West Memphis School District making moves in spring sports
Blue Devils investing in future of baseball, softball programs
By BILLY WOODS
WM School District
The West Memphis School District is making an unprecedented push for upgrading its baseball and softball programs.
And they aren’t messing around, either.
The biggest move toward that end came last night when the WMSD introduced its new head baseball coach, Brooks Balesterri.
The 27-year-old Benton native, who is currently an assistant coach at Malvern, met with an estimated audience of 65 current players, future players and their families at the Academies of West Memphis cafeteria on Tuesday night. Balesterri comes highly recommended from the best baseball coaches in the Mid-South. Brooks is the son of longtime Benton head baseball coach Mark Balesterri, whose Panther team is making another state tournament run this season.
To lure the young Balesterri here, WMSD administrators made a strong commitment, along with the City of West Memphis, to upgrade the baseball facilities at Tilden Rodgers Complex, to also bring in three more paid fulltime assistant coaches and two more volunteer coaches to cover both the high school and junior high programs.
Also, another plan was introduced to upgrade the conditioning programs for the baseball and softball players during school hours.
“We are all very excited about our plans for both the
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Looking good in blue: New Blue Devils baseball coach Brooks Balesterri waves to the crowd at a special meet and greet welcoming him to the West Memphis School District. Learn more about Coach Balesterri in a special feature inside.
Photo by Billy Woods SPORTS
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baseball and softball programs,” said athletic director Billy Elmore. “We wanted improvements done across the board and we think we’re giving our new coaches all they need to succeed. As for our new baseball coach, I’m so excited about Brooks right now I think I could step into the batter’s box at 49 years old.”
The WMSD will announce its new softball head coach in the coming days.
As far as the new offseason program for the baseball and softball players, the AWM will offer strength and conditioning classes during the school day. They will be offered during first through sixth periods. Coaches responsible for this will be head football coach Robert Hooks, Balesterri and the new softball coach.
Emphasis will be placed on “building athletes,” not individual sport performance.
“The reason we decided on building athletes is very simple,” said Elmore. “If you’re a baseball player and you don’t have the core strength, you’ll get the bat knocked out of your hands against good pitching. We want strong athletes playing both softball and baseball.”
Facility upgrades will include installing artificial turf at the high school fields at Tilden Rodgers Complex. Other improvements include enlarging home dugouts with locker rooms, additional hitting cages and field nets for both fields.
Upgrading the coaching staffs will also include Balesterri bringing one assistant coach with him as well as two other full-time paid assistant coaches, one of which is former Blue Devil baseball and football player Parker Grigsby, a 2014 graduate of AWM.
After exhaustive research, Elmore said Balesterri was the easy choice.
“It was obvious right off the bat,” said Elmore. “We were five minutes into it, and just listening to his passion about coaching baseball and how excited he was about the game. I made up my mind in the first five minutes of the first conversation with him. We hit a grand slam on this one.”
The level of commitment the WMSD is making toward these two programs impressed the large gathering Tuesday night.
Mark Balesterri has been the head coach at Benton for 30 years. He has coached numerous Division 1 players as well as Major League Baseball star pitcher Cliff Lee.
He noted the commitment the school district is making for his son to take over the Blue Devil baseball program.
“I can tell you two things,” he said. “First, if we had Brooks on our staff as an assistant right now he would be a huge asset. Now, I know coming from the Dad that sounds very biased. But, he has coaching in his blood and his IQ for the game is off the charts. Second, I’ve been at Benton a long time and I don’t even have three paid assistant coaches. That’s saying something.”
Balesterri said he will hit the ground running immediately after his current season ends at Malvern. He said he will field summer travel teams for players in the sixth grade through 11th grade.
Balesterri also said there will be a week-long summer camp announced soon.
“Going and playing in (summer) tournaments is so much fun,” Brooks said. “I think wearing West Memphis on your chest and on your cap when you roll up to the park is going to be really cool. It’ll be something our kids and parents can take pride in. I think you go ask any good baseball coach what contributes to their success the most and they’ll say their youth program.”
