The bar keeps raising for training facilities on Long Island.
There is a new home for Team BEAST in Huntington and it is located in what was previously Retro Fitness at 1815 East Jericho Turnpike. The facility is 15,000 square feet and is an upgrade over their previous home just a few miles down the road.
The biggest takeaway is that the facility will be centered around player development for players from 8u to college. It is equipped with fully retractable cages opening to full size turf area, a dedicated HitTrax area, standalone pitching lab with Rapsodo, Pro Radar and video. Multiple plyowalls, warm up spaces, locker rooms and a classroom upstairs. Additionally, there will be a physical therapy office near the entrance. It will be the home to BEAST baseball, BEAST softball as well as specialized clinics such as Heavy Hitters Club, Seven Tool Catching and The Command Center.
The new BEAST Training Facility pic.twitter.com/CCog5Q7I0t
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) September 21, 2022
In speaking with those involved with the day-to-day operations, one thing is for sure – it takes a village to pull this off. While indoor facilities began as a place to throw bullpen sessions and hit in the cage in the winter, things have evolved greatly in 2022.
Ray Alexander, the Director of Baseball Ops for BEAST, came over from working in the analytics department for the Los Angeles Angels. He is a detailed oriented person that takes his position very seriously. He had the following to say:
“This allows us to do more,” he said in regards to moving into a 15,000 square foot facility. “We’ve always prided ourselves on player development. We take the time to development our players – it’s not just about playing games. We’ll have players as young as 8 and watch them physically develop with the end goal being to get them to play college baseball. We do a lot of training – which is included in the tuition. We have team practices but also organizational position workouts. We have a full comprehensive winter workout which encompasses everything from on-field to teaching baseball IQ and also educating them on the recruiting process – both the player and parents. We work hand-in-hand with them and give them more of a personal feel. This is why we only have 2-3 teams per age group; so we can dedicate the time they need. It’s all about quality over quantity.”
Alexander went on to discuss how the BEAST has improved their process and matured as an organization over his five years with them.
“I think in the beginning it was ‘this is the norm — let’s do that.’ Now there’s more of a pro approach to everything. We try to replicate what an MLB organization would do – and we have a baseball department, team placement, a schedule maker, player development and training from the ground up. We focus on fundamentals – and I think that often gets overlooked at the older ages.
“Everyone is an integral part of this. Everyone has to play a part. You can’t rely on one person to make every decision. I think there was a misconception that there was one person in charge but without having a team in place everything crumbles. I can’t teach a curveball but we all work as one team and we all come together,” he added.
Another critical person in the organization is Billy Riedel, who is the Director of Player Development. Riedel was a college catcher at Oneonta and he stated that when he started at BEAST, “I was a young player that was recently removed from the game – which was awesome but over the years we have really honed in on our craft in all aspects. The organic growth has been great to see – and a lot has been learned. We are doing our job with intent and the uniformity is paramount.”
When speaking about his goal in terms of player development, Riedel said, “We are looking to set up the players to be ready for the next level. We are trying to breed that next-level caliber player and trying to expose them to that structured environment so that when they get there they are ready.” He added that they treat every player with that goal in mind so that whether a player is 9 or 17, it is equally effective.
For the younger ages, they do offer a BEAST juniors program for ages 6-9 on both the baseball and softball sides to give them a taste of what it’s like to train with real coaches and prepare for travel. That program is spearheaded by Steve Hassan.
Not to be overlooked is the softball operation. It began in Fall 2020 and is run by Jamie Apicella – who led LIU Post to nine ECC Championships and qualified for 19 NCAA Championships including five College World Series. He also won Coach of the Year at Mount Sinai last season.
“It’s been a positive run – we’ve brought in 4 solid competitive teams,” said Apicella. “We were going to take it slow at first because of COVID. Things have kind of developed rather quickly. We have two 18u teams competing at high level. We have a16u and 14u. What’s nice is that we finally are reaping the benefits of our hard work. Commits to USF and Stony Brook are probably our biggest. We have lot of Division-III signings – which were good spots for them academically. We are excited, weanother big one coming next week. It’s been a lot of hard work by the coaching staff – we’ve really put in a lot of hard work trying to get them college ready to play at the highest level.
The facility has been instrumental. The other facility was fine, but since we moved into the Dix Hills location, it’s really created and generated a lot of excitement. They’ve taken ownership of it. Very professional teaching space. The help of Jen and Chris has been great. The girls really enjoy being a part of it. Tremendous camaraderie between the boys on the baseball side and the girls on softball side. They’ve been very supportive which is very rare on Long Island. That really sets us apart from the rest of organizations. You can see the kids are excited and it shows a lot of progress on the organization.”
