The Commodores are back with new leadership, a new philosophy and a vengeance.

After a pair of down years in Falmouth, the ‘Dores have started anew, paving new roads for excellence on and off the field. At the head of it all is Tyler Young: the Commodores’ new general manager with a deep-rooted connection to the organization that began to bloom when he was 10 years old.

Back then, his grandparents owned Falmouth Laundry on Scranton Avenue and welcomed in the ‘Dores to wash their uniforms.

The connection between the Young family and the Commodores began within the simplicities of doing laundry, which laid the groundwork for an enduring love for the sport of baseball that the family shares.

“My grandparents would set up and show them the ropes of how to clean stains out, this, that and show them how to really take care of their laundry, so they developed a relationship with a couple players,” said the ‘Dore general manager in retrospect. “My grandmother’s an avid baseball fan, so she developed a love for the Commodores…every night they would have a game, they’d go out there and set their chairs up and root on the guys that they would help at the laundromat."

Young was right next to his grandparents in those lawn chairs beyond the first-base dugout at Guv Fuller Field, watching in awe.

“Those guys always inspired me because I loved the game of baseball,” he said. “They were just so big to me.”

Just a few years later, his own pair of baseball cleats would sink into the same dirt that Commodores of years’ past graced on their respective journeys throughout college. When asked about his days at Falmouth High School and the experience of calling The Guv his home field, he summed it up by describing it as “surreal”.

Thursday night was a special night for Young. After a lifetime of Commodore fandom, he found himself beautifying the ballpark for Opening Day as the brand-new general manager of Falmouth’s beloved college summer ball team. It brought him an out-of-body sensation, saying “I was driving around just thinking, ‘this is weird. I played here, I’ve had people come watch me play here. I’ve been a Commodore fan and now I’m involved in the whole situation and here I am working on the field.’ It was a full-circle moment.”

But what made him want to go from Commodore fan to Commodore executive? Well, the answer to that question stems far beyond himself. It’s for his kids to indulge in the same summer baseball fandom he had immersed himself in as an aspiring ballplayer.

That rings especially true for his 14 year old son with aspirations to play college ball, just as every player in the CCBL does.

“The opportunity to have my [oldest] son be around the top-end talent of the country to see how they prepare, how they go about their everyday life, not just as a ballplayer, but off the field. He’s gonna get to see these kids in and out, how they come to the field, how they prepare, how they leave the field, how they talk to their coaches and even to watch his dad have responsibilities in helping these kids in any way that he can.”

He’s started his tenure by bringing in a staff who he truly feels like he can learn from. That’s most true for head coach Jack Dahm, who brings 31 years of Division I coaching experience to Falmouth and an encyclopedia of knowledge in leadership that Young is eager to learn about.

“He’s very intelligent of the game and the way he will get the guys to prepare and get ready. It’s the same kind of situation for me where it’s my guys coming in the morning, I also have to get ready. It will be a learning curve and it’s also something that I can really learn from.”

For this year’s Commodore squad, their first lesson to be learned is what its identity will be. Coach Dahm prophesizes that it’ll start with building genuine bonds with one another that carry the team through the grind of an active summer season. He has complete faith in his ‘Dores to make a seamless transition from competitors to companions.

“So many of these guys have played against each other, they read about each other on social media when they're in high school,” said Dahm when looking at the opening day roster from a macroscopic lens. “These are the top players in the country, so they played a lot of tournaments, so they're aware of each other.”

Coach Dahm doesn’t have any plans of scheduling team bonding events…yet. However, bowling could enter the picture if the circumstances present themselves.

“When I was at Creighton, when we were struggling, we’d go to practice, [and then] take them bowling. It usually just kind of relaxed our guys. [We] let the guys have a little bit of fun.”

Everything ties back to Dahm trying to make the game of baseball as easy and free-flowing as possible for his players.

“[When] the game gets easy, they're just out there, they're flowing. Then there's times that the game gets really hard, and they try harder. Everybody goes through that at some point in the year…I want these guys to play and take the pressure off [themselves].”

Even through periods of struggle, Coach Dahm wants his guys to find the sweet spot where they find the game easiest.

“These guys are here to get better, they're not here to throw one hitter,” said Dahm. “I want to give these guys opportunities to go out there and throw an inning, throw an inning and two-thirds, or work through their mess.”

A far cry from a lot of what most of the Commodore staff encountered in their respective conference seasons.

“A lot of times in school, you know, if you, if you walk a couple guys, you're gonna be out of the game, right? Here, I want guys to be able to work through that stuff a little bit.”

Working through the roadblocks that summer baseball brings is the strongest bridge, in Coach Dahm’s opinion, between the players on his roster.

“A of these guys will get to know each other through picking each other up to go lift weights,” he said. “Then they'll hang out, then they're going to eat lunch and then they're going to come here and get a little early work in…that’s the fun part.”

Dahm wraps his entire philosophy into one simple phrase: “win the day” – the construction of small personal victories, one after another, in building towards a better version of oneself.

For Coach Dahm, the three determinants of daily victories are: attitude, effort and a fun caveat he calls “shake & bake”, code for having fun. He derived these pillars from a 14 year-old child he nicknamed “Flash”, whose vibrant persona remains a vivid memory for Dahm, despite succumbing to cancer during his teenage years. For Flash, “winning the day” was a way of life: it helped him stay positive, express gratitude for those alongside him in his battle, gave him purpose in giving good to others and, above all else, was the source of strength and allowed him to fight until the very end.

Jack Dahm wants to be known as a coach that helps others “win the day” – becoming a vessel for Flash to have a posthumous impact on the Commodore organization.

For each individual player, that impact will vary based on their personal goals this season.

If you’re Pearson Riebock, it might be growing in a realm beyond baseball. “For me personally, I'm trying to grow spiritually every day,” said the former All-Big 12 honorable mention on Friday morning when speaking to the media.

For Sachem Ramos, that impact will manifest itself in developing discipline from sunrise to sunset, day after day.

“It goes back to routine,” said the rising senior. “Daily habits, waking up, doing the same thing, eating roughly the same thing, meditation, just sticking to the routine, a lot of what you get as an output is what you put into your body.”

For JJ Kennett, “winning the day” is a pitch-by-pitch contest as he navigates a fresh staff of arms as one of the Commmodores’ three pitch-callers behind the dish. Kennett previewed the shift as “a hard development.”

“Running a game from that perspective is definitely going to be awesome this summer. Just working with the talent level with these arms – a lot of power stuff in a pretty pitcher-dominant league, I'd say it's gonna be pretty cool, being able to work with them, get closer with them, see what they like, what they don't, and get a feel for them.”

Or, if you’re Ryan Castillo or Anthony Diaz, you might simply just want to bring Falmouth back to the mountaintop of the Cape Cod Baseball League.

Castillo kept his thoughts on his role in the revamping of the ‘Dores short and sweet, saying “I just want to compete and do what I can to help the Commodores.” Diaz gave a bit more insight as to why it's at the top of his priority list.

“I've already heard many people saying how much they care about this team, how much they want to win, so they've embraced this with open arms already. Let's go out and put on a show for them.”

This Commodores team distinguishes itself from the rest of the CCBL with the perfect balance between a desire for individual development, the willingness to learn from each other and infectious gratitude for the town that’s played host to prospects like themselves for over 100 years. There’s a palpable excitement that the ‘Dores have christened Guv Fuller Field with – one that appears quite apropos for a team that’s sparked a new era of Commodore baseball in Falmouth.