AURORA – Hard work. Team chemistry. Dedication. A new (three years) coaching staff that put an emphasis on on-field fundamentals plus an emphasis on how to survive the game’s mistakes.

Those were part of the success of the Adams City baseball team this spring. The Eagles won eight times in 19 starts, a three-game improvement over 2015 and a seven-game boost from the 2013 season. ACHS won five of nine games in the Eastern Metro Athletic Conference.

But there was another piece to the puzzle, and that belonged to a Major League Baseball initiative. RBI, Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities, allows inner-city youngsters to play both baseball and softball. At the same time, the program promotes the value of education.

“The Colorado Rockies have come in and given us an opportunity to compete with two different programs,” said ACHS coach Phil Castillo. “We bring up the incoming freshmen and put them on that lower team. We’ll allow the lower-level kids to compete at that level. Then we’ll play B (American) Legion with our higher-level kids.

The end result, Castillo said, is that the players in the Adams City program get plenty of chances to play.

“Everybody is getting a higher level of competition,” Castillo said. “We can try to give some focus to a pathway of where they can be in two or three years. We want them to see the end result and to know that it’s going to take this amount of work to get there.”

Castillo said at first, changing the culture of the program was tough.

“There was a system in place where they were trying as hard as they could,” Castillo said. “It just didn’t seem to have the same knowledge base. And a lot of times, kids just didn’t come out. The season before I came, they had nine guys for the varsity level. Now, we’re at about 45.

“Eligibility will take a couple,” he added. “We’ve had three levels of baseball for three years. That’s important. That bottom level is your future. That’s the feeder. At the same time, we’re giving the kids a good experience. So we hope they will tell their friends, their brothers, their cousins so they can be part of what’s going on. That’s our ultimate goal.”

 

Contact Sports Editor Steve Smith at ssmith@metrowestnewspapers.com.