assistants to the coaches.

"The first week everyone was rusty, but by the second week they started to put everything together and there was a big improvement. Many of the kids hadn't thrown a ball or picked up a bat since their last game in August," said Gallaty.

U.S. Baseball Academy provided all of the equipment being used and the high school gets to keep it after the traing camp is complete, said Gallaty.

U.S. Baseball Academy took care of registration and collecting payment through their website, and then sent Gallaty a list of names, what session they were signed up for, and the time, and all he had to take care of was setting up the facility and instructing the young baseball players, said Gallaty.

U.S. Baseball Academy has been around for 22 years as the Midwest Baseball Academy, they changed their name this season to "more accurately reflect our national expansion," according to the U.S. Baseball Academy website. Their goal is to give young players top-quality instruction at an affordable price and have helped over 70,000 young players in 25 states.

Marc Hoffman, a member of many state and national coaching associations, founded and heads the company.For more information about the training camps or the company you can visit the U.S. Baseball Academy website at www.USBaseballAcademy.com.