Budding stars
BUTLER TWP — As head pro at Butler Country Club, Rob McClellan has played in a number of high-level golf tournaments.
He’s played in pro golf events as well.
And he knows a little something about baseball, too.
McClellan is head coach of the Butler Township 8-under all-star team that has put together an 18-3 record while winning consecutive tournaments in Grove City, Pine-Richland and New Castle. The team is playing in a tournament at Shaler this weekend.
“Mark Casteel was the coach of this team as 7-year-olds last year,” McClellan said. “His son, Kyle, is our shortstop and probably our best player.
“Mark couldn’t coach this year because of his job. My son is the only 7-year-old on the team, so I got together with some of the other fathers of kids and we decided to coach it together.”
McClellan’s assistant coaches are Matt Clement, Dave DalCamo and Mark Pino. All have sons on the team.
“Rob works well with the kids,” Pino said. “He’s a good coach and a great leader. He has a sports background — he used to play baseball as well as golf — and he knows what he’s doing. He’s a great guy.”
The 8-under tournaments are coach-pitch and McClellan does the pitching for his team. The Butler Township in-house league has the players pitch.
“I don’t think we have 20 8-year-old players in our Buter Township league and we had 17 or so try out for this team,” McClellan said. “We kept 11 players and two alternates.”
The 11 players on the team are Casteel, Levi McClellan, Thomas Sheptak, Ben Mikan, Mavrick Clement, Lennox Wyant, Regan Peth, Parker DalCamo, Preston Simko, Anthony Trombatt and Tyson Pino.
“These boys push each other to get better and that’s a cool thing to see,” Coach Pino said. “They all work hard and they’re all very talented. But you can see how they keep improving, even from game to game.
“This has been a great experience for everybody.”
Most of the tournament games are on weekends. Butler Township lost its first tournament (at Zelienople) in the semifinals, but has reeled off three successive tourney titles since.
“It doesn’t interfere with my job here too much,” McClellan said of the country club. “If we play a morning game, I’ll come to work afterwards. If we play a night game, it doesn’t affect me with golf.
“Our kids field the ball extremely well. That’s the key in coach-pitch. The ball is put in play.”
Butler Township has turned roughly 10 double plays in tournament play.
McClellan said most of the team’s scores have been close, “like 7-3 or 10-8” and the squad finds a way to win.
The team may play another tournament in August and is considering playing in a fall 8-under travel league.
“The kids all get along,” McClellan said. “They’re becoming pretty good friends now. They play different roles on the team. It’s been fun to watch and we’d like to keep it going.”
