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The West Coast Federals’ track record for cultivating baseball talent can be seen just by glancing PeninsulaPrepBaseball.com’s Prime 31, the list of players to watch on the Peninsula this spring.
Serra’s Ian Josephson, Aragon’s Josh Jacobs, St. Ignatius Prep’s Archer Horn, Beau Shaffer and Chase Gordon all honed their skills while playing for the Federals.
“We take great athletes and turn them into baseball players,” says Jerry Berkson, the former Hillsdale High and College of San Mateo standout who founded the Federals in 2006 and saw it grow to 12 teams last year.
Berkson and his coaching staff played a role in making them better, but the players did the work, he says.
“I hate to take the credit for anyone becoming a good ballplayer,” Berkson says. “I think we’re doing something good for these kids.
Berkson and a group of local coaches shies away from the craziness of travel baseball by staying as local as possible. Yes, there’s an annual trip to a tournament in Las Vegas, but the other seven tourneys the Federals will play from August to November will be no farther than Twin Creeks in Sunnyvale or perhaps in Manteca.
It’s a supplemental baseball program for kids 8-14 that doesn’t poach players from the local youth leagues, which generally wrap up their seasons by late June. And the better players from Little League Baseball’s District 52 All-Star tournament have often come up in the Federals program.
And once they arrive in the program, they learn the mental part of baseball – where to be, who’s the cut and how the score might dictate offensive strategy – that is not always taught at some baseball academies.
The Federals’ website says it all: West Coast Federals baseball is solely about building skilled players and teams with character. The Feds learn respect and love for the game the way it’s supposed to be played.
And while some parents are spending thousands of dollars for a summer of baseball, a season with the Federals is about $1,800.
For more information visit the West Coast Federals website.
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