MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Baseball is definitely on the rise, especially in the South Orange and Maplewood community.
That’s been evident this summer with the South Orange Recreation baseball camp. Directed by Tim Reynolds, the camp is held at Meadowland Park field in South Orange for children ages 6-13. The first week of the camp took place in the last week of June and will continue through Aug. 25. The camp was on hiatus from Aug. 7 to 11.
The head coaches of the camp are Eric Lax and Jesse Evans, who are 2015 Columbia High School graduates and former standout CHS baseball players. This is their third year with the camp. Reynolds asked Lax and Evans if they were interested in becoming head coaches of the camp and the two jumped at the opportunity.
What’s great about the camp is that it produced the creation of a traveling team in 2021, thanks to a bunch of parents, with Lax and Evans as the coaches of the team. In the first year, the team won just two games. But the following year, they won the championship and lost just two games. The goal of the team is to serve as a feeder for the CHS program, so that
the players can forge a strong chemistry by the time they get to play for the Cougars.
Lax, who went on to play baseball at Division 1 University of Tampa, Fla., after graduating from CHS, has been delighted to see the growing interest and love of baseball from the campers.
“They all want to play and get better, not only just in recreation, but summer ball or club and eventually go into high school,” said Lax, who played shortstop and third base. “Jesse and I grew up in this town, and growing up, baseball was a big thing. Hundreds of kids were coming out for each level, from tee-ball to Babe Ruth ball.”
Evans also has enjoyed coaching the campers this summer, looking to foster their love of baseball.
“It’s been fun,” Evans said. “It’s really fun coming back to where I pretty much learned how to do it myself too. It feels like I am giving back to where we came from. The whole goal of this is to give them an experience that we wish we had when we were growing, even though our experience has been so good.
Our goal is to keep the bar just as high and provide the same experience, if not better.”
Evans, a pitcher who played collegiately at the College of San Mateo in California and at County College of Morris, is glad to see that the town is doing its part in making baseball popular again.
“I’ve seen such a constant improvement with the players in town,” Evans said. “The interest in baseball seems to be growing in this town, too, which is good. I think that attributes to what we are doing and what the town has been doing, in general. It’s not just us that is trying to change things. It seems like everyone in town is more interested in growing the sport, giving it the resources it needs in order for it to grow properly.”
To Lax and Evans, guiding the campers has been such a joy.
“I love this camp,” Evans said. “It’s great to work with every skill level. The best part is that we have everyone from ages 6 to 13, which at first was a little bit of a challenge to blend those, but to have those skill groups, less experienced and more experienced, we are able to separate them and give them a great experience for each group. It’s been good for everyone.”
“We want baseball to be the big thing in this town,” Lax said. “We want it to be competitive, because it’s lost a little of its competitive edge; and I think it’s good to have kids who want to strive at the competitive level, even if they aren’t the best, but they can still get there.”
Photos Courtesy of Joe Ragozzino
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