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How good are Ronnie’s Redmen? Best of the bunch in the MVC? Maybe, but don’t tell that to the Hillies.

Apr 2nd, 2008 by Hector Longo

Your local diamond may not drain until May, but it is the high school baseball season, time to talk a little MVC baseball.
And if you’re talking MVC in 2008, you’re talking Tewksbury.
Plain and simple, pick a media outlet. The Redmen are hotter than the iphone.
Three all-leaguers, including one all-scholastic back, six league all-stars return in all. The horse, UConn-bound Scotty Oberg, coach Ron Drouin’s club has the North’s attention.
But I make this next question with complete sincerity: Are the Redmen, picked by many as the team to beat in Division 2 North and by some as the team to watch in any division, any section in this state, even the best team in the MVC Small?
On paper, it’s a two-team race, Tewksbury and Haverhill, and Tewks merits the edge. But is it as gaping as the so-called experts out there might suggest?
Tewksbury and the Hillies fought tooth-and-nail for the MVC small a year ago, with the Hillies dropping both games to the boys from the Bury.
That was the difference in the small race.
Both teams return a bundle. The Hillies have all three top pitchers back.
Talk quality, here.
When Oberg chose UConn over UVM, the Catamounts had a plan B in waiting. And that was Haverhill righty Leif Sorenson.
Sorenson wasn’t even healthy from the start last year, nursing a shoulder injury. He’s healthy and dangerous now.
Taylor Robinson and Sean Hayden add depth and the experience of 10 combined wins last year.
Maybe, the lack of respect for the folks in Brown and Gold has to do with some other sports struggles there in the Shoe City.
Tewks is not St. John’s Prep. They don’t bludgeon teams. They pitch and catch as well as anyone, probably better than nearly everyone. But they don’t swing it a ton.
If you had to rank the teams in the MVC 1-10 right now, before the first pitch is tossed, sure, it’d be:
1. Tewksbury, 2. Haverhill, 3. Andover, 4. Central, 5. Lowell, 6. Methuen, 7. Dracut, 8. Lawrence, 9. Chelmsford, 10. Billerica.
But 1-5 aren’t separated by much. And six could be a dangerous sleeper.
Now if only the weather could cooperate. We’d love to see how this thing plays out.

Posted in Hector Longo | View Comments

  • Tom Tuttle

    Yawn…

    Ronnie’s Redmen, that’s almost comical. Drouin is fortunate to coach in a town that has residents with the means to send their kids to camps and clinics. Ronnie’s Redmen are as much a product of his coaching as McDonald’s is to fine cuisine.

    It befuddles me when I read articles inflating one’s ego…

    But whatever…Looks like the other 9 teams in the conference are just filler for Ronnie to feast on.

    I’ll be back at the end of the season after the “Great Collapse of ’08″.

  • Hector Longo

    Tom Tuttle?
    From Tacoma, Washington?
    Great movie, TT.
    Wow, those are some tough words about my man, Ronnie.
    The man has a dynasty going at Tewks, with eight MVC small titles in the last 10 years, and you’re dissing him.
    Wow.
    Tewksbury will be hunted, so we’ll see.
    But you can’t deny, he’s nurtured and produced some serious talent.

    HL

  • Smitty

    8 MVC small titles in the last 10 years…not bad, but in most other sports that kind of performance would have gotten you a bump up to the large division after three or four titles. Move the Redmen up and lets see how they fair and bump one of the bottom large teams down.

  • http://TEWKSBURY Terry Francona

    With that talent, I’m not so sure we stack up with them.

  • mike

    wow, How can you not win with division 1 prospects not much coaching for Haverhill and tewks let those guys go out and wing it. Rumor has it the Lancers might suprise teams and they are going in the right direction and see how those coaches you drool over would fair In lawrence.

  • dave giribaldi

    These blogs are a cowards heaven! Take cheap shots at people and sign an alias. Were I come from you are a coward. If you have to take a cheap shot at someone then have the courage to sign your name. Let me tell all you yahoo’s out there that Coach Drouin is the best Coach in the Valley if, not the state. Why? Because he works his tail off! It is not a three month a year job, he is working constantly to become a better coach.
    Eight championships out of ten and he still goes to any coaching clinic he can find, to a college practice,watches film or any other thing he can find that might benefit his kids and his program. Ask any college coach in these parts about high school baseball coaches in this area and Coach Drouin’s name will be at the top of their list.
    Tewksbury has a few very good players this year so he doesn’t have to show up, no, that would be other programs. They have good players and they will be prepared every game. I know every baseball player in the valley would love to play for a guy that puts the effort into it that he does, whether you be a great player or an every day plugger.
    For Mike (?), take it from someone who coached in Lawrence, he would succeed because he would refuse to do anything else. His effort and results wouldn’t change just the color of the uniform.

  • brendan neilon

    I agree with coach gera. I have been coaching in lawrence for 10 years now and Mike don’t feel sorry for us. As for ronnie Drouin he is good for our league and has always been a friend to lawrence High . When we short equipment he has always been there .They don’t rank you number 1 for nothing . I think our league is the best and any positive that comes only helps the league as a whole .

