By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

Reloaded Baseball celebrated its first year in existence last year and after surpassing most of their goals they intend to knock it out the park with regards to development in 2024. Since day one, Reloaded Baseball has been committed to furthering the development of the youth within their programme while elevating their level of play to be on par with international standards. After a successful start for the relatively new baseball club, the plan for 2024 is to kick it into high gear and check off more objectives on the way to their ultimate goal.

Peron Burnside, president of the Reloaded Baseball programme, was proud of the steps made towards the right direction in 2023 and wants to take it up a notch locally, nationally and internationally in 2024.

“In 2023 we surpassed our initial objectives which was to host at least one invitational and take the kids to international competition. We actually were able to host two invitationals one around Easter and later in October which we had over 30 teams compete in including some Family Islands. It was very successful from a development standpoint; the kids got a lot of reps in. We did our travel ball and hammered down development every week of the year,” Burnside said.

The programme saw their kids compete at their first international event in July at the 10U Perfect Game Florida Summer Select Championship Open in Sanford, Florida. Additionally, Reloaded Baseball had 24 players selected to compete at the Perfect Game 2023 Series Texas Challenge last December.

“In 2024 we want to surpass that because the ultimate goal is to take the kids to international standards. We are now gonna tap into a lot of international entities who are interested in engaging us in developing which comes with camps, training and competitive play. You are going to see Reloaded doing a lot of international engagements to take it to the next level,” the Reloaded Baseball president said.

Some of the international interests on the radar for the programme will include the team traveling to United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) tournaments in Georgia and South Florida this summer. Also, Jovon Edwards, of Palm Beach Select, will join the Reloaded team to conduct a pitchers and catchers camp following the third Reloaded Invitational set for March 29 to April 1. The programme has also garnered attention from high school scouts and coaches abroad who intend to play at the open invitational.

The four-day event will not only see international teams in competition but also clubs from the Family Islands. Reloaded Baseball has made it a point of emphasis to partner with Family Islands to aid in their development and establish more opportunities for interactive play.

“We went into Freeport and spoke with both leagues and we are now planning a weekend tournament between Reloaded teams and the teams in Freeport. They wanted to see how we can interactively come to Freeport to help with the training of the kids. They have been following our programme and are impressed with what we have done in such a short time,”

“We donated some equipment to Abaco to Troy Feaste and his crew and we are also building a pitching mound to send over there to them because pitchers are at a disadvantage. We have Long Island, Exuma, San Salvador, Cat Island, Andros, Bimini, Freeport, Eleuthera and Abaco and we are trying to see how we can enhance and help them with their development initiatives in conjunction with what we are doing,” Burnside said.

Another initiative carried out by Reloaded Baseball was the addition of softball to their programme late last year. The sport is being spearheaded by Stephen “Bishop” Beneby and is set to experience great progress in 2024.

“We had an overwhelming response for softball and have now added a few more coaches to assist Stephen “Bishop” Beneby. The registration for our softball programme involves high school teams coming on board. Also; the coach of the Venezuela national team will be coming down to do some camps with our kids to reach our ultimate goal. A lot more is coming for Reloaded Softball,” he said.

The Reloaded Baseball/Softball executive team members are ready for a prosperous 2024.