CARY, N.C. – With this week’s 15U/16U National Team Identification Series (NTIS) Champions Cup, many of the athletes are playing as teammates for the first time. Unlike a traditional tournament, this week’s event brings together some of the best talent from across the country to play on teams with other individuals from their regions.
While a few regions have multiple players from the same travel teams, most of these athletes are meeting and playing with each other for the first time. Having been strangers going into photo day just over 24 hours ago, they’ve now played two games together by the end of the day on Friday.
“I knew one guy on my team before we got here, but now I’ve got everyone’s name down,” said Dillon Wong, a member of the 16U Northwest Stars. “We started meeting each other a little bit at the second-round tryouts, so it was nice to get out here and play together.”
Like the players, the coaches are also meeting their teams for the first time. Some NTIS Champions Cup coaches have returned each summer since the event’s inception and know the tournament well, while others are coaching here for the first time. Bringing together teams in this way comes with its challenges, but players and coaches alike are excited about it.
“It’s a unique opportunity to get to work with a group like this – meeting them for the first time and jumping right into games the next day,” said Jason Slaughter, who is coaching at the NTIS Champions Cup for the first time and is leading the 15U South Stripes. “We’ve just been telling our guys to bring the energy and it’s working, they’re already starting to cheer each other on which is what we like to see.”
And that’s not unique to the 15U South Stars. On every field and in every dugout on Friday you could hear players cheering on teammates, not just by number or ‘kid,’ but by each player’s name.
“We realized pretty quickly that we’re all here for the same reasons with the same goals,” said Gabe Gonzalez, a member of the 15U Southeast Stars team. “Everyone has something to bring to the table and offer to the team, so we want to pick each other up and be good teammates for one another.”
This is also the message that Joey Gomes, who is coaching the 16U Northwest Stars this week, shared with his team.
“Accountability. Do your job. Everyone run hard through first base, everyone play the game the right way,” said Gomes, who is coaching in his eighth NTIS Champions Cup. “And through that the team aspect starts to organically grow.”
Now that these teams have games under their belt, it’s time to up the ante even more with semifinal action on Saturday. Because regardless of where they come from, they’ll all be playing with the same intention.
“We are all from different backgrounds but the language of baseball, we all speak,” said Gomes.
