By Lance Jenkinson
Newport Rams Baseball Club is providing a passport to the world for its young players.
The Rams take pride in the success of their youth system and encourage their players to take advantage of the pathways available to young baseballers.
“As a sport, we’ve taken a while to understand that we’ve got to create different pathways for our kids,” Rams president Ben Portelli said.
“It’s not all about the elite talent, but for kids who are talented enough, work hard enough and want to go on beyond our club, we’ve really embraced that and understand that we can be part of a feeder system.
“That can make our club stronger as well because we can train our kids up, they can go off all around the world, learn how to play the game and then bring it back, which some of them have done.”
Three options are presented to the young players in the Newport Rams junior section.
The first is to remain a Ram for life, progress into the senior program and play at the top level in Victoria, perhaps one day representing the Melbourne Aces in the Australian Baseball League.
For those who have the travel bug or want to rise up to chase a professional dream, they can go the college route or enter the minor leagues.
Both pathways present a chance to get on the radar of the scouts.
“One option is to sign a professional contract and play in the minor leagues,” Portelli said.
“The other is to go to college.
“For kids who might not be that scholastically talented or don’t really want to go to college, there’s always that minor league path if they’re good enough to play professionally.”
Newport Rams currently have players scattered overseas.
Nikau Pouaka-Grego is representing Australia at the under-15 world cup in Panama.
Kyle Morrison has signed a two-year scholarship to play college in Florida, joining Tyler Comben in the US, who is in his second year at North Dakota.
Leslie Anglin is representing the Australian women’s team at the world cup, also in Florida.
The girls section is also growing at the Rams and Anglin’s national team representation should help boost the profile of women’s baseball in the west.
“We’ve got a lot of girls in our junior program and they all look up to ‘Lel’ [Anglin],” Portelli said. “They see there is a pathway as well for them as there is for the boys to represent your country and go and play overseas.”
In its 90th anniversary season, the Newport Rams want to continue to grow and attract young sports people to their club.
The Rams will hold a come and try day for boys and girls of any skill level aged between four and 17 at KC White Reserve in Williamstown North on September 9 from 9.30am.
