08/19/2016
WCAA and Dawg Pound families. As many of you probably already know, I have chosen to leave WCAA. It was with a heavy heart that I made that choice. Prior to last fall, the Development Program (DP) was a select group of kids that got together on Sunday's to practice for a couple hours. I was tasked to get it more organized and build the program....
Many, many hours, day, weeks, months of work finally started to pay off once the teams started to gel. All age groups saw some success. The 10U and 12U teams were competitive from the beginning while the other teams grew every week. The 8U ended the fall season by winning a championship in a tournament for travel teams. We continued to keep it together and played in GSA throughout the fall and spring.
Once All-Stars rolled around in the spring, not all Dawg Pound players made the All-Stars but the benefits of the program were evident once we started playing in the tournament. The A Ball division went undefeated at the district level and came in second at States. The year before the AA division had two teams and went 0-4 at the district level. This year between both teams we went 5-4 at the district level. This was after we practiced kid-pitch all year and the district decided to change it to a machine-pitch format after 30 years of being kid-pitch. The players were able to quickly adjust. In the O'Zone division, we did phenomenal! We came in first and second with our two teams at the district level sending both to the State tourney! We played well at States but fell a little short. The year prior, neither team placed at the district level.
It's been an awesome ride. I loved being apart of it all. The Dawg Pound was like a second family for me. Seeing the orange and black all over the place at WCAA and at different parks was awesome. There was a lot of pride within the teams as well and a lot of long-term friendships we made. But there are some things that just won't change at WCAA and it was time for me to go. I felt I needed to go to a place where I could see some sustainable change.
With that said, it is my understanding that the Dawg Pound will not go on as I intended but will revert back to the DP where the kids just practice on Sunday's...after all the success of the program I don't understand why but, then again, some things just won't change at WCAA.
Anyway, it's been an honor to create such a successful program and share in your players development and growth. I hope and pray that everyone enjoyed it as much as I have. There are many families that I will miss spending the weekends at the ball park with but I'll be around....just down the street. If you liked the Dawg Pound program and want to continue that format, I can recommend checking out North Tampa Athletic Association. They have a program called the AB (Advanced Baseball) program and it's almost identical to what we were doing with Dawg Pound. Hope to see you there.
God Bless.
Andy