1996 Picture this…Panama City, Florida; Little League Baseball; summer of 1996; one year removed from Wardell Starling leading his Spring Texas team to the Little League World Series and the year before Lastings Milledge would lead his Manatee Little League team to Williamsport...

A group of players from R.L. Turner Little League in Panama City, Florida led by Mark Sauls, Clete Thomas, Tyson Posey, Trey Shields, Jeff Boutwell, Heath Anderson and Chris Sisson took their team on a journey which also ended up in the promise land of Williamsport. During this World Series, they faced the likes of Jeff Clement of Marshalltown, Iowa and Craig Stinson of Cranston, Rhode Island, who provided stiff competition and friendships that would develop in the coming years.

After the summer of 1996, the idea of keeping the best players together developed into the thoughts of preparing these young 13 year olds for high school and exposing them to the most competitive environment possible. That fall, the Panama City Heat was formed and we would move to fields much larger than those of little league days.

1997 In the spring of 1997, plans were made to put a serious competitive travel team and schedule together instead of the normal "league schedule" that these players were accustomed to. The ultimate goal was to qualify for and compete in the CABA 13-U World Series in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. After this team qualified for Broken Arrow, some players decided to leave the Panama City Heat to play for another team in the same World Series, which was legal by CABA rules. They were simply bought out by a bigger sponsor offering to pay for everything. The only problem was he could not purchase competitive spirit. This soon became a thorn in travel baseball where families would bid the services of their kids to get a free trip to the tournament.

There were 6 players who desired to stay with the team and participate in the event since they had devoted their entire spring and summer to that end. Loyalty to our program, our coaches, and each other could not be bought. Their commitment to us and our goals for them would pay off in the comming years. While we had the desire to go play, we did not have the players to go with. It was at that moment in time when Mike Scott and Steve Merchant called Jerry Stanley of Team Tampa and John Manasa from Miami (2 teams that we played against in the Florida CABA qualifier) to see if they wanted to combine the top 6 or so players from each team to play in Broken Arrow. Each coach talked with his respective teams and after many phone calls, the combination of players from Tampa, Miami and Panama City quickly formed Team Florida Heat. These players had NEVER met each other except in competitive situations, and had never truly played together. This special group of players met at the airport and hotel in Tulsa and practiced the next day as a TEAM for the first time. We noticed a special relationship and bond quickly developing between the players and 9 days later, we had finished 4th in the tournament out of 32 teams, losing to eventual tournament champion Upper Deck, Illinois 5-4 in a game we lead for 5 innings. All players and parents in attendance all knew that they had just witnessed something unique and special. Who would have thought that by simply "throwing a bunch of players together" with common focus and goals then allowing them to showcase their talents, we would have enjoyed that much success and mad friendships that we would soon find out would last a life time. That fall, we began play at the 60-90 foot distance, we put together a rigorous schedule with one goal in mind, move them to the big fields and even at age 13 allow them almost 2 years of playing at that distance to prepare them for their freshman year of high school.

1998 During the spring of 1998, with this age group now moving into 14u play and the 60-90 foot distance, we officially changed our name to Team Florida Baseball with players mostly from within the state of Florida. Our goals were to compete in as many tournaments as we could and play as many 16 and under tournaments as possible. We ended up playing in 10 tournaments, winning 6 of them and finishing runner-up in the other 4. Being in the championship game of every summer tournament was instrumental in us being ranked #1 in America by USSSA Baseball. We also developed a 2-year plan which included opportunities to play in the 15u CABA World Series in Crystal Lake Illinois in 1999 and in 2000 participate in the best 16u event in America, USA Baseball's Junior Olympic National Championships held in Tucson Arizona. In 1998, we did not play in a World Series event as we were in the process of developing the 2-year plan and adding players from other "southern states" and throughout America.

