Two Saturdays before this one, Gary Haning and Mike Stith were coaching the OC Batbusters-Haning 18U team to a PGF National Championship.

On this Saturday—August 16—the two coaches, along with other top coaches in the OC Batbuster organization, were at Pacifica High School in Garden Grove, Calif. to observe talented young players who were auditioning to make one of the Batbuster teams at the 14U, 16U and 18U levels and coming from as far away as Hawaii.

I stopped by to watch the 14U tryouts and to see how this elite organization makes it work.

To give some context, at the 2014 PGF Nationals there were seven levels of championships: 18U Premier, 18U Platinum, 16U Premier, 16U Platinum, 14U Premier, 14U Platinum  and 12U.

A team from the Batbusters won both 18U championships (Haning and Briggs) and finished second in 16U Platinum (Alvarez), third in 14U (Campbell) and fifth in 12U (Young). The lowest place in any division, 16U Premier, was 17^th.

It comes as no surprise, then, that 108 talented players from all over Southern California showed up Saturday morning at 9 am to do the typical exercises—stretching, infield and outfield drills, pitching and hitting—in hopes of making one of the six 14U teams.

What may not have expected, however, was an emphasis on an underrated skill, the simple act of throwing a softball.

“You can see out here and all over that very, very few know how to throw a ball,” says Gary Haning, the decades-long head coach of the top Batbuster 18U team. “It’s a lost art, as important as it is. Girls take hitting, pitching, running and conditioning lessons but no one works on how to throw.”

“We watch a lot of overhand throwing,” agrees Mike Stith as players were working out. “As coaches, we want to see the players’ physical skills, their technique and how they’ve been trained. A tryout like this also helps because you can see hand-eye coordination and other natural or trained skills. There’s a lot that is coachable, but we also look at a girl’s desire to play, her hustle and energy. You’d be surprised, even at a workout like this where everyone is watching, that some girls don’t go all out.”

Stith estimated that 50 players would end up on a Batbuster team although many of those are already in the organization and could be moving up or around to various teams.

The most unpleasant part of the day for the coaches—and obviously some hopefuls— took place around 11 am. About 20 girls were told they weren’t going to make a team and were allowed to leave.

Stith explained why they were dismissed with an hour left to go in the tryout.

“We want to be as upfront and even helpful as we can be,” he said. “There are a lot of good programs having tryouts today and, hopefully, a player can make it to another tryout with a top organization like, say, the So Cal A’s. We feel it’s better this way than holding them all day and preventing them from being able to try out somewhere else.”

As the day continued, there appeared to be as many as 12 to 15 Batbuster coaches of all ages watching closely the play on the field. The tryout ended with pitchers throwing live to hitters starting with a 1-and-1 count. A coach would signal what pitch to hit and each pitcher would get a half dozen or so pitches with “outs” being noted (errors or plays that should have been made were counted as outs in favor of the pitcher).

The goal of the day, according to Stith, was “to give coaches who need players a look at as many good players as possible” even though some, like Mark Campbell’s 14U team—which finished tied for third at PGF Nationals—had few spots to fill.

He explained that Saturday wasn’t the only chance for a player to be seen.

“The recruiting process goes on all year,” explained Campbell, the head coach at Pacifica High, as the final pitchers were getting in their throws. “We ID players we think can play for us and make contacts to get them invited to the team or a tryout like today. For example, we added five before today and will take one from here.”

That one ended up being Taylor DeTinne, a 2018 pitcher who played for Ken Briggs’ 14U team which tied for 17^th at PGF Nationals. Taylor will be a freshman at Oak Hills High and explained afterwards that her day started slowly.

“I felt a bit rusty at first,” she admitted, “but I came out and worked hard and got better as the day went on.”

Several Batbuster coaches said how impressed they were with Taylor who is already hearing from colleges like Northwestern (she’s a 4.0 student heading into her freshman year of high school) and UC Riverside (“they like my off speed pitches”). She throws pretty much everything else possible too: a fastball, change, screw, curve, drop, rise, screw change and curve change.

Around noon, the players were told to gather in left field and they sat while coaches conferred on whom they wanted to take.

Along with Mark Campbell’s team, there are five other 14U squads that compete in the Batbusters; the teams are led by Marcy Steele, Pirscilla Sarmiento, Tim Ramos, Tony Bracamonte and Cesar Alvarez.

There’s a pecking order to which coach and team takes players. The older teams, meaning second year 14’s, get the first choice followed by returning younger teams moving up from 12’s and then, all things being equal, those that did better at Nationals get dibs.

After the coaches conferred, players were called up individually and were pulled off to the side to meet with a coach and receive the happy news they were invited to play on a team.

In some cases it looked to be a half dozen or more; in DeTinne’s case she had a private conversation with Campbell.

So what did he say?

“He told me I have to work my way up to be the best because there are four pitchers battling for the top spot.”

“It’s hard in one day to fit in everything and give the players a fair look,” said Stith as the 14U tryouts wrapped up, “but it doesn’t end today either. We will be looking at players for a couple weeks and there will be a lot of kids transitioning teams. Today is just one step in the process.”

The final groups were then told if and where they would play in the Batbusters 14U division. As they walked off the field and joined their parents, dozens of 16U and 18U candidates stretched and warmed up nearby.

It was 12:30 pm and the next few hours would be tryouts for players looking to make an older Batbuster team.

The process of fine-tuning and reloaded was starting all over, just at another age level of players hoping to make a spot on one of the most elite teams in the nation.