Meet the man who groomed Fort Collins baseball royalty – Washington Times
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) – When it comes to developing top-end baseball talent in Fort Collins, it’s more than likely that one of that particular player’s bigger influences has been Ernie Romero.
From players honing their skills at his facility to his annual Front Range Baseball School, Romero has helped players of all levels, from St. Louis Cardinals first-round draft choice Marco Gonzales, all the way to 5-year-old beginners.
“Over the last 10 years, we’ve seen Fort Collins become a hotbed for baseball talent and people who are passionate about the sport, a bunch of kids who just want to be part of the game,” Gonzales said while taking a break from his injury rehabilitation in Jupiter, Florida. “And we’re fortunate to have had leaders like Ernie Romero pioneer that.”
Romero’s 30th Front Range Baseball School recently wrapped up at Edora Park, the Coloradoan reported (http://noconow.co/1WMGrKG). It’s both a rite of summer for kids just getting out of school and a rite of passage for virtually everybody who became anybody in local baseball circles.
“I think everybody in this community who has gone on to play baseball at a high level has been here,” Romero said. “Maybe not every year, but they’ve been here at one point in time.
“Isn’t that crazy?”
Maybe not as crazy as spending two weeks of every summer since 1987 running baseball camps for as many as 400 kids. Romero estimates that, with an average of about 250 per year, as many as 7,500 could have come to camp – though the number is less than that because many came multiple years.
And yes, fathers who attended the camps as kids are now taking their kids there. That group includes Romero’s nephew, Martin, who also helps out as a coach.
It’s been a family affair for Romero, with wife Trudi “the boss” and their four kids helping in various ways – the Romeros’ parents have chipped in, too. But as the family has all grown older and has added other obligations, it has more often been Ernie and Trudi.
So now, at 58, the 22-year physical education teacher at Preston Middle School is thinking about what the future of the camp might be.
“We thought we’d get through 30 years and see where we are, just kind of re-evaluate and see where we’re at,” he said. “It’ll look different.”
Will it be the last camp? Romero doesn’t want to disappoint anyone. Trudi wonders if he’ll be the Brett Favre of baseball camp directors and keep hanging around for a few more years.
“Hopefully this isn’t the last year of the camp, but if it is . he’s done a great job with it,” said Andy Burns, the Rocky Mountain High School product who made his big-league debut earlier this year with the Toronto Blue Jays. “I know a lot of people look forward to it every summer.”
Romero said he’s not sure what led him to start the camp. He was coaching at Poudre High School at the time and helped coach Mike Lane with his camp at North Alabama, his alma mater.
He figured he’d try to start the same thing in Fort Collins.
“I was young and had all this energy,” Romero said.
He’d expected about 50 campers that first year. He got 150.
Romero credits Pat Wunsch, former director of the Fort Collins Baseball Club, for her help in supplying equipment in the camp’s early years. After short stays at City Park and Walker Field, the camp has been at Edora for about 20 years.
Lane comes back to help out every year. Fort Collins High School’s Keith Aragon has been there almost from the start. Other high-quality instructors have helped, too. The Fort Collins Foxes, summer collegiate league players, have been assisting for the past 7 years.
“That’s been a real value because the kids don’t respond as well to me as they do to a younger athlete, a college kid who comes out and starts talking to them,” Romero said.
Frank Gonzales, Marco’s father and the manager of the Grand Junction Rockies – Rookie League affiliate of the Colorado Rockies – helped at the camp when he was a high school coach in Fort Collins.
“It’s been a staple,” Frank Gonzales said. “You think of that when you think of summer vacation. Baseball in Fort Collins, you think of this guy or that guy . and Ernie has been the godfather of it all.
“You’ve never heard anything negative about the camp. It’s awesome that he’s done it for so long.”
Said Martin Romero: “It’s the people who run the things that make the difference. That’s where Ernie has been a difference maker for all these kids, in my life, too. There’s a real investment in the community and the kids.”
Three decades later, there are plenty of memories from the camps.
“It’s amazing how fast the time goes by,” Romero said. “It’s been one of these things for the kids. We get real competitive kids and kids who are just beginners. We’ve always just tried to do it for the kids of Fort Collins.
“At times, we’ve had massive amounts of kids and we couldn’t give them all the attention they’ve needed, but we’ve done the best we could. When you hear the saying that God has a plan for you, well, I think this was the plan for me.”
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Information from: Fort Collins Coloradoan, http://www.coloradoan.com
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