Joey Lippo, in disguise as a basketball player. (John Fisken photo)
Joey Lippo takes his sports seriously.
The Coupeville High School freshman, a three-sport athlete (tennis, basketball, baseball) is building a reputation for always having his game face on, though he was spotted cracking up on the bench at a recent hoops game.
Ask him about it, however, and he’ll deny, deny, deny.
But whether he’s grinning or not in his photos, the Wolf young gun is taking huge strides on the athletic field. Baseball remains his #1 sport and it’s carrying him far and wide.
A scouting report from proud papa Joe Lippo on their most recent trip:
Over the past three days, CHS’ own Joey Lippo has been in Mesa, AZ, participating in the Under Armour Baseball Factory spring training program.
This involves three days of training, for up to 12 hours per day.
The weather was great, averaging 73 degrees under scattered cloud cover. Perfect for baseball.
Joey, along with 35 other high schoolers from around the country, learned from Major League hitting, catching, fielding and conditioning coaches from the Kansas City, Anaheim, Colorado and USA Baseball clubs.
Joey’s stats over the six games played were fairly good, and across six plate appearances he went 2 for 5 with a walk.
He played catcher and 1st base (a first for him), performing admirably, and better than expected at 1st.
The coaches, like last year, were no nonsense, no BS, and no slack given. If they thought you weren’t performing, they would let you know.
This, however was not intended to berate or belittle the player, as the call-out was followed with a way to fix what they were doing wrong.
The players ran everywhere, and were in constant motion. There was very little standing around.
New drills were introduced, arm strength was evaluated, speed measured, and resolve tested.
Some players struggled at the plate, others in the field. As the days went on, it only got harder due to fatigue and soreness.
There were highlights, including a kid that hit the ball to the warning track, some Sports Center-like defensive plays, and close plays at the plate.
There were also low-lights, with a couple players going “O-fer” at the plate, ground balls bouncing off mitts (and other body parts), and even a player running into the fence (he was OK).
In the end, the camp ended with no significant injury, although there were 36 exhausted high schoolers with various stages of sore arms and legs, twisted ankles, and assorted cuts, scrapes, and bruises.
For Joey’s part, he will be bringing several pro-level drills back to CHS, and will hopefully be able to contribute to the teams success in the coming season.
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