To College Coaches:
January 2, 2008, Our 4 teams returned home from Australia. Each team played 12 games against the best players from Australia and China.
Our travel group was 136 people, including coaches, players and parents from USA, Mexico and China.
This was the largest travel group in the past 24 years of International Baseball Goodwill Series events.
Four Olympic players played on the Beijing State Team and three Australian Olympic players played on the State Teams from South Australia and Western Australia.
On the 26 December, it was 118º in Perth, a record temperature. Our teams, except for the Rookies, ages 13-14 lost more games than they won. The Rookies coached by Carl Nichols are from the MLB Urban Academy.
Two of our coaches; Carl and Gary Wheelock are former ML players. The other coaches are pro scouts from the Reds, Pirates, Devil Rays and Marlins. For 18 days, the scouts made daily evaluations of each player. All players used the SSK wood bat.
Several players contributed to the success of this trip to the land "down under".
They all played in competition equal to College Baseball. As a former college coach at Sonoma State and founder of the Area Code Games, I recommend the these 2008 High School grads.
2B Jason Mahood - San Rafael, Ca. Terra Linda HS
RHP Ben Ashton - King of Prussia - Haverford HS
C -Scott Barrett - King of Prussia - Haverford HS
P/OF Jeremy Webber -Montclair, CA. - Montclair HS
SS Louis Coppo - Atascadeo, CA. Atascedero HS
1B Niko Kanakaris - El Cajon, CA Christian HS
P/C Adam Hensley - Mt Vernon, Indiana
C Matt Podscheine Goliad, Texas Goliad HS
LHP Trey Ripley - Kingland, GA Camden County HS
SS Drew Thomas - Ft Leavenworth, KS
Please visit our web site for additional information
<www.goodwillseries.org>
Next year, we will travel with a College Team.
Bob Williams
Goodwill Series [1983-2008]
Area Code Games [1987-2004*
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