Top Summer Programs in North Texas

Program- as a whole... over time... otherwise I would have def. included DBAT17 and Dallas Tigers17 (for this year)...

Dallas Tigers -#1 the rest 2-8.

No team compares to this years Tigers teams....nobody! And our coaching staff is #1. WOW, did I say something nice about a coach!!!!!

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Dallas Tigers -#1 the rest 2-8.

No team compares to this years Tigers teams....nobody! And our coaching staff is #1. WOW, did I say something nice about a coach!!!!!

And here I was starting to like you Train....


Good thing we have a DBAT 17 team this year to carry us through the summer. You know, with all the players we won't have on DBAT 18....

It aint so tough to say nice stuff about a coach when you got the best.

OKOKOK in all seriosness, with my very biased opinion, I would say

Tigers
Mustangs
DBAT
Marshalls

These answers are purely based on my personal experiences and reputation. The Tigers have a great reputation. The Mustangs do too, but it seems like their teams arent truly competitive until they are 15ish... when they become really good. DBAT hasn't been around as long, (as far as I know, I could definately be wrong) but the time they've been around, they've been really good. Marhsals have always been solid. I could make a case for the Panthers, Blackhawks, and Black Sox all to be in the 4 spot. I think the 4 teams I named are some of the more well known teams... which probably makes my answer not too accurate.

Who knows who has the best team yet. Guess that's why they play the games.

But Tigers 17 will be tough, as will DBAT 17's.

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Originally posted by Dtiger:
The Mustangs do too, but it seems like their teams arent truly competitive until they are 15ish... when they become really good.

I don't think the Mustangs have teams before 15U ....

IMO all the organizations listed in the original post are good clubs and in most cases are too close to adequately compare.

I do think the Tigers have the best overall program and I submit that the 2005 Tigers were the best youth baseball team (through the years) out of the DFW area, maybe among the best in the nation. Look at this team's graduates as freshmen in college: Roger Kieschnick was Big 12 Player of the Week last week, hitting .369 for Tech. There are also key 2005 Tigers contributing at schools like Notre Dame (Jeremy Barnes starting at SS and leading team in RBI's), Arizona State (Preston starts at catchter hitting .305), TCU (Hunt Woodruff catching & Derek Verhagen), **** Roberts (Kelly Minnesale Freshman All-America hitting .335 & Anthony Walsh), Central Arkansas, New Mexico, Xavier and Abilene Christian (Trey Watten hit .290 as a starter this year.) I'm know I'm missing a few players, but this group has won two AABC world championships and several others including CABA, USSSA and Triple Crown. There were at least four of the above in the Texas All-Star game last year, at least four All-Staters and at least three DMN All-Area. Almost the whole team were H.S. All-District players for 2 to 4 years.

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DBAT hasn't been around as long, (as far as I know, I could definately be wrong) but the time they've been around, they've been really good.

This my eleventh year of 18U summer baseball since starting the Dallas Knights in 1996 and merging with Cade and DBAT before last summer. Of the teams mentioned at the top of this thread, the only ones that were around when I started were Sam Carpenter's Mustangs, Don Patty's Blacksox and Dave Acton's As.

The FW Cats played back in the day, went away and then were resurrected by Bruce Kirby in 1998. Tommy Hernandez' Tigers started playing at the 18U level in 1999. Panthers and Blackhawks came around in 1998 or 1999. Patriots started in summer of 2003 and Marshals in summer of 2004.

My how the time flies when you're having fun....

A Cowboy - Is Trey Watten related to the Watten that plays for Copppell/Tigers?

Also, is Roger Kieschnick related to Brooks Kieschnick from the early 90's at Texas?

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I do think the Tigers have the best overall program and I submit that the 2005 Tigers were the best youth baseball team (through the years) out of the DFW area, maybe among the best in the nation.

Hands down, the Dallas Mustangs Connie Mack teams of the early-to-mid 90's were the best of the best. There have been no teams of any such comparison since. There were far fewer teams back then and locally they had their pick of the litter. They were dominant and many of those guys went on to have very nice pro careers.

I don't know how good they are, but several guys from my high school team, will be playing on the mckinney marshalls, and my head coach will be helping coach them.

Kind of off topic, but what league do most of these premier teams play in, is it lone star, BBI, tournaments only, or travel, etc. I would like to know so I can go watch some games, just don't know where they are played at.

I don't know how good they are (the marshalls), but several guys from my high school team, will be playing on the mckinney marshalls, and my head coach will be helping coach them.

