The spring high school softball season is underway in many parts of the nation—last week we did our first Extra Inning Softball Preseason High School Rankings—but it’s never too early to start looking ahead to the Summer travel ball season and the top club teams that will be ones to watch wherever they play.
Take, for instance, Select Fastpitch which began in 2014.
It started with one team and, within a few years, had grown to a half dozen teams before reaching a combined total of 24 last year stretching from Kansas City to Columbia to St. Louis, Missouri.
One thing important to org lead Eric Jones and his fellow coaches is that the Select program grows to the amount of quality coaching available within the club.
In other words, they don’t just start new teams to increase the number of players in the organization; they want to make sure to have in place the right leadership lined up and to not spread too thin those who are already coaching.
Recently, the Select organization held its first outdoor practice of the Spring with three teams combining to practice together. Several club coaches were on hand making sure the players stayed busy and each minute of practice was utilized for hands-on learning.
Extra Inning Softball’s Joy Roeder caught up with three of the leaders on the field for the Select organization—Jones plus Coaches Jason Chester and Mike Byrn—and got their perspectives on what has made the Select two dozen or teams so accomplished in less than a decade’s worth of time, practice and competition.
You could feel the energy in the air with the players chomping at the bit to play outside and compete and, here, in this brief video clip, Coaches Byrn and Chester give instruction on base running as other players look and listen in:
Here are more insights from the trio of Select leaders…
Coach Eric Jones: Play the Best Competition & Make Athletes the Best Versions of Themselves
Jones has been coaching club softball for over 17 years.
When asked what has been the biggest change that he’s seen over the years, he responded: “Softball is becoming more political especially in the tournament arena. Everyone wants to host the newest and greatest tournament so that they can keep their ‘elite’ status and lay claim that they are the ‘best of the best.’”
Sadly, it’s happening all around not just in tournaments but with new clubs popping up all the time.
“It has ruined long-running relationships” Eric reveals. “It forces good teams to pick sides. At the end of the day, we just want to play the best competition we can based on our ability and make our athletes the best versions of themselves.”
Coach Jones to learn more about his experiences starting the club nearly a decade ago and what factors have been key in helping Select Fastpitch became the nationwide championship contender it showed it is by taking 2nd place last summer at the PGF 18U Nationals in Irvine, Calif.
What advice would you give to anyone wanting to start a team or organization from scratch?
Be patient and grind it out. You’re not going to get every door opened early on until your teams prove itself… but once you do prove yourself, the opportunities will come. There is a network of club coaches that look out for each other and they know good teams when they see them too. Plus, everyone wants to play the best. Find an identity of your own and build on it. Chasing another name is only taking energy away from what you can give to your club.
How hard is it to get all the players at practices for your older teams?
It depends on the season. During the summer when we can hold workouts at home or on the road, it’s a little easier to get everyone there. In early June, we hold a three-day combine where we have the opportunity to get everyone together so we can work on team defenses and our offensive strategies.
We also use this opportunity for team bonding and scrimmages as well. Our organization is pretty split when it comes to our athletes’ high school seasons. About half play fall ball and half play spring so when those athletes are playing with their high school teams, we use this as an opportunity to mesh several teams together for practices and tournaments. It’s an awesome opportunity for some of our younger athletes to play with our older ones and really adds another dimension to our development.
What are the pros and cons to having players who aren’t local?
One of the pros of having athletes that aren’t local is obviously an expanded opportunity to bring talented athletes into the organization. We work really hard on development, though, so having them at practices throughout the week—even if the whole team isn’t there—is very important to us.
Getting motivated, talented athletes is great if they can get a lot of work done on their own at home, but it’s more ideal that they come to as many workouts with our coaches as possible. We do have training pods in Kansas City, Columbia and St Louis so athletes have the opportunity to go to any of these locations and not have to travel to Kansas City every weekend, but it’s our talented coaches that make that possible.
How do you handle scheduling tournaments when dealing with girls who play high school ball in different seasons?
Dealing with athletes that play high school ball in the Spring and in the Fall can be tricky. But with the recruiting calendar the way it is, it’s been pretty easy to navigate. In the Fall, we mesh all of the non-Fall high school athletes together and see this as a time for personal player development. We play local and regional tournaments just to get reps and usually have meshed teams.
The recruiting calendar usually kicks off in the middle of October and some of our Missouri athletes will play through the end of October as they chase state titles. As athletes get eliminated, they come back for recruiting tournaments. We really try to look ahead and forecast which teams won’t be at full capacity and mesh them with other teams and athletes in similar situations, so the non-Fall athletes can get out and get exposure. We now play up through the weekend prior to Thanksgiving for the most part, so athletes can maximize the few weekends they get after high school ball.
Spring ball athletes are usually wrapping up around Memorial Day or before. Most of our teams will take off on Memorial Day, to give all of our athletes a chance to catch their breath before we start the summer grind. We practice in early June, and then kick off the second weekend of June. Our 16U teams don’t get much time off as they are recruitable athletes and generally play a pretty robust schedule. For our 18’s, we’ve worked hard on getting another weekend off in June and July to let their bodies rest. Last year I felt it paid off for our run at PGF.”
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Coach Jason Chester: Insights from the Baseball Side
Coach Chester has been with Select the past four seasons and says he’s excited for his fifth year with the organization and his last season coaching one of his children.
He is the father of Nate Chester (current baseball player at Mississippi State), Katie Chester (a freshman playing at Mizzou) and 2023 grad Kylie Chester who has committed to play at Emporia State.
Jason played baseball at Rockhurst University and was a youth baseball coach for several years working alongside well-known MLB Coach Dayton Moore who also held the position of General Manager for the Kansas City Royals and is now director of operations with the Texas Rangers.
The father/coach says:
“Working with Coach Moore helped shape many of the philosophies I try to instill as a coach today.”
Jason said what most excites him about the upcoming club season is “to see these young ladies come out and compete against the best talent across the country. I can’t wait to see all of the hours of hard work and reps in the off-season pay off.”
Coach Chester adds that what he loves most about the Select organization is the closeness felt at all levels within the program.
“We are a family and these girls compete their tails off every day to fight for opportunities and to win,” he concludes, “but they also love their teammates and are just as excited to see them succeed as themselves.”
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Coach Mike Byrn: Experience On & Off the Field of Play
Mike Byrn began coaching at the college level—he was at Baker University from 1990-1994—after he finished playing baseball at Kansas University.
He has been coaching girls fastpitch for 22 of the last 23 years and this is his fourth year with Eric Jones and Select Fastpitch.
Mike started with the 15’s and 16’s and is now in his second year at 18’s. When asked what he loves most about the Select Fastpitch organization, he doesn’t hesitate in his response.
“That’s easy!” Byrn begins.
“The culture of family and the commitment of everyone in the organization beginning with Eric Jones to the development of these young athletes. It’s teaching them the fundamentals of the game all the while hoping they are learning life skills as well, including character, integrity and accountability.”
