When I spoke to Two Harbors Baseball Coach Adam Labat, he was crossing fingers that the weather would improve with the double header scheduled for Thursday, April 11th, against Cook County. If we think back to last season, there was a lot of snow on the ground yet. This season it seemed baseball could get going outdoors earlier than ever, but the snow and rain put a damper on it like a bad April Fool’s Day prank.
This is Coach Labat’s first season as head coach of the baseball team. He was an assistant coach last year. He was drawn to coaching baseball because of his love for the sport. He played all through his youth in Marshall, Minnesota where he grew up. He also played throughout his college career.
As a well-rounded team needs a well-rounded coaching staff, Coach Labat is thankful to have assistant coaches Tim Perfetto, Lyn Wermter, and Jeremy Lampela. “I’m grateful they stepped forward, it was kind of late notice,” said Coach Labat. He had been hired just this February, so there wasn’t a whole lot of time to put together staff. They know each other well and have coached youth baseball and other sports together.
Coach Labat describes this season’s team as “young,” as several seniors graduated last year. “Our focus is to improve over the course of the year,” he said. “I think we still have a great opportunity to win some games with the talent that we have.”
When I asked about the strengths he’s seen with this team so far, he didn’t hesitate to answer. “First, it’s the character of our kids,” he said. “I enjoy going to practice every day because everybody that shows up, all the kids, everybody has a good attitude.”
According to their coach, the team is already displaying good defense skills and they’ve been focusing on building their offense. The team consists of fourteen players in ninth through twelfth grade and fourteen that are in seventh and eighth grade, which is quite an age range.
“We have a lot more numbers coming up,” said Coach Labat. “From the standpoint of high school numbers, we really don’t have as many as I would like. It looks like that trend is going to change.”
He attributes this to the focus the community is putting into youth baseball. “We have more engagement with youth baseball which is going to help feed our high school program,” he said. In the past, the program was a city wide league, where the young players would scrimmage each other. These days there is a wide league that stretches from Grand Marais to Moose Lake, which brings more competitiveness and excitement to the program.
If you would like to follow the Agates baseball team this season, download the app “Game Changer.” This application truly is a game changer! “It’s basically a baseball scorebook in digital form,” said the coach. It tracks pitches and all the plays in real time. It will also provide summaries of the games. Once the app is downloaded, search “2024 Two Harbors Varsity Agates,” to follow the team. Anyone can join and keep score.
It’s also always fun to attend the games in person and I’m excited to do so. Hope to see you there, too!
