For 2023 15U National Team Manager Rob Shabansky, donning the red, white, and blue is almost an annual tradition.

Since joining the organization for the first time back in 2011, the veteran coach has been a mainstay in the USA Baseball ranks, featuring on six different national team staffs and winning gold medals on five of them. He most recently worked as the pitching coach for the 15U National Team that won it all at the WBSC Baseball World Cup last year, and his newest task will be to defend that crown while working as the team’s skipper for the first time since 2017.

Even with all this time under his belt, Shabansky still describes suiting up in the uniform as an experience unlike any other.

“Every time I get the opportunity to put on the USA across my chest, I get goosebumps,” Shabansky said. “Having the opportunity to go to international competitions, represent the country, and stand there wearing the uniform that so many people have worn to put us in this position to be here, I just get goosebumps when I have the opportunity to pull the uniform out each time.”

While his many years with USA Baseball have not dampened Shabansky’s enthusiasm for donning the stars and stripes, they have helped harden him to the stresses of high-level competition. In his eyes, his prior experiences have helped prepare him to lead a new group of players that might not have a history of playing with the heightened stakes that come with international competitions.

“It’s helped me out a lot, just having the opportunity to be in those high-pressure situations where nobody wants you to win,” Shabansky said. “It allows me to just stay calm and understand the moment, because I’ve been there before. In high pressure, you can get a little anxious, so I think having the ability to take a deep breath and say, ‘It’s okay fellas, it’s just baseball’ is really important”.

This new group of players, of course, still needs to be identified before the 15U National Team roster is finalized later this summer, and Shabansky has come to as good of a place as any to accomplish that: the 15U National Team Championships in Arizona.

The tournament is still in its early stages, with seeded play wrapping up on Wednesday afternoon, but from Shabansky’s point of view, the quality of competition that he’s seen so far has caught his attention.

“I’ve loved it,” Shabansky said. “They’ve come out and they’ve played hard. They’re definitely showing us what they’re made of. They’re showing us that they not only want to win this tournament and represent their club teams and their high schools, but also showing that they want to try to make the national team. It's been really good so far.”

Evaluating the players at the National Team Championships seems like a pretty straightforward task, and to some extent, it is mostly just about finding who stands out the most from the rest of the pack. For Shabansky, though, the makeup of the athletes participating throughout this week is almost as important as the physical part of the game, and seeing who can hold up through tough times is a key factor for those looking to make the team.

“There’s always the obvious, seeing the big athlete or the little guy that just really knows how to play baseball, but I probably have a little bit of a different take on it, because I actually want to see them fail,” Shabansky said. “I want to see how they deal with adversity and how they deal with failure. Do they turn the page and get ready for the next pitch, or is it two at-bats later?

“Going into international play, you only get nine games, and you’re playing for that gold medal. If you make a mistake, and you will at some point, are you the guy that’s good enough to get over it, bounce back, and be ready to make a play on the next pitch?”

With all these criteria in mind, Shabansky and the rest of the Task Force will spend the next few days assessing the remainder of the tournament, looking to find the next crop of players that will hopefully lead the 15U National Team to yet another gold medal.