1999 As the spring of 1999 began, our Florida players were now freshman in high school. Many of whom started on their respective high school varsity teams. That summer, we garnered the bid to Crystal Lake, Illinois where we finished 3rd out of 32 teams, losing to West Covina, California (comprised of Bishop Amant HS players) Adam Simon, Michael Lange, Anthony Hidalgo, Mark Esparza and company who finished 2nd to Derek Decatur, Colin Curtis and Tyler Mach's Washington team. In this event, we developed a competitive and lasting friendship with the West Covina and Washington coaches and players.

Our plan now was to start compiling one of the BEST teams in America and from seeing how West Covina, Washington, East Cobb and Upper Deck had been running their organizations; we felt we had learned the blue print for putting THE TEAM together that could win what we felt was the ultimate tournament, USA Baseball's Junior Olympics. So, in the fall we continued playing and also began to recruit a team which would be comprised of players from all over America. In this recruiting process, we felt we need to do 2 things: (1) upgrade our roster to National/Elite players and to (2) upgrade our coaching staff to professional coaches who coached for a living. Our recruiting efforts garnered players from 8 different states. Obviously as with any baseball game plan the first order of business was to secure the best players up the middle. We added Justin Tordi - Short Stop (Florida); Derek Decatur - Centerfield (Washington); Tyler Mach - Catcher (Washington); and Robert Davis - Catcher (Virginia); all who were huge additions in our ultimate success. These families are to be commended as they were the first of many who "bought into" this concept on a National basis in order for this program to be successful. We had also added in the recruiting process, pitchers Jeff Jacobsen (Nevada) and Erik Stiller (Texas) and power-hitting outfielder, Coltyn Simmons (Nevada). Coltyn was a very late and valuable addition to the roster that year. Another late addition was James Loney of Elkins High School in Bryan, Texas. He had just beaten the #1 ranked High School team in America, Bellaire Texas in the playoffs to become 13-0 as a pitcher. At that time, we didn't even know that Loney could hit as well as he does and it was his solid efforts pitching and hitting throughout the tournament that landed him a roster spot on USA's Youth National Team along with Justin Tordi. Having put THE TEAM together, we headed for Tucson for our biggest challenge to date.

2000 The summer of 2000 and USA Baseball's Junior Olympics turned out to be everything it was expected to be, the crowning jewel (and a RING!) as far as planning, recruiting and putting together THE TEAM. Our players were fortunate enough to bond quickly as a team and coaches Doug Lee, Mosley High School (Florida); John Crumbley, Tampa Jesuit High School (Florida); and Carlan Martin of Crestview High School (Florida) gave us the needed motivation, discipline and game strategy that would bring us the Junior Olympic National Title. In the championship game we beat Scott Shapiro and NorCal 8-1 completing an unprecedented 10-0 run through the 64-team field. NO prior team in USA Junior Olympic Tournament History had ever accomplished the feat. With this victory, brought exposure and credibility to our organization and spoke volumes as to how hard we had worked to put our athletes in the most competitive environment possible. Three of our players (Loney, Tordi & Stiller) were invited to the Youth National Trials, with two of them (Loney & Tordi) making the team and going on to be a big part of Team USA's Gold Medal winning effort at the World Games in Mexico. This had to be an experience of a life time for these players to represent the United States of America!

That fall, discussions on the following year and plans for another run at the Junior Olympic Championships were made. Furthermore, discussion was entertained that we were now a true national team and a name change would better reflect our team's goals. With this in mind and the program still continuing to grow and mature, we felt it necessary to change our name to fit the organization. On January 1, 2001, we officially became TEAM FLORIDA USA BASEBALL. With this change came a greater responsibility to our players in order to provide them with the best competitive baseball available which combined the greatest exposure to both professional and college scouts. With this responsibility, we headed full-speed ahead to our next challenge…putting together 2 teams - The advancing 17 & under group (Team Florida USA '02's) and our 16 & under (Team Florida USA '03's) the team that would defend the USA Baseball's Junior Olympics National Title. We then added national pitching coach and recruiting guru, Tom Battista (Massachusetts) to the Team Florida USA Baseball staff and off to the races we were for the 2001 summer. Both teams scheduled 3 events to compete in throughout the summer and fall.

