Springtime is driving the desire to suit up for the 2022 baseball season, and we are looking at programs that have done excellent work overall and specifically at Pathway Baseball events – next up to bat is the US Elite organization.
 
We visited with Bill Goudy and Ben Pierce, longtime coaches out East who worked together with the Blue Chips club in the early 2010's before making their way to US Elite, founded by Mark Helsel in 2006. Today, Goudy and Pierce are the architects of the 10-team Mid-Atlantic piece of US Elite with players hailing primarily from Delaware, Maryland and West Virginia.
 
Both Goudy and Pierce also coach high-school ball at the John Carroll School in Maryland. Goudy's 2023 US Elite team won the Underclass championship at the 2021 Pathway event in Richmond, VA.
 
Q: How did you get into coaching, and then make your way to US Elite?
 
Bill: I played JUCO ball, was in my early 20s when I started coaching, then revisited it in early 30s. Now, I run a strength-conditioning facility with a baseball focus (Absolute Sports Performance). I've been with US Elite for six or seven years with US Elite.
 
I had some kids (with Blue Chips) who were pretty good players, and from that 2018 graduating class I sent a couple of players to a US Elite tryout, because I felt like they needed more exposure, and they both made it. I sent two more in 2019, two more from 2020, and all six of them are D-I players right now. After that, Mark Helsel sat down with me at a restaurant; we talked baseball, and there was an opportunity to coach a 2021 team. A lot of it for me, being a longtime coach, was the values they believed in and instilled about the game that I also thoroughly believed. That was in line with me and what baseball should be about. That first group, 8^th graders going into 9^th grade, 21 players when we finished, and all 21 of those young men are playing college baseball at a pretty high level. It was a very rewarding experience for me; that caliber of players and young men we were able to recruit, to be a team, those are the fondest memories I'll have in baseball. We're interested in creating men who are going to be successful in life and not just winning baseball games. Baseball mimics life in a lot of ways.
 
Ben: I had the crazy thought of playing baseball as a six-foot, 175-pound first baseman, was a walk-on at a JUCO in Florida, moved to right field, then became a pitcher and was drafted twice, played at NAIA Birmingham Southern, a very competitive environment. I played five seasons with the Kansas City and Detroit organizations, then got into coaching in the late 90s with high school.
 
I started thinking about something for coaching outside of youth/12u; I got with Bill on a 13u team and we've been together ever since. We are business partners with US Elite, and it's blossomed. We have great roots here in the area. We are people who want to do it right, give these young men a chance to play college baseball and maybe go further.
 
Coming up through the ranks, from rec baseball through travel baseball – you get to 13u, and you may not understand it outside of the local scene, and the levels you could attain. We started to think about that, and we saw that US Elite was a place you could get in, a national program where you play elite competition, create a name, and you end up a better ballplayer because you wore a US Elite uniform. When I first met Mark Helsel, I saw he was good at selling his organization and the concept of "uncommon standards" but I could see he was legit and knew what he was talking about. It was something I had to be a part of. After a couple years I really appreciated the weight and the value of "uncommon standards" – we do things with class and respect. We try to develop character. Schoolwork is important (3.0 GPA minimum). You appreciate rather than berate an umpire and our parents do not interfere in the games. I think it's carried over to other aspects of my life, and it's a better way to live.
 
Q: Do you focus on coaching in ways that recall your past, or do you focus more on how the game looks today and is evolving?
 
Bill: Every coach I played for, in multiple sports growing up, I learned something from everyone, good or bad. That evolved into my style of coaching – I look back, and you also learn from experience. I laugh sometimes when I look back at my own (methods). This day and age, there are so many things, the tech, that can make players better, and I do want to learn and be part of figuring out ways to help kids get better and reach their goals.
 
I would add that in the relationships with the players, being transparent is the best skill set you can have as a coach. Communication, believe in what you say and be true to your word … that's extremely important. If a player can take and use constructive criticism, that's not a negative. Over the years, that was a difference for me, whether good coaches or bad. On the teams that weren't as successful, the communication could have been better. I love that my players know where they stand with me, and I feel as long as I'm coaching, I'll still be learning.
 
Ben: I'm in it, 100 percent, I have the baseball gene and I live it and breathe it. I even tried to quit and step back, and it draws me back in. I coached with Bill at a high school, stepped away from it to let my son have his space, ended up US Elite, USA Baseball, the NTIS program … I actually ended up doing more. I try to find what a kid does well and expand on it, help them understand what people are telling them. You have to explain why, or you're not accomplishing anything as a coach. You want him freed up and to be athletic.
 
And for pitching, the mental side is the proper way, if you don't understand what you're doing out there, you can't accomplish it. I never want to coach a game without thinking of the kids first and their future. I still feel like I'm an old-school guy, I think there are a lot of things about how it was played, the grit and the fearlessness, younger players and coaches can learn from that.
 
Bill: I'm also about, don't be afraid to fail. Let the guys play. As a young coach, I tried to control things a lot more. Today, I coach them up in practice, and then let them play. I want them to play loose and confident, and ready to learn. Once I started doing that, the boys got a lot better and played a lot better, too.
 
Q: What's been useful to your players and families about the Pathway experience?
 
Bill: I've done Richmond multiple times; I do remember it was extremely hot last year. But it's a great event, top-notch and first-class. We played nine games in five days, and our 2023 US Elite team won the event. It was great baseball. I always look forward to that one on our schedule.
 
Ben: Richmond is my favorite venue; I absolutely loved it there. The competition was steady, and it draws tons of talent. And the way it was run, that's the best in my eyes, better than a lot of other events we go to, even national events we go to. One thing that stood out was the umpiring; it was phenomenal. I couldn't have been more impressed; I'd have my team play Pathway every single year.