WCCC camp focuses on teaching baseball, the right way

West Hempfield seventh grader Alex Hayes wasn’t getting the kind of practice time he had hoped for.

Coronavirus concerns shut down his season, so his parents sent him to baseball camp at Westmoreland County Community College this week.

Hayes said he’s learned a lot.

“I learned proper way to field the ball, throw and hit,” Hayes said. “It’s been a lot of fun.”

Hayes is one of 21 kids at the second week of camp. The first camp drew more than 30 kids, which pleased WCCC baseball coach Mike Draghi.

Kids meet for five days in the morning, usually at the WCCC baseball complex. Inclement weather forced the camp inside on Tuesday.

“The turnout has been terrific,” Draghi said. “So we’re really happy. We were only supposed to have one week of camp and we ended up with two because of the overflow and they’ve been really two good weeks of camp.

“Any time we go to camps, we want the kids to learn the basics and fundamentals: anything from how we hold the ball, how we move our hands, arm and feet when we throw the ball. We’re teaching how to play the game with the right fundamentals.”

The second camp was for boys age 6 to 12 from all around the county — Greensburg, Hempfield, Franklin Regional, Latrobe, Southmoreland and Penn-Trafford.

Draghi and his staff — former player Brett Vallorani, current player Dom Koch and softball assistant Dan Terlizzi — worked with the campers on different skills.

Many parents, in addition to high school and even college coaches, question what kids are learning playing travel baseball. Are they being taught the proper way to play the game?

That’s why camps like the one at WCCC are important.

Thursday’s lesson plan included fielding properly and getting into the right position to throw the ball.

Draghi divided the players into four teams and they played a T-ball game. The basic premise of the competition was to see if kids were using proper fielding and throwing techniques learned during the week.

“I was learning proper techniques,” Franklin Regional’s Lucas Mannetti said. “I just want to get better at baseball. I want to learn how to field better.”

Draghi is hoping some of his winter camps return. They have a pitching camp and a hitting camp, and he may have a fielding camp.

Draghi said the biggest thing kids need to learn today is the throwing and catching aspect of the game.

“You see so many arm injuries with older guys. My goal is to teach kids how to throw properly,” Draghi said. “So as they get older and their bodies develop, they hopefully will stay away from injuries because they are throwing properly with good mechanics and things of that nature.”

The camp concludes Friday with skills competitions and a home run derby.