Daryl Hixenbaugh, 70, has been coaching Bellevernon High School baseball for three years, but he previously spent 26 years as a Major League Baseball scout. He has worked with the Cardinals, Pirates, Yankees, and currently works as a part time scout for the Kansas City Royals, as well as head coach at BVA. Some of the responsibilities that a professional scout has include attending high school games, high school summer league games, college games, and college summer league games.
"When I was scouting full-time you were on the road from the end of February to early October," Hixenbaugh said. "It was to see as many players as we could see."
Scouts look at all positions, and the organization's philosophy determines what types of tools to look for in players, Hixenbaugh said. For example, the Pirates were an "arms and legs" organization, so Pirates scouts looked for strong pitching and positioned players with speed. Once a scout finds a player with projectable tools, they report to their superiors that they found a player with promise. The superiors include the organization's scouting director, assistant scouting director, and the national cross checker. "I saw a lot of kids I wanted to draft, but they got drafted before we could get to them," Hixenbaugh said.
Some of the players that Hixenbaugh had scouted and convinced the organization to draft included Neil Walker and David Wright. Hixenbaugh has helped around 20 players get drafted, and ushered four to the major league diamond. Since Hixenbaugh currently works part-time with the Royals, he has time to coach Bellevernon High School too. The drills and training that these high school students receive is straight from a major league team's workout program. These players are pushed and trained to be the best baseball players they can be each and every practice.
The BVA High School baseball team has a rented spaced in a coffee warehouse, which they have turfed and evolved into a great space to work out during the off season. Daryl has put a lot of time and money into the facility to help these players advance their skills. These players have a very knowledgable coach, that will get the best out of all of them.
BVA baseball players doing box jumps drills to stimulate fast twitch muscle fibers.
BVA Baseball doing mountain climbers to strengthen their cores.
BVA students work on hitting mechanics with soft toss.
Head coach Hixenbaugh and assistant head coach, Nathan Raffle, put their athletes through extensive conditioning programs in the offseason. Some of the baseball drills and conditioning programs are shown in the videos below. The baseball drills are used to perfect fundamental aspects of the game, and the conditioning is used to build the players' endurance and strength.
BVA baseball doing drills and conditioning
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