2001 In 2001, USA Baseball decided for the first time to host two National Tournaments for their Junior Olympics in two areas of the country. The decision was to have a tournament in Tucson, Arizona and Jupiter, Florida. We chose to play in Florida, being that was the base of our program's operations. We again expanded our roster, this time including players from 12 different states. With another solid team in place, we journeyed through the 56-team field with another perfect 10-0 record, beating Norcross, Ga., in the Championship Game, 5-0 on a 1-hitter by Darin Downs (LHP, Boynton Beach, FL). Invitations to the Youth National Team trials in Houston, Texas were given to Jarrod Saltalamacchia (Florida); Justin Brashear (Louisiana); Sean Watson (Florida); and Ryan Sweeney (Iowa). Saltalamacchia, Brashear and Watson went on to make the USA Youth National team and again, Team Florida USA players led the charge winning the World Championships in Mexico for the 2nd year in a row. While their counter parts were again dominating the Junior Olympics, the '02 team was competing in the East Cobb Yankee Classic. This tournament was a college-age tournament and our team had only 17 year old senior's to be. We finished 3rd out of 12 teams posting a 5-2 record. Later that summer the '02 team arrived in Cleveland, Ohio in search of the CABA High School World Series. We finished the tournament with a 12-1 record and the CABA High School World Series Championship. Adding tournament MVP Adam Elliot (California), tournament pitching MVP Scott Kazmir (Texas), Chad Billingsley (Ohio) Evan Meek (Washington), Mark Rosen (Massachusetts), Justin Meier (Florida) and a host of Team Florida USA Alumni was the key to a solid pitching staff that dominated hitters throughout the tournament. TEAM FLORIDA USA BASEBALL defeated Miami in the Championship Game 10-0 on a 1 hitter by Justin Meier (Florida). We also beat and dethroned Steve Bourque's Brooklyn team, made up of other USA Jr. National Team players whose teams had won 11 of the past 13 CABA World Series. We had accomplished our summer of 2001 goals and headed steadfast onto Perfect Game's World Wood Bat Tournament in Jupiter, Florida in October. The design was to have two complete highly competitive teams and giving both teams opportunity to compete for the Championship.

October came and when players began to arrive at the hotels in Jupiter, we knew we had something special. The '03 team of current year high school juniors featured the reunion of Team Florida USA Junior Olympic Championship team with additional players such as David Winfree (Virginia), Mickey Hall (Georgia), Jeff Allison and Lance Zawadski (Massachusetts), Eric Hurley and Billy Butler (Florida). In all, this team included 5 USA Youth National Team players and 4 others who had been invited to the trials. The '02 team added Tom Wilhelmsen (Arizona), Mark Romaczuk (Delaware), Alex Merricks (California), and Mike Pelfrey (Kansas) to its elite pitching staff. All went according to script until in the semi-finals, the two Team Florida USA teams met!!! Can you believe that, two of the final four teams in the largest, most talented tournament in BASEBALL? The game was a lot of fun and very intense. The younger guys got some key hits late in the game and won 5-3 to get into the Championship Game!!

The Championship Game was a game for the ages as the '03 group of high school juniors lost in the final inning to the Miami Sluggers, 7-6, vowing to return in 2002 to capture the ring that slipped off their finger in the top of the 7th inning. In all, this tournament featured Team Florida USA teams with victories over Team California, NorCal, Dulins Dodgers, Bill Hood Broncos, Tampa Yankees (who had previously defeated the East Cobb Yankees 5-2), Pinellas Phillies and a host of other top, elite programs. The list of teams we competed against in this tournament alone could make up victories a program would remember for a lifetime and I am sure we will.

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