Young Pony League baseball players learn how to catch a fly ball. (Photo by Katja Zimmer)
More than 350 youngsters from the Menifee Pony League attended the first Paloma Valley High School Baseball Camp on Monday.
Paloma Valley coach Jason Berni decided it was time to provide an opportunity for boys and girls learning baseball skills to receive additional support. Baseball coaches from Paloma Valley and Liberty high schools and their players led youths ages 5-13 in fielding and batting drills.
“I would like to have it every year,” said Berni, who is preparing his own varsity Wildcats team for the start of baseball season next month. “If this works good, do it every single year and just rotate the school sites. So that way this year we put it on, next year maybe Liberty puts it on, and then we get Heritage involved.
“It needs to be done. It’s long overdue. This should have been happening. you know, for many years, so that’s on us. We probably should have gotten a little more involved with that, but from here on out, this should be an annual thing.”
Youngsters took part in drills on two different fields at Paloma Valley, with high school players from Paloma and Liberty interacting well with the kids. Berni said the value of the camp was more than simply helping the youths learn baseball skills.
“That’s one aspect of it, but I think the more important thing is not necessarily from the coaches,” he said. “I think a lot of it is just the players being active and working with them, because these kids aren’t going to look up to us in the same way that they’re going to look up to those players. They want to kind of get to where those players are. So that’s a big deal.
“The other part to it is that it’s a big deal for our players to give back to the community. Scott [Liberty coach Scott Montgomery] and I and our staff, we live here in Menifee, so we have vested interests in who all these kids become. And I think part of that, just like our own players, we have vested interests in who they become as men when they’re done playing baseball. And so part of that is you give back to your community, you get involved in your community, you make it stronger.”
