Akron A's

Fall Practice Schedule

This is the fall practice schedule for Fall and Summer Players.  These practices are run by Coach Jimmy Summers and other assistants as available.  Fall is a great time to get in extra work and work on skills that are best improved outdoors.  We will strive to keep the schedule updated but due to weather and possibly fall games interfering with the field availability. 

Please check this schedule before heading to practice

Practice will end at 8pm or dark

Please do not worry if you run into traffic which causes you to be late.  Just get there when your work schedule and traffic allows.

Rainouts and field changes will be updated here

Tuesday August 28th - Manchester High School @ 6pm

Thursday August 30th - CVCA High School @ 6pm

Tuesday, September 4 - Manchester High School @ 6pm

Thursday, September 6 - CVCA High School @ 6pm

Tuesday, September 11 - Manchester High School @ 6pm

Thursday, September 13 - CVCA High School @ 6pm

Tuesday, September 18 - Manchester High School @ 5:45pm

Thursday, September 20 - Manchester High School @ 5:45pm

Tuesday, September 25 - Manchester High School @ 5:30pm

Thursday, September 27 - Manchester High School @ 5:30pm

Click here for A's Batting Gloves

The Akron A's program is for advanced and elite high school players and players who aspire to be.  By playing against elite competition, the coaches of the Akron A's will have the opportunity to teach them the finer points of the game, within the context of the game itself.  It is assumed that these players already possess a basic work ethic, practice routine and hunger for knowledge.  So the focus of the season will be on "in game development".  These players should be able to self-diagnose simple mistakes in the areas of defensive errors, batting mistakes and pitching struggles.  We should no longer be begging players to "stay down"  or "get in front of the ball" to field grounders.  Players should no longer miss routine fly balls because they can't judge it.  Players should be able to know their job in offensive situations (i.e. get on base, move a runner over, score a run from third) and not be upset with themselves when they hit an RBI grounder to the second baseman (which means they didn't know that was their job).  Players must not take vacation during the season and must plan their work schedule around their baseball schedule (especially tournaments).  Players must play for their high school team, no exceptions.

There are other programs out there that can accomplish these same goals.  But there are far more players out there who need this kind of coaching than there are programs who can teach it.  Some programs focus on recruiting the best talent for the purpose of simply trying to badger the other team without teaching them the game within the game.  Baseball is at it's most fun when everyone on the field knows what's going on, including the other team.  It's like playoff baseball in the big leagues.  For instance, when a pitcher is extremely nasty and on his game, each pitch is exciting.  When the game is 0-0 and both pitchers are on their game, just getting on base can be a major victory.  Then, moving the runner becomes an exciting battle to watch.  So often, players are so focused on their own statistics, playing time or position, that they have no idea what the TEAM is trying to accomplish.  Other times, a pitcher can be having a great outing but a player on his defense lets him down by not making a simple play, in part because the player does not regularly practice (but still expects to be in the lineup).  Even other times, a great baserunner with exceptional speed may be saved by the coach for a critical stealing situation but the player is so caught up in the fact that he hasn't gotten any at bats during the game that he is not ready when the coach needs him.  These are the situations that make baseball an exciting chess match.  Our goal is to find players who have the physical abilities and work ethic to execute the basic plays, the attitude to understand that the team comes first, the baseball IQ to understand where his special talents may help the team and the passion for the game to keep coming back to a game where failure is more common than success.  

We will have a few requirements in order to make the team such as playing on your High School team next year and attending a minimum of 75% of workouts during the winter.

A 25%  deposit of total tuition fee will also be required immediately to secure your spot once an offer is made.  If you choose to leave prior to the season for any other reason the money will go into a team account for tournament expenses.