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Scout Day Spotlight: Ohio Elite North

MEDINA - When Rob McNerney showed an interest in joining up with Ohio Elite North, there were a lot of knowledgeable people available to pass on advice.

One of those was Kelly Ratcliff, president of Ohio Elite North. The idea was to bring McNerney’s team over to join up with the more established Ohio Elite North.

“Kelly Ratcliff put me in touch with Chris Kaczmar who was looking for someone to take over the reigns from him,” McNerney reflected. “He said in addition to your team you would oversee my two teams. Three teams then turned into seven teams with interest from outside. I knew Ohio Elite had a great reputation, but it escalated faster than I thought.”

McNerney is now in his fifth year with the organization and enjoying it immensely.

“Chris Kaczmar had it going for two years with just two teams prior to me,” McNerney explained. “I learned so much from him on taking care of people and giving them more than they expect … going about and beyond with everything you do and trying to make it a solid experience for everyone. He laid the groundwork for me here. I owe a lot to coach Kaczmar.”

McNerney has surrounded himself with some outstanding help with an organization that has teams from 12U to 18U. It starts with Jensen Lewis overseeing pitchers and Chris Check helping with defense.

“When you get two people like that it makes my job easier,” McNerney said of Lewis, a former pitcher with the Cleveland Indians, and Check, a former college coach who is an associate scout with the Indians while also giving individual instruction. “They bring a lot of knowledge and life to our training.”

That is an area that helps separate Ohio Elite teams from some others.

“What lacks with travel baseball is practice,” McNerney explained. “We’re really big believers in the training aspect. We call training twice a week in the winter and summer. Alex Eckelman (Cleveland Indians’ assistant director of player development) presents a training plan for us. It keeps us on track of the goals we have of learning the game and bettering the collective effort to learn life outside the lines.

“We show them why it’s more important to be a good student. We have people from all walks of life come in and talk to the kids about strength and nutrition and business. We have people that express a lot of different things to help make them a well-rounded person. We’re in the customer service industry and we want to make sure we’re the best we can be.”

Hoping to play at the next level is just part of it.

“If you ask each player, everyone’s goal is to play college baseball,” McNerney pointed out. “But there is so much to be achieved before then. While that’s the end goal, there’s a lot of work to do. We try to make smaller goals before that … make the high school team, be a starter for the high school team, be captain of the high school team, make an impact there, make an impact with us.

“Coaches that watch us know Ohio Elite is good, but they need to know what separates one player from their teammates, the competition and their peers. Are they multi-sport? Do they get good grades? What extracurricular stuff do they do?

“Personally, I get a lot more joy, and the staff says the same thing, when we see success off the field,” McNerney continued. “When the 18U teams go off to college and you see the man that they each become, that’s a better sign of accomplishment to us than just wanting to go on to play college baseball.”

When it comes to on the field, the Ohio Elite program has found much success.

“I’ve been told numerous times by various college coaches that watch us that they like the fact we practice and that our kids - when they get to them - have an understanding of things,” McNerney said. “When we train as teams it’s baseball activities. We feel if you don’t teach them those things we’re not preparing them - not just for high school baseball but for college baseball. We try to do a good job of balancing it out so they’re prepared for showcases and also ready for everything else in baseball.”

The PBR Scout Day on Feb. 14 kicks-starts the upcoming season for Ohio Elite North.

“Last year was our first year doing that,” McNerney said. “It gave our guys not yet exposed to PBR more exposure. I knew about it prior and came away impressed with how they got things set up and organized and everything that followed with social media stuff. It was a no-brainer to do again this year.

“PBR excels at finding kids that have not gotten on the radar. Some kids that were off the radar but had worked in the weight room and cages reaped the benefits once the February date came around. We tell them all the time whether PBR is watching or scouts are watching that’s all great, but you have to perform.”

That includes getting the job done in the summer.

“We go to Sandusky, Columbus and Pittsburgh,” McNerney said about the younger teams just getting going with the Ohio Elite organization. “We try to keep them two to four hours from home when they’re 12-to-14-year-old kids.

“The older teams are scheduled to play the PBR Series (in northern Ohio) and they will have a southern trip. We have a lot of football players so that limits the calendar. We play six to eight events.”