ABCA Kids Clinic back in full swing

Close to 500 youths ages 5-12 formed a boisterous clientele at the ABCA Kids Clinic on Wednesday at Harris Field as they received an hour-and-a-half of instruction from baseball coaches and teams gearing up for the Avista NAIA World Series.

The turnout was around double that of last year, when the clinic was making its return from a two-year hiatus.

“It feels like we’re running a traditional World Series now,” said Georgia-Gwinnett coach Jeremy “Sheets” Sheetinger, who has been involved in the kids clinics in one form or another for close to a decade. “I think the beauty of it is that all the kids in the Lewiston community get a chance to interact with all 10 teams, and that’s important.”

Members of the respective Avista NAIA World Series teams ran stations teaching different facets of the game to rotating groups of participants. They could be seen kneeling and feeding grounders, serving as umpires for simulated fielding plays and performing other coaching functions for youth wearing the event’s complementary blue commemorative shirts. Coach Stephen McNett of Central Christian (Kans.), who had come to the Series along with Ryan Goodwin of Baker (Kans.) working for the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) in an administrative capacity, strung proceedings together with a commanding voice issuing directives over the stadium’s speakers.

“They definitely chose me for my voice, not my looks,” McNett said. “The NAIA brought me out here with a couple of us other coaches, and being the rookie of the group, they gave me the mic to run it.”

Above and beyond the nuts and bolts of the game, McNett emphasized “teaching them to have fun on the baseball field” as the central mission of the kids clinic. While this was his first time administrating there, he has been a longtime NAIA participant as both a player and a coach, and brought a sense of the event’s value.

“It’s a fantastic tradition,” he said. “Any time that baseball can give back to the kids and give back to the community, it’s fantastic for the game. ... It doesn’t get any better than this. The excitement that it brings around here is amazing.”

Along with their commemorative shirts, participants received free hotdogs, Pepsi and general admission tickets to the Series. More than that, the hope among players and coaches was that the kids left with the seeds sown in their hearts to help carry on the game through future generations.

“You build some fandom out of it,” Sheetinger said. “You build some connections and some relationships, but it’s really about inspiring 500 kids to love baseball, want to make it their passion and quit soccer.”

Wendt may be contacted at (208) 848-2268, or cwendt@lmtribune.com.