Readers and area coaches would be forgiven if the name Blue Claws doesn’t ring a bell. Plant City’s newest travel team is roughly two months old and was put together on a whim.
But don’t mistake this squad for a one-summer deal. Head coach Chris Fry and his staff have been getting this team some valuable experience and exposure, and it looks like this team is here for the long haul.
Fry originally created the Blue Claws as a PCLL All-Star team for kids in the 7 to 8 machine pitch group. Like the already-established Bulldogs and Warriors, the Blue Claws were set to compete in the machine pitch tournaments held before the rest of the PCLL All-Stars were even selected.
“It started off with my assistant coach, Steve Jackson,” Fry says. “We did Little League together. We were talking about it, and another coach from another team, and then we started spreading the word a little bit. We have five coaches now, and all of the dads are involved, which is good. It was pretty easy to find a good team.”
But the coach wanted to keep the kids playing beyond the All-Star schedule. He wanted to give the kids a team to keep them in shape throughout the whole summer, something they wouldn’t be able to do in town until they became old enough to join the Plant City Raiders 9U team.
“The Bulldogs are a 9U team, and the Warriors are an 8U team,” Fry says. “The kids at age 7 had nothing.”
Creating this team not only gives kids in this age group a chance to keep playing over the summer, but it also gives Fry a chance to bond with his two young sons, Timmy and Tyler.
“I have two sons on the team,” Fry says. “My youngest son really loves baseball. It’ll be time to go in, my other son’s in the house, but he’ll be out there until it’s dark. I loved baseball like that when I was a kid.”
The Blue Claws competed in the Battle for Tampa tournament over the weekend of June 19, finishing in fifth place in the 7U age group. The team was invited to compete in the GSA World Series, held the weekend of June 26, and despite going 0-5, the boys and coaches learned plenty from playing against some of the top teams in the state of Florida.
“We hung with them, and we competed with them, but we went 0-5,” Fry says. “The team that won it, the Riverview Rockets, we were right with them until the last inning. It took a grand slam for them to beat us. These are teams that the Bulldogs, the top team, have a hard time beating.”
Besides a winning group, one of the main things Fry and the coaches are building with this team is a true-blue Plant City team.
“All of the kids are from PCLL — we’re not recruiting kids from other places, like other travel ball teams,” Fry says. “We’re going to keep it a Plant City thing, even though we’re hoping to do more tournaments in more places next year.”
The Bulldogs and Warriors are at the end of their summer tournament schedules, but the Blue Claws are set to keep going. Fry says that the team will compete in two more summer tournaments, the Summer Slam and Summer Sizzler, both held in the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World, before transitioning to fall ball in August. The Summer Slam tournament begins July 10, and the Summer Sizzler begins July 24. Both will be held at the fields at Ellis-Methvin Park.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
JOIN UP
Anyone interested in signing their children up for the fall ball season can contact head coach Chris Fry before August 8, when the team plans to hold tryouts. To reach Fry, call (813) 526-0757 or email him at daddyfrychris@yahoo.com.