  • Tom Tuttle

    Dave,
    Where you came from…You played with what you had. How many clinics did you or your teammates attend while playing at LHS? Coaching at LHS? How was Lawrence Baseball in the 80′s? It is obvious that kids in Lawrence, Haverhill and Lowell do not have the same advantages as kids at Tewksbury, Central, Chelmsford and the such. There is a huge advantage to being able to attend clinics, sending your kid to a personal trainer or to be able to bring someone in for private lessons.

    To say that Ronnie has done what he has done with just his knowledge and ability is absurd. All things being equal, Bob Walsh did far more with his resources than Drouin. If Drouin wants to prove his greatness, leave Tewksbury and take on a losing program and turn it around like Bettencourt and McCathy did for the Lancers.

    I don’t have it in for Ronnie, I just find it insulting to the other teams and coaches in the league. To disqualify their coaching abililty and their kids playing abililty by proclaiming Ronnie as some fanstastical human being is just nonsense. Ronnie was put in a position to succeed from day 1.

    Coach Neilon has had his truthers with having to split talent with Central and GLRVHS, or by having kids leave the city for other towns because parents are being deported. Are we to assume his(Neilon) coaching skills are as inferior to Drouin’s as their “Career” records show?

    I agree with Smitty, in the spirit of compettion and for reasons of motivation, maybe Tewksbury should move up to the large schools. Give some of the inferior small school teams a chance at victory.

    Tom

  • David Giribaldi

    Tom,
    First off, my boy does not need defending, but I have to write back. ALL THINGS ARE NOT EQUAL! Tewksbury is not Andover, it is a hard working middle class community, not every kid in Tewksbury has the advantages you speak of. Some of those kids are in pretty similar circumstances as Haverhill kids. Everyone has a story.
    You make it sound as if Tewksbury is a feeder system for the Red Sox, there not. Tewksbury during coach Drouin’s tenure has not had great players every year, but yet they find a way to get it done.
    If you want to talk about EQUAL lets compare the school’s you are comparing. MIAA statistics Boy’s enrollment grades 9-12: Haverhill 980, Lawrence 1,263, Tewksbury 532 (Lowell 1,954, Methuen 971, Chelmsford 872) You are comparing schools that have more than double and close to double the enrollment then Tewksbury and once again there are no excuses they just get it done. Every school has there issues. It is what you do to overcome them. As a coach which would you rather have a kid who attended a clinic or 500 more boys to chose from.

    Walshy did an awsome job in Haverhill. I think Brendon does an awesome job in Lawrence. It doesn’t mean there job is tougher than anybody else. The situation is what you make it. Between my last two years in Lawrence our players played in 134 spring, summer, and fall league games. I am going to bet more than anyone in our region that year. They also attended the best basketball camp on the east coast, Eastern Invitational in New Jersey, at no cost to them. Each situation has pluses and minuses, and the bottom line is you can’t make excuses you have to find a way to get it done.

  • Tom Tuttle

    Every city/town has it’s story, you are right Tewksbury is not Andover, it may not even be North Andover for matter, but to make a generalization that Tewksbury and Haverhill are very similar is crazy talk. Tewksbury has 25,000 residents with a median household income of $79,000, the median cost of a house in Tewksbury is $325,000…Compared to Haverhill’s 56,000 people, median household income of $52,000 and the average house cost $248,000…Haverhill has to compete with Whittier, much like Lawrence competes with the Voke and C.C….We’ll have to agree to disagree on this point…No wait, if you look at the populations of town/city, versus boys enrollment Tewksbury has a higher average…What? Lawrence has 1,200 boys in a city of 76,000, while Tewksbury has 532 boys enrolled in a city of 25,000…See the obvious. Lawrence has 3 times the population and only twice the male enrollment, while the picking may seem twice as good, how many of these students at lawrence are transients or academically inelligible? Who knows, but I am willing to bet everything I own Tewksbury does not have a drop out rate as high as Lawrence? So again, I disagree with the point trying to be made that Lawrence has more to pick from.

    You asked if I would rather have a kid who attends a clinic or 500 boys to pick from….I suppose if it were just 1 kid who attends a clinic and not a multiple of them I would opt for the 500, but since we are talking baseball here and not football and since 1 kid can make a differnece to a team…I’d take the kid who attends the clinics…Just as I would in Basketball as well.

    I have one question for you…How were your teams your last 2 years in Lawrence?

    -Tom

  • RD

    Are you serious Tom…Dave Betancourt did nothing but use the kids from Lawrence…The guy is a snake and leaves everywhere after a few seasons…the guy has a long list of people he’s either stolen $$ from or money he owes…..Sean McCarthy on the other hand is by far the best coach in this area for a long time

  • Tom Tuttle

    RD,

    DB put a winning product out where ever he went, more often than not after the team had poor success prior to his arrival, that’s the point being made. What he did or who he owes is his own problem.

    For the record, I do not challenge Drouin’s character or moral fibre, he and I know plenty of the same people, who are all good people and who wouldn’t associate themselves with a dirtbag.

    As for Sean McCathy, I agree completely and wholeheartedly with you.

    Tom

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