lt;bgt;1. Coach Sperry, I have been a fan of Pilot Baseball for many years. Over the years I have seen great players go through the pilot program and on to pro ball. My question is what do you think the future holds for the very talented Kory Casto?lt;/bgt;lt;brgt; Thank you for your support of Pilot Baseball. Yes, we have been fortunate not only in sending a number of players into the ranks of professional baseball, but also in having a number of our alums reach the Major Leagues. Most recently, Tom Lampkin, who caught for the San Diego Padres last season, was not resigned and ended a 10-year MLB career. Kory Casto and Brock Griffin are the current players receiving attention for this year's draft. We have seen both of them blossom and have been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to coach them. Kory is one of the best pure hitters I have ever coached. He is very in touch with his swing and has been around the game a long time. I think he is ready to go out this year and that he will have an excellent professional career. I believe he can be a .300 hitter and has the potential to hit 0 homers, if playing every day in the big leagues. The club who drafts Kory will be betting on the bat. Although he is an excellent defensive out-fielder with enough arm to play left field, he does not run well. He does catch everything he gets to, but likely cause his defensive grade to be knocked down. He will definitely be expected to hit. In the end, he may play in the big leagues as a guy who comes of the bench. Certainly, we wish Kory well. When the time comes, we look forward to following his career.lt;pgt; lt;Pgt;13; lt;bgt;. How do you compete with the teams from California, given that you have a distinct disadvantage weather-wise?lt;/bgt;lt;brgt; Certainly, we do have a disadvantage with weather. This season has been the worst since I began coaching, and it has impacted our teaching and our ability to practice and prepare for competition. We do have an indoor facility, but the space is seriously limited when compared to the fieldhouses that have been constructed on the campuses of our regional Pac 10 opponents. We have enough space to hit, throw bullpens, and do some drill work. However, we do not have the ability to simulate game situations. Another issue is that the facility we use is often rented out by outside groups who do not want the noise we create when we practice. There are times when we have no place to train. As you can imagine, this places a strain on things. With that said, we do have a full field tarp that covers the infield when it is raining. We can keep it down for about three days before it begins to damage the grass. It does a good job of saving games for us, but the practice week may get cheated. We have had some very exciting years in which we have competed at the top of the conference, although we have yet to reach our goal of winning the WCC. I wish I could say that it has been great coaching that has enabled us to compete against the California schools, however the truth is we have been fortunate to coach some very good players who were tough and stubborn enough not to be affected by our weather or the mystique of California baseball. Hopefully, we are developing another young group to do the same ... and to get us to that next level.lt;pgt; lt;Pgt;13; lt;bgt;3. Coach, there are some talented freshman in the WCC. How do you think your freshmen have performed? Have they met your expectations? How difficult is it to rely on freshmen to be consistent especially given the long college season? Which WCC freshmen do you feel have contributed most to their teams? Are there a few that stand out offensively, defensively or both? Who from next year's incoming class do you expect to have an immediate impact?lt;/bgt;lt;brgt; Your question is an important one, and one that I could not have answered with any level of expertise prior to this season. We are currently playing with 17 freshmen. And with one of the smallest rosters in the nation (8), they are all being called on to play roles that they may not be ready for. It has been a very painful process, but one that I think will pay big dividends down the road. The lessons they are learning now will come in very handy as they mature, become more physical, and more mentally and emotionally tough. Generally speaking, what I have learned is that freshmen tend to perform inconsistently. That has been our biggest problem. We will see flashes of what we recruited followed by periods of uncompetitiveness. I was hopeful that we would grow much faster than we have, and that has been a learning experience for me as a coach. One thing I will say is that our freshmen have maintained great attitudes, they work hard every day, and I think they can see down the road to their future success. Dealing with this much adversity has made us all stronger. Next season, I will be a little more reserved about our freshmen. It may be less critical for them to perform immediately, when compared to this year's class. With that said, we have a RHP named Sean Sargent who should be a big impact guy for us before he's through. The rest of our needs have not been finalized as of yet. As far as outstanding WCC freshmen are concerned, I really like the Kahn kid from Loyola. He has an outstanding arm. We also have a freshman center fielder name Tyler Perkins who is going to be a very exciting player to follow.lt;pgt; lt;Pgt;13; lt;bgt;4. What is it like to work for your former coach?lt;/bgt;lt;brgt; I am very grateful to Joe Etzel for giving me the opportunity to coach at this level, and for trusting me to head our baseball program. I have worked at other places where baseball seemed to carry little importance to the administration, so it is nice to have and AD who is a baseball man. Joe is someone for whom I have a great deal of respect. My family and I owe him a lot. In a way, I guess I feel like one of Joe's children. We have known each other a long time, and the need for me to prove myself to him -- just as I did as an 18 year old player -- is still present. Joe does not hand out a lot of pats on the back and that is just his style. I believe that he supports me and our sport to the best of his ability. Joe has always been available to me and we have discussed baseball a ton. We also have the opportunity to work our Pilot Baseball School events together. With that said, a lot of people might think he is constantly second guessing me in the office. If he is, he hasn't done it with me. He has been very fair. I think Joe and I both wish the University had deeper pockets so that we could see baseball at U.P. develop at a quicker pace. He has the unenviable job of sharing the budgets with us each year. lt;/bgt;lt;brgt; lt;Pgt;13; lt;bgt;. There seem to be many new faces on the Pilots' team this season. Is this one of your youngest teams?lt;/bgt;lt;brgt; No question. Not only is it my youngest team, but it might be the youngest team in our history. We have 17 freshmen this year, nearlyeach of whom has played a significant role. We have really struggled to cut our teeth, but I think the lessons we are learning and the experience we are gaining now will really pay off in the coming seasons. We have often played freshmen in the past, however we have been able to surround them by more -experience players. That is not an option this year, as our roster is really unbalanced.lt;pgt; lt;Pgt;13; lt;bgt;6. Coach, Stephen Ball has shown flashes of developing into a top notch pitcher in this league. What are your thoughts on him and what will he need to do to reach that level?lt;/bgt;lt;brgt; Steve has done a good job for us this year, largely because he has demonstrated some level of consistency. To me, pitching boils down to throwing strikes and changing speeds. Steve buys into that. Because he is not overpowering, he must locate his fastball down in the zone and to both sides of the plate. He must also utilize his curve ball and his change, which is an outstanding pitch. Because of his small size, Steve may not profile as a Friday starter. However he has an idea how to pitch and I look forward to each of his outings. He should have an excellent career for us.lt;pgt; lt;Pgt;13; lt;bgt;7. Who has been the toughest team you have faced this season?lt;/bgt;lt;brgt; We have faced several outstanding teams this year and, as usual, the WCC opponents are among the most challenging. I think at the time we saw them, Arizona had the best team we have faced. They are very young, but very good and I think they will have a shot at a national championship in the coming years.lt;pgt; lt;Pgt;13; lt;bgt;8. How important is it to recruit locally versus recruiting out of state talent?lt;/bgt;lt;brgt; As a private school, we are unaffected by out-of-state tuition.Tuition is expensive, even for the kid who grows up in the neighborhood. I can also tell you that recruiting is an ongoing learning process that requires a lot of work and a lot of luck.We feel it is important to see the talent we recruit, and since our recruiting budget is small, we tend to do most of our work here in the Northwest. Certainly, we would love to crack into some new areas and to expose our program on a more regional and national level. Recruiting locally enables you to see to kids play. It also helps with your fan base because the ball park is easily accessible for family and friends. lt;Pgt;