Another critical member of the team is Eric Moskowitz, who is involved with all aspects of BEAST – from being a head coach to a trainer and even facility management. He’s been with the organization since day 1 and has seen it all.
In terms of the programs they run, I had a chance to speak with some of the key individuals behind it and here’s what they had to say
7 Tool Catching
Scout Day for 7 Tool Catching underway pic.twitter.com/BiJhEgiuj3
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) January 23, 2022
7 Tool began in 2017 and has continued to grow in popularity. It is a clinic for catchers from grades 3-12 with former Milwaukee Brewers minor leaguer Charles Galiano in charge. Galiano is a Commack native and comes from an entrepreneurial family. After stepping away from the game of baseball, Galiano has already managed to start 3 separate businesses all while coaching a summer team, getting his real estate license and giving private lessons.
The clinic had 130+ participants last season. They run their grades 3-8 program out of the BEAST Training Facility and will do so once again this year.
It is high-octane and it is highly effective. The list of instructors is impressive as well – including several recent Division-I players but they also have Charlie Greene as an annual special guest – he is the catching instructor for the entire Milwaukee Brewers organization. They recently added Michael Rizzitello (Axcess All-Long Island team in 2016) to the coaching staff. Additionally, they have a pitcher’s day in which the catchers get the challenge of catching current minor leaguers. Last year included Greg Weissert (currently in the Major Leagues), Nick Fanti, Chris Pike, Frankie Moscatiello, Tyler Badamo, Frank Valentino and Jimmy Murphy. There was also a Scout Day where catchers got to perform in front of pro scouts as well as local college coaches.
Galiano has done quite a job turning it into a must-attend in short order.
Heavy Hitter’s Club
Maine-commit Connor Waiting (Island Trees 2022) batted .404 last season helping lead them to the Nassau Conference 5 championship pic.twitter.com/pvmUNgGnys
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) February 1, 2022
This is also run by Charles Galiano and it is entering it’s second winter. Last year it was huge – with 85 hitters in the program including several high-profile players such as Chris McHugh (VCU), Jack Vallario (Fordham), Connor Waiting (Maine), Joey DiMotta (FDU), Anthony Chiapetta (FDU), Brian Zweigbaum (Maine), Nick Gnardellis (Delaware), Alex Apicella (JMU) and Jack Coogan (Molloy).
The event will run from November to early March – right before the high school season.
Galiano stated that the program is a mixture of analytics (HitTrax software) and real-life game experience run by some of the best pros from Long Island – Jesse Berardi, Tyler Osik and Galiano himself.
The Command Center
6’2 RHP Alex Apicella (Sachem East 2024) pic.twitter.com/7ARwPMoFKu
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) February 5, 2022
Long Island is known for it’s power arms and this was on display last winter at the Command Center. Run by T.J. Pecoraro (who won a National Championship at Vanderbilt), Alex Pangourelias, and Andrew Sesto the program features pitchers from middle school and high school.
Pangourelias is another detail-oriented coach and he spoke at length about his level of excitement for this upcoming winter.
“It’s great obviously to have a little more room to do what we do. The entire back area will be pitching-centric as we have three mounds across, a full plyowall and med balls which is huge for us.”
The Command Center runs 16 weeks including a four-week onboarding program as they evaluate the players and prepare them to begin throwing. He noted that they work with Victory Sports Performance to evaluate the athletes to make sure they are capable and in the right place body wise.
“We are making sure that we are limiting what could be a factor,” he said in regards to trying to avoid injuries.
The beginning of the program is more mechanical-based where they will focus on conditioning before shifting to their velocity-based instruction. He noted that they had a “decent chunk of guys that made extreme gains.”
At the top of that list is CCSU freshman Drew Munn (Cold Spring Harbor 2022) and Clemson-commit Justin LeGuernic (Hills West 2023).
“I’m most excited to get guys on a plan – especially 12u as they prepare for high school. This program lends itself to guys being more confident. The results have been there. TJ and myself work very well together, we feed off each other’s instruction. It’s collaborative and a community approach. It feels like a village – it feels like a family.
I’m just happy to be involved a little more.”
The BEAST Training Facility is now open and ready just in time for another busy offseason here on Long Island. Check them out at 1815 East Jericho Turnpike, Huntington. Or visit their website by clicking here.
