CARY, N.C. – At this week’s 11U Futures Invitational in Cary, North Carolina, 24 teams from across the nation are competing for gold medals and the right to take home to Futures trophy.
And while they do that, 2022 12U National Team Manager RJ Farrell and the USA Baseball Task Force will watch the tournament unfold with another medal in mind: the 2022 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) U-12 Baseball World Cup gold medal.
Farrell and the task force have a big task in front of them as they prepare to build the 2022 12U National Team. While they have already identified and selected 12 players from last summer’s 11U National Team Identification Series (NTIS) Champions Cup to compete at 12U National Team Trials, 24 more athletes from the Futures Invitational will receive an invite by the tournament’s end on Sunday.
Farrell feels lucky to have such a strong group of task force members to assist in the player identification process.
“This task force is amazing and they’re going to get after it,” Farrell said. “We’re focused on building the roster out the right way. They’re veterans in every way in terms of player evaluation and understanding these kids.”
The roster that the staff is focused on building will be the team that travels to Tainan, Taiwan, for the WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup. Team USA is looking to return to the top of the podium, as the program won back-to-back gold medals in 2015 and 2017 before falling short in 2019.
The Futures Invitational, which brings together 24 of the country’s best travel programs for a four-day tournament across two different locations, is the primary identification event for the 12U National Team. USA Baseball’s eight-person task force is locked in on every pitch, play, and moment, ensuring that they will put together the best possible 36-man Trials roster.
While evaluating, Farrell is looking for more than just talented players.
“We’re looking for kids who can play the game at a really high level,” he said. “Then, as we get through the week, we’ll start seeing the character aspects and the maturity of these young men. Ultimately, to make a national team, it takes a mature young man.”
Part of that character evaluation comes throughout the week at Futures. The task force makes a point to chat with the players before and after games, making sure they get to know every aspect of the player and person before extending an invite to Trials.
After Futures concludes on Sunday with the crowning of a tournament champion, the work for the staff has just begun. The Trials roster will be finalized shortly after, and the work toward trimming that roster to a final 18-man roster will be underway.
At Trials, players will endure four days of intrasquad games, athletic assessments, and more to give the coaching staff a better idea of who will be the perfect fit for Team USA. It’s a process that will be new to most – if not all – of the participating players.
“These guys will go into four days of intense training with the national team staff and Trials coaches,” Farrell said. “It will be like something these guys have never been through.”
The experience will be a memory for the athletes, and will serve as a major point of development early in their baseball careers. At the conclusion of Trials, Farrell and his staff will be ready to name the final roster for the 12U National Team, moving the process yet another step closer to Team USA’s trip to the WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup.
Although this is Farrell’s second year serving on field as manager of the stars and stripes, it will be his international managerial debut in 2022. In 2021, amidst uncertainty as a result of the pandemic, Farrell led Team USA to a 3-0 record in exhibition play. Now, he will be at the helm the U.S. travels internationally.
That has added a bit more meaning to the entire process.
“When we did this last year, we still were a little unsure what we were going to be doing in the summer,” Farrell said. “This summer, we know exactly what we’re doing. We’re going to Taiwan.”
