by Vinny Messana
Dan Parisi, who was named to Baseball on the Island’s All-Long Island team this past season, has begun a camp for catchers called “Long Island Catching Development”, which was attended by some of the top local backstops.
The first year was a success, in both the eyes of Parisi and his students.
“Each player improved significantly,” he said. “They were there to get better and that’s exactly what they did,” he added.
Current Dowling catchers Dwayne Page, Chris Russo and Michael Rizzitello helped to provide instruction and impart their wisdom on the young athletes.
Mike Badala, a sophomore at West Islip was thrilled with his experience:
Every time I came to the camp, I would walk out feeling like a much improved catcher. From the first session to the last, I had so much improvement all because of Coach Dan Parisi. Every time I worked with him I felt like I kept getting better and better, such as how my arm became so much stronger this offseason, going from a 2.3 pop time in the summer to a 2.0 at the ninth session and how my blocking improved a lot as well. I once thanked Coach Parisi for how much he helped me this offseason and he said, ‘Don’t thank me, you’re the one putting in the work’, because he never wanted to take the credit, he said it’s not him putting in the work, it’s me that’s putting in the work.
Another one of the athletes, Brentwood senior catcher Santino Ycaza, had nothing but positive takeaways from the experience.
“It definitely helped with my skills,” he said. “My blocking wasn’t where I wanted it to be but now I’m very confident with it. My footwork with throwing runners out improved as well. I personally think the camp was a success,” he added.
You can follow them on Instagram at @LICatchingDevelopment
