Huge news in club softball as two of the very top programs are merging. In a move that will have major ramifications in the upper echelons of softball and no doubt have recruiting impacts as well, the OC Batbusters-Haning and Team Mizuno-Smith teams are combining to build a super-team that will immediately be one of, if not the, best teams immediately.
We spoke to Gary Haning today and he confirmed the news that’s been floating in softball circles for weeks now: his powerhouse OC Batbuster team will be merging with Mike Stith’s Team Mizuno squad.
“This has been about six to eight weeks in the making,” Haning explained today. “Mark Campbell (an assistant on Stith’s 18U Gold team and the head coach of the PGF 14U National Champion Team Mizuno-Campbell) called and asked if I would be interested in him and Mike taking their teams and having them merge to become Batbuster teams.”
Haning explained that the advantages would be he could still be the head coach, that Campbell, a coach at Pacifica High in Garden Grove, Calif., and Stith, who runs a hitting and pitching facility, are seeing the top talent and they could do the evaluations and recruiting, the merger would “give us the best team hands down” and, perhaps most importantly, keep the Batbuster name going indefinitely.
“I told them (Stith and Campbell) that I didn’t know if I’d be coaching two more years, five years or 10 years, but it’s important that the Batbuster name and program not just fade out. I’m going to stop at some point and I want the Batbusters to go on.”
“Mike, because of his business, and Mark, who’s a retired policeman, are younger, energetic coaches and for the first time I felt there were people younger than me who have the passion and knowledge of where the players are and can continue this. As I thought about it, it seemed like a good idea.”
Team Mizuno-Stith finished second at the recently concluded PGF 18U Premier National Championship and the OC Batbusters-Haning team finished tied for third. Ironically, Stith’s team had to come out of the loser’s bracket and beat the Batbusters twice to advance to the championship game where they lost 3-2 to the So Cal A’s.
Haning says the merging of the powerhouse club teams won’t displace that many players.
“Most of our players are leaving, while Mike has a very good returning team,” Haning explained.
He said three to five current Batbusters would likely make the new team, which doesn’t have a name set as of yet (Team Mizuno Batbusters, maybe?). It’s very likely that pitcher Taylor McQuillin will be invited with McKenna Arriola, Alysha Everett, and Lovie Lopez strong candidates to move over as well.
While many details are in the process of being ironed out, it looks like there will be three 18U Batbuster/Mizuno teams: the Premier one and two that will focus on younger players who’ll move up with various players from the Mizuno 16U and 14U teams filling out the rosters. Names being mentioned as possible coaches include Ken Briggs, who led Team Mizuno-Briggs to a fifth place finish in the PGF 14U tournament, and Dave Lastrapes.
“It’s happening,” Haning says of the timetable for this to be completed. “We’re putting together a plan for Mike to eventually become the coach of the Batbusters and have the trademarks under his control. In the future he’d be the head of it.”
Next weekend, there will be tryouts and workouts for all the age groups and that, too, is still being finalized.
So what happens to the younger Batbuster teams? For years, the 16U program led by Doug Myers has been of the best in the division and has won multiple championships.
According to Haning, Myers—a good friend of his—will team with Steve McNee, who just led the OC Batbusters-McNee team to the PGF 14U championship game (where they lost to, yes, Mark Campbell’s Team Mizuno team!) and form a So Cal A’s 16U team.
For those scoring at home, Myers was with the A’s some 12 years ago before starting with the Batbusters and now goes back to Bruce Richardson’s powerful program.
Stith, for those with short memories, won a PGF 16U National Championship last year with a team that started the summer as an OC Batbuster team and finished sponsored by Team Mizuno.
Of the team, sponsor and coach musical chairs, Coach Haning laughs and says, “We’re all friends. It’s a small community in softball and there are longstanding friendships and longstanding battles, but in the end it’s just softball.”
— Brentt Eads (brentt@studentsports.com)