Kind of off topic, but what league do most of these premier teams play in, is it lone star, BBI, tournaments only, or travel, etc. I would like to know so I can go watch some games, just don't know where they are played at.

OK so I've got to ask, how would the 17U Tiger team from this year do against the previous bests?
Tant Shep.
Beaven
Green
Kaskow
Watten
Fitzgerald
Bankston
Swagerty
Pritchet
Johnson
and the list goes on.

I think they might not have the most hands down talent ever, but that team competes and plays as much as a team I've ever seen. Playing as a team goes far under the radar these days.

CS -- Trey is Cameron's older brother -- and the son of a well-known poster here.

Trey has no offensive stats on the ACU website -- I assume he was red-shirted. ACowboy, is the site wrong?

Ooops, CS -- I should have assumed that you were up-to-speed!

Several of the kids listed were late-season add-ons -- Shepherd and Swaggerty played for the Patriots. The MMWS team was indeed a special group.

PD - I was trying to be "politically correct" in the way I asked that question....I didn't want to get censored by any moderators.

DBAT GM I still think you have the BEST posts!!

You think if we put together an All Star team from Dallas including all the teams mentioned here we could beat the Woodlands? Darn right we could.....Go Newman Smith! Knock those bad boys tonight!

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You think if we put together an All Star team from Dallas including all the teams mentioned here we could beat the Woodlands?

Yep. Woodlands wouldn't have a chance.

We could call the team DBAT 18!

ahhhh, now that was funny GM....

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Originally posted by Panther Dad:
CS -- Trey is Cameron's older brother -- and the son of a well-known poster here.

Trey has no offensive stats on the ACU website -- I assume he was red-shirted. ACowboy, is the site wrong?

Ooops, CS -- I should have assumed that you were up-to-speed!

No, I'm certain Trey played a bunch. I just check the ACU web site and here is what I found out at
http://www.acu.edu/sports/baseball/2006_Schedule/cumes.html
Player AVG GP-GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI
Trey Watten......... .290 59-58 214 48 62 13 2 2 37

Thanks ACowboy --- I just missed his name in the list --- let me know when you find that sped reding class.

I agree with DBAT that there are few with longevity of over a decade in the Connie Mack division. Dbat is correct on his dates with all of those teams entering the Connie Mack age groups with the exception of the Panthers - they began in 2001. Omar W. was coaching in the Dallas Titans organization until then.
Dallas Titans organized in 1995.

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Dbat is correct on his dates with all of those teams entering the Connie Mack age groups with the exception of the Panthers - they began in 2001.

I stand corrected. Thanks, Matt.

I think I would tap the brakes just a bit on who's going to be the best. Now the best competitors, a totally other story.

As usual, Time will tell.

The Dallas Mustangs will have a strong team. Sam Carpenter is a great guy and knows a lot about the game.

The talent level of the players in this area is really remarkable. These teams are a list of all-district players. I guess you could say the Tigers, due to arms, but unless you have a rooting interest it seems it would be difficult to say "Hey, we're the best".

I totally agree sgd. The talent level around here is as equal as it gets. It will probably go to least injuries, pitching depth and team chemistry.

Get all that in the right catagory and you have a receipe for best team.

I agree fully to that post. I was curious, when you sum up the success of a summer program, do you mainly put weight on their 15/16-18 year old success? Or do you also look at the younger age groups? I'm not sure if DBAT has younger groups. The Tigers do and it helps remarkably. Each team is groomed (in their special way) to play as each coach wants. This is normally because a single coach will stay with a team from the time they are 12 all the way up. Best example of this I can think of are the 17s. I'm not sure about the Marshals-I think they have younger teams . The Dallas Mustangs young teams were never competitive.

dtiger - DBAT starts at 16U and as far as I know the Mustangs do not have any teams before 15U. They may have experimented with younger teams in the past but I don't think they have had them the past few years. The Marshals...I am not sure what they are currently doing but their first year there were so many teams in our age group that they used up all the colors and directions naming them all. (gold, white, black, north, south, did I miss any?) I never could figure out which one we were playing. (well, ok, I knew when we were playing MM South because we would get our rears kicked!)

I agree with you...it is nice that the Dallas Tigers put teams together at 12 and keep the core group together through high school. I have seen other groups try that approach and I haven't seen it executed as successfully, it seems like the teams tend to break-up or lose key players before they make it to 15U. Hats off to the Tigers for making it work. Now, if the coach would just stay through high school...wait, that's another thread.

Good job on program-info DBAT GM... the Cats were started in 1989 by Jay Meadows.. coached them through fall of 1995.. (I was Asst. Coach 93-95).. I picked back up in '98 and have been going ever since...

