by George Caratzas
For the third straight year, the Farmingdale Baseball League is hosting its annual coaches clinic on Sunday, Feb. 1.
Inspired by the World Baseball Coaches’ Convention, the clinic is designed as an opportunity for local youth baseball and softball coaches to share ideas and grow the community.
After stepping away from coaching, founder Mike LoGerfo — the vice president of the Farmingdale Baseball League — created the clinic in 2024.
“I was the varsity baseball coach at Locust Valley High School in the mid-2000s, and I was very fortunate to go to the World Baseball Convention,” LoGerfo told Axcess Baseball. “That was an awesome event, and I learned so much from the presenters. I have a lot of connections in baseball, and I thought this was something we could do locally.”
LoGerfo booked speakers from all across Long Island’s baseball and softball scene, from High School and youth coaches to college coaches and scouts.
Among the notable names is fifth-year Iona College head coach and Long Island native Conor Burke.
“I just want to give back to youth baseball,” Burke said. “I feel youth baseball is so important, and those coaches have so much value in those kids’ future of playing the game. Any information I can give them to make a kid’s experience more enjoyable is a total win for me.”
While on-field training is a crucial piece of any player’s development, intangible aspects and the relationship with their coach are a major tenet of Hauppauge coach Josh Gutes’ message.
“Our presentation is that words matter,” Gutes said. “We’re not even talking about the baseball skills side of things. My presentation is on how to communicate with kids.”
Originally, the clinic is centered around scheduled presentations from coaches. However, last year — perhaps by fluke — one of the biggest selling points was added. After a presenter dropped from the event due to a personal conflict at the last minute, LoGerfo added a roundtable discussion to the end of the day. On Sunday, the panel-style session is built into the schedule.
According to Gutes, that was the highlight.
“It was just a bunch of us coaches sitting behind a table and everyone else fired out some questions,” Gutes said. “It was great piggybacking answers and seeing what we do the same, what some guys do differently. That’s something I’m looking forward to doing again.”
In 2025, LoGerfo added softball to the event’s repertoire, and even in just its third year overall, the clinic has had no issues finding attendees and speakers.
“This year we have even more softball presenters and most of the baseball presenters have been with us for three years,” LoGerfo said. “The only ones who haven’t come back are not because they want to, but because they have conflicts. We end up having to turn presenters away because we only have so many slots.”
Another highlight is Keith Osik, who has been the head baseball coach at Farmingdale State since 2005. Osik graduated from Shoram-Wading River High School and Louisiana State University before playing parts of 10 seasons in Major League Baseball.
The clinic starts at 8:30 am, with check-in starting at 8 am. More information can be found at www.fdalebaseball.com.
George Caratzas is a reporter with The SBU Media Group, part of Stony Brook University’s School of Communication and Journalism’s Working Newsroom program for students and local media.
