Eau Claire is fortunate to have a multitude of summer baseball teams and all have a significance to contributing to the future players of the game. However, one local squad especially seems to be benefiting from all that the Chippewa Valley baseball community has built.
The Eau Claire A’s Blue 17U team has a plethora of talent, as well as experienced coaches who not only love the game, but who also stress how important teamwork is to succeeding in the sport.
The focus on teamwork is fitting because the Eau Claire A’s Blue team itself was born out of the area’s network of youth baseball teams.
Blue 17U team members grew up playing in the Chippewa Valley Baseball League (CVBL). The CVBL brings together little league teams from around Eau Claire as well as nearby towns like Cadott, Thorp, Mondovi, Whitehall, Elk Mound and other locales.
The teams play their regular league games, then based on their win-loss records, teams are seeded into a Championship bracket.
Advancing through the playoffs and wining the CVBL Championship is a big deal to the players and coaches, and rightfully so. Of note, many members of this year’s State Champions Eleva-Strum team played on the Eleva-Strum Little League team that won the CVBL Championship in 2016,” Gorman told the Leader-Telegram.
Gabe Richardson, an Eau Claire North graduate and currently hitting it out of the ballpark this summer as a member of the EC Express, played little league in the CVBL. His Dad, Doug Richardson began an all-star travel team called the Valley Stars.
After a few years, Richardson handed the job of Valley Stars Director over to John Bugher (current A’s Assistant Coach Blue 17U). Bugher grew the Valley Stars from four teams to 10.
Gorman began coaching one of the additional Valley Stars teams. “We had too many guys for one team so instead of cutting guys, we made a second team. That’s the team that I coached.”
When the boys turn 13, families have to decide if they want to stay at Seymour and play on a modified (pony) field; or move to a full-sized (high school) field at Mt. Simon.
Both Bugher and Gorman interviewed for coaching positions with the Babe Ruth League at Mt. Simon. Over the past few years, both coaches have led winning teams to the World Series — Gorman twice and Bugher three times. Each year they age up along with their sons who play for the A’s. This year a combined 16-17 year-old team brought the two coaches together.
Babe Ruth travel teams work the same way as Valley Stars. Tryouts are held in early August. The Blue team is the top travel team, Gorman explained.
“I like the Babe Ruth League format because you are playing for something — not just a weekend tournament — the team is working toward a team goal of going to the World Series,” Gorman said.
Gorman has been coaching since he got out of college. He has coached at the high school level, taught private lessons, and was head coach for an NAIA college team. He says he is lucky to have played for some amazing coaches in his own baseball career. He played at Lakeland College and then for the Sheboygan A’s.
There’s a passion he has for the game of baseball that he also tries to instill in his players. That love of game and the importance of teamwork are hallmarks of his coaching philosophy.
“It’s the number one thing that I talk about- wearing a pitch, taking a walk, putting your team first. Teamwork is a skill that you are going to use for the rest of your life — you learn to trust the guy next to you,” Gorman said.
And Bugher, like Gorman, comes from a big baseball background and has both a similar love for the game and a coaching philosophy that emphasizes that teamwork can help mold a player into an eventual collegiate career in the sport.
Bugher played baseball at Memorial High School and went on to play for Vermillion Community College in Minnesota After that he played for the Eau Claire Bears. He started coaching his son, Blake, in Seymour Ball Club, then Valley Stars, and on to Eau Claire Babe Ruth/the A’s.
“I’ve watched these boys change from scrawny 6 year-olds to grown men who throw around 80 miles per hour,” Bugher told the Leader-Telegram.
“We play for the A’s and in these tournaments to face the best players around. Most of these boys have aspirations to play at the next level and we’re getting them in front of college coaches,” Bugher said, adding that “since the beginning we’ve told these boys that they could play college ball.”
And eventually playing the game they love in college — and maybe even beyond that — inspires the players and motivates both coaches to continue to bring their best to the baseball diamond each summer in Eau Claire teams that continue to grow and also continue to highlight many of the best this area’s high schools have to offer in the sport.
The Blue A’s get four days rest and then head to their last tournament of the summer, the Perfect Game Battle for the Midwest in Marion, Iowa. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. on Thursday.
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