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Scout Day Spotlight: XBA

FAIRFIELD - While XBA has been around for closing in on a decade, it has only been recently that the organization has began to increase in size.

“We didn’t get bigger until three years ago,” noted Tony Witt, the leader of the organization who helped start up the Xtreme Baseball Academy. “We only had one or two teams at first.”

That has now changed with two 12U, 16U, 17U and 18U teams along with one at the ages of 8, 9, 10, 11 and 15.

“The last couple years we changed our philosophy,” Witt explained about the substantial change in numbers. “We’ve made a push to go to PBR events, a push to go to college showcases and a push to go to better tournaments. It’s helped our kids get better contacts with college coaches and to get seen, and that happens at PBR events.”

It has more XBA players making the move to the next level when the time comes.

“Our goal has always been to make sure they learn the game of baseball the right way,” Witt said. “We want them to make their high school team and once they do that to get into college. Last year we had 23 go on to college, that’s a huge step. Before we only had two or three. Getting better talent around us has helped with that.”

Witt, a Hamilton Ross graduate who coaches the JV baseball team at his alma mater, points to recent success on the field as a major benefit to the organization.

“The past couple years all our teams have been above .500,” Witt noted. “That’s huge in mom and dad’s eyes to see our record. It says that our kids are getting better.

“When we started with 9 and 10s we didn’t win many. But last year our 17-18U won three tournaments, two Past Times and another.”

But Witt is quick to point out where the organization currently stands.

“We’re not the Flames, we’re not Midland, we’re not CBCs ... the big names,” Witt said. “ I don’t want to be them, but I want to be known like them. What we want is for our kids to play top talent in the area.”

Coaching in the organization is unlike many of the prestigious summer teams.

“My coaches are mostly dads,” Witt said. “What we have are coaches that listen and understand what we want and that helps to have that across the board.”

It has Witt happy about the future of the program, which last year sent three players to Division I colleges and three more to D-II schools, with others going on to NAIA and JUCOs.

Lexington, Indianapolis and the greater Cincinnati area are where most of the XBA teams play games.

“Last year we branched out to events like the Black Swamp, but for the most part we try to stay in the midwest region,” Witt explained. “The farthest we’ve gone is Nashville.. We don’t see it beneficial to our guys, to travel far, that’s not our cup of tea yet.”

What is new to the organization is participating in a PBR Scout Day team event, which for XBA will take place on Jan. 26.

“This is our first year doing it,” Witt noted. “We want to get everybody to college and this is a good way to get them out there. We want to make sure guys in XBA are in front of every possible outlet we can and PBR is a great tool for that.

“In the past we’ve had guys that have done a PBR and after that been contacted by college coaches. That’s huge for us.”