by Ben Diamond
With spring sports starting to make their return, Mike Gattus, Bellmore JFK baseball’s varsity coach, like every other coach, needs to come up with a plan to prepare for when his team is able to come together. The cancellation of last year’s season left Gattus’ squad with a hole left by departing seniors. These seniors were a big part of the leadership on the team, and he says that their presence will be missed.
“We had four seniors leave us last year, the core of that group was our All-Conference first baseman, pitcher, and outfielder Chris Costaro”, Gattus said. “He will sorely be missed not only for his bat, but for the leadership he brought to the team”.
To fill the hole left by last year’s seniors, this year’s seniors, as well as the younger players on the team are going to need to step up and take command. Gattus believes that he has a strong group of seniors consisting of, Jake Sherman, Sam Ostroff, and Justin Rosenfeld. After they contributed a lot to the team as sophomores two years ago, he feels that they can continue to thrive as seniors, and as leaders on the team.
“Jake Sherman, and Justin Rosenfeld contributed and were a large part of our team as sophomores”, Gattus said. “I expect them to come in and lead us as seniors now, I expect great things out of them”.
After six years of coaching at Bellmore JFK, Gattus has been very grateful for all of the hardworking players that have come onto the team over the years. Unfortunately this year with COVID still in effect, and the focus being on other sports being able to play, his baseball team hasn’t been able to practice as a unit yet. Normally, the team’s weight training and offseason workouts would have started already, but they have been unable to do that. Fortunately for Gattus, his players have taken it upon themselves to get ready for the season.
“We haven’t been able to do much as a team right now”, Gattus said. “I look forward to when we can get together and start our preseason routine… our guys, to their credit, on there own have been doing a great job”.
Gattus is also very grateful for having many athletes in his program that play other sports. He believes that if they are playing the other sports, they are able to stay in shape, and stay physically ready to play whenever. No matter what sport it is, he feels it could be beneficial to his players.
“I am also fortunate to have a lot of athletes in our program, so guys who are playing other sports and getting great workouts in, whether it be on the football field, on the volleyball court”, Gattus said. “Being athletes in those other sports will definitely translate onto the baseball diamond”.
It’s going to be very different going into the season for Gattus as he hasn’t been able to get all of the players together to get ready for the season. But, he expects that his players will come into the season ready to work.
