Baseball season has come early for the AAA Reds this year. With the relatively mild weather, the Reds conducted an outdoor practice last week when they took to the baseball diamond at Kinsmen Park last Tuesday.

With another year, the Reds’ coaching staff has big plans for the team, including besting their previous record.

The Reds finished last season with a record under .500 in 89 games. This year’s team, says head coach Zane Anderson, with most of players returning, has the chance of playing great baseball and finishing with a winning percentage.

“We want to improve overall because the concept of our team is all about player development,” said Anderson. With a more mature and stronger team, the exceptions, while high, are achievable.

“We want to have a more competitive mindset, for sure,” said Anderson. 

Implementing that philosophy this season is one of the goals of the coaching staff. During practices, they hope to instil a mentality of winning by increasing the amount of pressure and responsibility of individuals players.

Anderson said he has taken the approach he learned while playing college baseball at Gannon University in Pennsylvania. For example, one of their batting drills is designed to have players reach a certain hitting quota, mimicking the pressure involved in real game situations. Players unable to hit the quota will be subjected to running drills.

“We are trying to give the team a more winning attitude and to give them an edge that will help in games,” said assistant coach Darwin Armitage.

Better conditioning of the players will also be major new coaching strategy this year, said Anderson, something he has taken to heart from his time in college. Also, during the summer, there will be more morning practices, which will keep the team focused and committed to improving.

“College baseball is all about winning and losing and we’ll try to have the players adopt that competitive edge,” said Anderson.

There are 12 returning players this season, with one new player. The players are from all over the Wheatland County area, and some are as far away as Springbank and Okotoks.

The hope is that because there is a familiarity with each other and with the coaching staff’s system of play, the Reds will show a noticeable improvement from last year.

Eric Whitnack, a pitcher, feels the camaraderie between all of the players is sure to help.

“It’s good because we don’t have to try and get used to each other early in the season,” said Whitnack, adding that the goal of being more competitive is a great motivating factor for the team. Having a system that is modelled after college baseball is looked on as an opportunity for personal and team growth, said Whitnack.

“Hopefully this give us more of an advantage this year,” he said. “Also, because we’re a little older, we’ll be better against the older teams.”

Because the average age of the team is hovering around 16 years old, and with most of them eying a chance to play college baseball, Anderson wants to use that built-in motivation to help achieve a winning formula. Battling distractions, though, with players at this age will be a challenge, Anderson conceded.

“They all have their driver’s licenses now and their thinking about their girlfriends, so we have to make sure their focused on playing well,” said Anderson, laughing.

Armitage agreed.

“All we ask is that for two hours of practice, the players concentrate on baseball and the system,” said Armitage.

After playing a few exhibition games in Medicine Hat at the end of the month, the Reds will play their first regular season game at the beginning of April in a tournament in Penticton, B.C. While their home schedule hasn’t been finalized yet, Armitage and Zane both agreed that they will take to the field in Strathmore some time in the middle of April.  

Because of the nice weather, the Reds will try to get more opportunities to practice outdoors prior to their tournament in B.C. Last year, they practiced indoors, and while they managed to make good use of it, outdoor practices provide better opportunities to get into game shape.

“It’s a whole new ball game practicing outdoors and we’ll hope to take advantage of that when we go to Penticton,” said Zane.

The reasons for better outdoor practices are several. For starters, the players and coaches can better replicate the game situations, especially when it comes to playing in the outfield.

Picking up ground balls is a lot harder on an outdoor field than it is indoors, where the environment is more controlled and thus reduces variables. Lighting also helps as well because the hitters and catchers can see the ball a lot better.

As for outside the province tournaments, the Reds will look to make a trip out to the southern Utah and Nevada later in the summer. Last year, the Reds made their celebrated trip out to Cooperstown, New York for a weekend baseball tournament. Both coaches felt that was the highlight of their season and their hoping they can have the same positive experience this year somewhere new.