Back in the day, I remember lots of tourneys where it was just Mustangs, Cats, Slam, Kyle Chapman, Black Sox.. we'd just beat the crud out of each other and go home...

and you were correct when saying teams of early 90's were top of the line... SC's team that won the CMWS were as legit as you get - how many future Olympians/big leaguers can you fit on a roster??

I know Cats had a team in early 90's that had ten kids drafted off of it - and SC's Mustangs still could put it on us...

sooo many teams now... and sooo much parity. But I believe it is good for the game - for the most part...

Welcome to the bored, er, board, BK. Took ya long enough.....

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Back in the day, I remember lots of tourneys where it was just Mustangs, Cats, Slam, Kyle Chapman, Black Sox.. we'd just beat the crud out of each other and go home...

Ah, the good ole' days.



Ah, the good ole' days.

Taking a page from the DBAT GM school of promotion....An exerpt from some of our propaganda...

Do the McKinney Marshals have the best youth program in the metroplex for ages 7-18? No one knows for sure, but the overall success of the third year program from Collin County places it in DFW’s elite class of youth baseball programs. Beside an overall 850-327 (.724) record, the Marshals Youth Program accomplished the following in its first two years:

3 - National Championships
1 - NIT National Championship
6 - Top 3 Nat. Champ Finishes
6 - Top 10 finishes at Nat.Championships
4- State Championships
23- Tournament Championships
18- Tournament Second Place Finishes
73- Tournament Top 3 finishes
16- League Championships

One of our goals with the Marshals is to develop youth players through our organization, similar to a farm system seen in Major League Baseball. An example of player development would be 2004-5 Cincinnati Reds draft pick Jake Arietta, who played for our 18U team and who played for The McKinney Marshals Texas Collegiate League team in the summer of 2005 and will try out for Team USA this summer.
Our other goal is to mirror some of the finest youth programs in the country such as East Cobb (GA.), Memphis Tigers (TN.), Midland Redskins (OH), Orange County (CA) and the Kansas City Sluggers (KS).

The Marshals believe in the “lost art” of fundamental baseball that includes bunting, hitting the cut-off man, getting proper leads to steal bases, and practicing sportsmanship on and off the field.

I think the Tigers are top notch up and down the ladder and have been for 10 plus years, then I nominate us a close second in just our third year of existence..

Good luck to all this summer...

If you get a chance this summer, stop by a TCL game (www.texascollegiateleague.com) one night and see what college summer league is all about. I think your HS kids will get a feel for what it takes to play D1 ball as most of the kids in the league are from D1 programs across the country...

Kudos, Shane. The Marshals have done very well the past two summers....especially at the younger levels.

Wish you guys had played in the BBI Premier Divisions this summer. Maybe next year?

What the difference between a National Championship and an NIT National Championship? In either case, both sound great!

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The Marshals believe in the “lost art” of fundamental baseball that includes bunting, hitting the cut-off man, getting proper leads to steal bases, and practicing sportsmanship on and off the field.

Catch You make it sound as though this is a novel approach....I have known many many teams and organizations that have studied AND MASTERED the "lost art"....Good for you if you feel your organization is doing such, but there are others...

Watching the McKinney Marshals battle Carpenter's Mustangs to a 1-1 tie today has me very optimistic for this summer.

Andy Postema's team is truley a bunch of dirt bags that will go out and compete.

Heard it was a good one....if my sources speak truth. But what 1-1 ballgame wouldn't?

Who threw for both squads

Anything really "eye-opening"??

It was a well played game on both sides.

Excellent defense and clutch pitching to prevent additional runs from scoring. Both teams had their opportunities but couldn't push any additional runs across.

Speaking for the Mustangs, Clinard (Rockwall), Concannon (St. Marks/Georgetown), Keniston (Dallas Christian/Navarro) and Pair (TCA) all threw real well.

Richards (Plano East/Arkansas) and Choate (Lewisville)were the only ones I recognized from the Marshalls. They both looked sharp. Choate came on in relief in the 7th and pitched out of a bases loaded jam with one out. He looked real good. Sorry I don't know their other pitchers but they were very effective.

Medlin (Keller/TCU) had a couple of hits and the lone RBI. The Marshalls scored on a wild pitch in the 4th inning I believe. Miller (Keller) had a couple of hits for the Marshalls. Kreder (Keller/TCU) had an ESPN type catch off a foul ball for the Mustangs.

As you'd expect, both teams were not at full strength with players still involved in the playoffs or just coming off tough playoff losses.

Should be a fun, competitive summer. The baseball talent in this area is pretty amazing.