For the Falmouth Commodores organization, youth engagement is a key aspect. From autograph nights to visiting elementary schools for field days, there are so many opportunities for the team to meet their young fans.

One of the most popular opportunities is the youth clinics that the Commodores run. The Rookie clinic, the Advanced clinic, the Elite clinic, and the Varsity clinic are the clinics the organization offers, with each one running on the same day and time for six weeks during the summer.

These clinics offer a small player-to-coach ratio, allowing for a more hands-on experience for each individual. Commodores players are the ones coaching, giving the chance for these young athletes to learn from division one baseball players and grow their love of the game. For the older kids, they also learn to refine the skills they already have for the potential to play in college.

For the younger groups of kids, the most important thing is “trying to get them to have fun every day, and keep the game fun at a young age, so they hopefully play it as long as they can, and just keep having fun with it.” reveals Commodores Assistant Coach, Jake Cooper. Cooper has mainly worked with the younger kids – the five-through eight-year-olds – for the camp. He enjoys “meeting all the new kids and trying to share my passion for the game with them.”

With the younger kids, the clinic is focused on learning more about the game of baseball, through stations and games, such as hitting, throwing, fielding, and baserunning fundamentals. “We do drill work for the first hour, and then we put everything we did in the drills into a game, and they loved playing the game. They have a lot of fun with that.” Cooper shared.

“We added a pickle station this year.” says Clinic director and Assistant Head Coach, Beau McMillian. The pickle station has been one of the younger groups favorite drills.

Current Commodores left-handed pitcher Casen Murphy has worked the clinic every week. “I've worked with all of them (the groups), actually, but the past couple weeks, I've been with the 11 to 14 (years old) kids.” For the older groups of kids who already play baseball, the clinics focus on refining the skills they already have. They receive instruction from the Commodores who are working with them, participate in an infield/outfield workout, hit in the batting cages, and have batting practice.

Participants in the varsity clinic receive an individual analysis on their hitting and position mechanics, while getting the opportunity to utilize Rapsodo PRO 2.0, which is state-of-the-art technology.

For Murphy, the most surprising thing he’s learned while working with these individuals has been “the fact that they can retain information, I mean, a lot of them, you tell them something the first day and then the next day they come back and they still remember it. So, it's honestly pretty surprising that they're able to keep the information you tell them and just keep and learn.”

When asked about what he hopes these players take away after these clinics end? “They need to have fun playing the game. Don't take it too seriously and just come back, come back every day hoping to learn something and just enjoy it,” He also hopes that they remember “whenever somebody's talking, you should probably be listening, especially somebody who knows the game, and hopefully they take away the fundamentals that we try to teach.”

To learn more about the Falmouth Commodores Clinics and registration opportunities, visit https://www.capecodleague.com/falmouth/community/clinics.