Members of the Beckman 80’s squad pose for a picture after winning the Beckman World Series last July. (Photo courtesy Beckman baseball)
Beckman High baseball coach Kevin Lavalle is prepared to lead the school’s baseball camp next week and it will certainly be unlike any other he has run during his career.
The Tustin Unified School District announced last week that Beckman’s athletic summer camps can begin on Monday, June 22, following a number of guidelines, including social distancing. High school athletics have been shut down since March because of the coronavirus pandemic and most of the spring season, including the baseball campaign, was cancelled.
But Lavalle said the Beckman World Series, which usually highlights the summer and features players coaching two to four teams in tournaments. won’t be held this summer because of restrictions during the summer. Beckman coaches sit on the sidelines during this event and let the players do the coaching.
“The Beckman World Series has happened the past 12 summers, but hopefully we will be able to do something similar later in the fall,” Lavalle said. “I think it’s smart to have a plan, but it’s even smarter to be able to adapt, and our baseball program is willing to do both if we need to.”
On Monday, the Beckman baseball camp will start up along with a number of other sports camps at the school.
“It’s certainly going to be different,” Lavalle said. “Our athletic directors did a fantastic job communicating with us about where we were and what the current status was. Most of the time it was just ‘wait and see’ which was really hard on everyone. But, in the past few weeks, everyone started getting the sense that we were getting closer and closer to being able to do something with our players.
“So we are going to be just like everybody else and we’re going to follow all the guidelines that were given to us by the district and people a lot smarter than us. We’re limited as far as how many players we can work with at any given time.I know everyone wants to hop right in and start having sport specific practices, but the first two weeks at least are going to be more about getting in shape. It’s not what anyone wants, because we’re all tired of doing nothing. I know that when I envisioned getting back out there, I didn’t daydream about watching players run sprints.”
-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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