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Scout Day Spotlight: Diamond Hit Club

HUNTING VALLEY - Quality and quantity in coaching has helped the Diamond Hit Club become the organization it is today.

Now in year seven, Tom Aspero is proud about what the Hit Club continues to accomplish.

“I started the Hit Club on my own,” Aspero said. “I wanted to give the best training program in northeast Ohio. We run practices and skill work the right way. We have five to seven coaches for every 20 players.”

Helping players move on to the next level is one goal of the organization.

“We have had four senior classes and in those four years have had 42 guys go on to play in college, that’s 90 percent,” Aspero noted. “In this area nobody can put out that rate. It’s something I’m proud of.”

Steve Opalich and Mike Retino are coaches with 30-plus years of experience helping out Aspero. TJ Lett is the main defense and hitting instructor along with Aspero, with Donte Lindsay, a former pitcher at Bethune Cookman University in Daytona beach, Fla., the new pitching instructor.

“We have a fall throwing program called Power Pitching that Donte heads up,” Aspero said. “It is a lot of Driveline stuff to build arm strength in kids. The range of increase was 5-12 miles an hour gained this fall.”

Mac Stephens, a former football player at the University of Minnesota who went on to play for the Vikings and Jets, heads up the speed and strength training for the Hit Club. Stephens is currently the head football coach at Cleveland Heights and Recreation Director for the city of Euclid.

“We have over 100 years of coaching experience on our staff,” pointed out Aspero, a 32-year-old that has been in coaching for 17 years, learning from a pair of Hall of Fame coaches Len Taylor (Mentor) and Jim Humpal (Brush) along the way.

This year the Diamond Hit Club will have teams in the 13-18 age groups, including two each at 13 and 17.

“Our 2020 team this year won five of seven tournaments they were in last year and placed in six,” Aspero said. “They won the Diamond League championship over Release Baseball.”

But Aspero points to more than winning as what is important to him.

“Traditionally our guys are very good academically,” Aspero said.

Warrensville Heights, Mentor and Hunting Valley University School are facilities used in the winter.

“Our winter program goes 12 weeks, two to four times a week depending on the age group,” Aspero said.

Teams play in the Diamond League and Ohio Prospects League in the greater Cleveland area.

“We try to get in one or two travel tournaments with the younger guys,” noted Aspero, whose teams play games at Euclid, Chagrin Falls, Mentor, Richmond Heights and Cuyahoga Community College. “Most of our tournaments are in the midwest but we want to go south, too. The 2020 will be in some big tournaments this year. Basically, with age 16 and up we want to get in front of as much college exposure as we can.”

That is where PBR has helped out, with the Diamond Hit Club Scout Day event this year set for Jan. 24.

“The personal Scout Day with only your guys is a nice thing,” Aspero said. “We were one of the first to start Scout Day. It’s nice in that we can tweet out about our guys.

“One of the biggest things for our guys is getting invites to the Top Prospect Games the last couple years,” Aspero added. “With PBR, kids are able to have their own video and that’s a huge help. We don’t have to do that now. The marketing of video is a big benefit.”