From left: Teammates Colin Grant, Scott Jarosz, and Ben Siddiqui watch as Trevor Granville tries to tag Tippy Brown out in a game of pickle.(Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

Fourteen of Bromfield’s varsity and junior varsity baseball players stepped up as camp counselors last week for the debut of the Harvard Spring Training Baseball Camp. The players volunteered to coach upcoming Little Leaguers in a station-oriented, five-day camp.

More than 50 participants, drawn from first to sixth grades, arrived at the Depot Road fields for two-and-a-half hours a day, as varsity players led them in drills and games of fielding, pitching, catching, hitting, and base running.

Lori Granville, mother of Bromfield junior and varsity center-fielder Hunter Granville, proposed the idea. “The objectives of the camp were two-fold,” she explains. “First, we wanted to raise the needed funds to buy new balls and bats for the varsity and JV teams, and to help renovate and maintain the baseball fields. Second, we were looking to help improve the baseball skills at the Little League level, to provide a stronger foundation for future Bromfield teams.”

The camp raised nearly $4,000, half of which the Bromfield baseball team received, while the remaining $2,000 went to the Harvard Athletic Association (HAA).

Darren Magan, a member of HAA leadership, jumped on the idea. “He helped pull it all together, including promotion, setting up the registration site, buying needed equipment, and creating a special edition spring training T-shirt,” Lori Granville says. Magan also created the structure of rotating stations and divided the kids into groups based on their ages.

In a preparatory meeting, certain volunteers were paired with particular age groups based on experience and personality. Each varsity duo coached the same age group day to day. “You are going to form a bond with the kids,” Hunter Granville says. “I remember when I used to go to camps, and when I would go to [my counselor’s games], I’d be like ‘Oh that’s my coach right there playing center field,’ that was always cool.”

Senior Stephen Castro and freshmen Mike Jackovitz and Nick George led the first-graders, while sophomores Clayton Galeski and Mitchell Williams coached the second-graders. The third and largest age group was divided among Granville and fellow juniors William Nocka, Derek Silver, and Brett Keating. Sophomore Will Byler and junior Jon Fobert headed the fourth-graders, and freshman Trevor Granville and senior Jake Lurvey guided the fifth- and sixth-graders.

Although the rotations for the day were predetermined, the varsity players decided the specific activities they would have their kids perform. Granville explained, “[We choose activities to run] based on baseball camps that we’ve gone to in the past. I just do what I’ve always been taught coming up through Little League.”

Granville believes the camp was a success in both the short and long term. “[The participating kids] are going to be so much more prepared going back to their teams because they have started their seasons already, they’ve started practicing,” he comments. “It’s going to jump-start their season, and it will make Harvard a lot more competitive.”

Magan, as well, hopes the camp will produce long-term effects on the town. “My goal is to help make Harvard as much of a baseball town as we are a soccer town, and this was one of many youth baseball programs we plan to offer,” he says. “The team did a great job living up to their expectations.”

Lori Granville agrees. “The Bromfield players volunteered their time. In return, they each got a T-shirt and the team got five brand-new, high-performance bats and nine dozen new balls,” she says. “They also got a chance to demonstrate that they have learned more at Bromfield than how to get good grades.”

“Just knowing that we are helping out, and that we are all coming together and helping the kids with their skills is really satisfying,” Hunter says. “And even for the counselors, it’s just you and your teammates getting involved. It’s still baseball, so keeps us into it too. My parents and Darren, they thought of it, but it’s our camp.”

The future looks bright for the Harvard Spring Training Baseball Camp. “There was a lot of enthusiasm from the town,” Hunter says. The team plans to run the camp again next spring. “We just want to improve these kids, give them basic tips, and try to make them better ball players. That’s all we are trying to do.”