Victor Manzella takes over at the helm of West Babylon after four seasons as head coach of Babylon. He is taking over a team that is hungry, following a 3-12 season in league play.
“I’m excited to join a program that has a history of being successful going back to player like Billy Koch and Rob Sandora (two professional players),” he said. “I’m looking forward to competing with the other teams and seeing what my guys have,” he said.
He is joined by assistant coach Anthony Sparacio, who was the longtime coach of Babylon before Manzella took over and he led the Panthers to a Long Island Champions in 2012.
The Eagles have been working hard since Manzella took over in September. He noted that they have been in the gym twice per week since the New Year and he’s noticed the team is hungry, as none of the kids have missed a workout.
“The kids want to get back to getting ‘W’s’. We had a fall team and we had over 30 kids sign up to play in just two days. Right now, the strength of the team is their commitment,” he said.
“We are trying to build a culture here, a family. We’ve created goals for the players and we are working hard to meet them,” he added.
They will open up the season on March 31 against Hauppauge in the first of a three-game set. They will face Half Hollow Hills West the next series. Those were the two teams named co-league champs in 2019.
“”There’s no time to sit back,” he said. “Those are the co-league champs, we need to start right away,” he added.
The Eagles may be young, but they do not lack talent. They graduated last year’s ace Tyler Gamba – who is now at St. Joseph’s-LI, but other than that they return many of their impact players. Leading the offense will be junior OF Cole Maucere – who can also go get it in center. While he hasn’t gotten to see him too much, he noted that he watched him track down a fly ball last fall that he thought was destined to be an extra-base hit.
“You can see he has a quick bat, a good stick and he’s a leader,” said Manzella.
They will also count on senior RHP Nick Baldassare, who was the number two behind Gamba last year, to anchor the rotation.
Second baseman Jack Rankin will be a middle of the order bat, as well as Utica-commit Christian Cicchetti. Two underclassmen that could wind up earning starting jobs are freshman catcher Ryan Adams and eighth grade first baseman Jace Alvino, who already stands 6’2 200 lbs.
Many of the other spots are up for grabs. He said “everything is about competition.” They will play six scrimmages before they open up the season. The first will be against crosstown North Babylon, before taking on West Islip. They will also face Babylon.
“I like to play the best teams that way we can measure ourselves against teams that are successful.”
