By Mike Moore
C & G Sports Writer

TROY — Traveling into the future may be a few years and few crazy science experiences away.

But looking into the future, well, the Troy High and Troy Athens baseball programs have had that figured out for the past few years.

Since 2006, the Troy Hurricanes Baseball Program has existed with the goal of preparing Troy’s middle school boys for careers at Troy High and Athens.

The Hurricanes, a two-team (divided by age), 25-member program that competes in the North Oakland Baseball Federation and the Macomb Amateur Baseball Federation, is designed for middle school boys who live in Troy and wish to play baseball at the high school level.

“For whatever reason, Troy doesn’t have a middle school program for baseball, like it does for football and basketball, for example,” said Brian Ferrilla, the Hurricanes’ program director.

“More or less, we needed a mechanism to provide the high school programs with some up-and-coming talent. The skills and knowledge the Hurricanes’ program teaches adheres to the high schools’ philosophies that these kids will see and need in the future.”

The Hurricanes wrapped up the 2008 season July 13 at Flynn Park in the first annual Troy Red and Black Game.

More than 100 people were in attendance for the game, which combined the two teams and then split the players up according to what high school they will eventually attend.

Athens coach Mike Morris coached the Athens Future team, while Troy skipper Frank DiVito led the Troy Future team.

“Things couldn’t have been scripted any better,” Ferrilla said of the game, a 13-12 victory by Athens. “The rivalry has already shown itself. It was pretty cool.”

The coach of each team spoke glowingly of the Hurricanes’ program.

“It’s going to do nothing but pay dividends down the road,” DiVito said. “Mike (Morris) and I have been working with the middle school kids, and a program like this allows them to know what’s to be expected when they arrive at high school.”

“It really is outstanding for us to have a direct feeder like this,” Morris said.
According to Ferrilla, participation in the program is expected to increase to about 27 or 28 next season.

“As we continue to grow, we hope to attract some of the top baseball players in the city,” Ferrilla said. “Our ultimate vision is that every one of the kids graduating from our program that wants to play freshmen baseball will do so, and be ready to do so.”

Tryouts for the 2009 teams will be held July 28-29, Aug. 5 and Aug. 7 at 6 p.m. at Martell Elementary in Troy. For more information, contact program director Brian Ferrilla at (248) 390-7755 or bferrilla@ wideopenwest.com.

You can reach Sports Writer Mike Moore at mmoore@candgnews.com or at (586) 498-1038.