The Tustin Titans was founded by Coach Vince Brown, Coach Tim O’Donoghue, Jill Aronson, Ira Green, Rick, and Craig Jennings in 2001 and continues to provide quality instruction and produce quality baseball players. We are the primary feeder program for all 3 schools in Tustin (Tustin, Foothill, and Beckman)
It was created so that kids in the Tustin area could get a high school / college baseball education before they enter high school. We expose our players to a high school atmosphere so they are not caught off guard the summer they enter their school’s program. Don't be fooled by other programs that claim to develop for high school because they play a ton of games (do your research and ask questions). We are all about quality and not quantity. Our season mimics a high school season as close as possible without burning out our players and still allowing them to be kids. There is a noticeable amount of improvement in each of our players from season to season. Each team is coached by professionals who are committed to improve both physical and mental skills of our players. Practices and games are run like a high school / college program. Our system converts into the majority of high schools in Orange County. Former players have gone on to play at the following schools: Villa Park, Tustin, Foothill, Orange Lutheran, Mater Dei, Marina, El Modena, Capistrano Valley, Beckman, Canyon, Servite, and Woodbridge.
While attending Cal State Fullerton, Adrian and Will had the honor of studying under and working with world renowned sports psychologist Dr. Ken Ravizza. Through classes and side projects suggested by Dr. Ravizza, the Titans have intergraded strategies and a system to better help players with the mental game. Our system is modeled after Dr. Ravizza’s teachings and includes our own techniques and strategies. These concepts that we present to our players help separate them from other players with equal physical talent.
Teams are comprised of players scouted at local little leagues and players who show potential during the tryouts. Each team has 4-8 of spots available for players looking at a fair opportunity to play competitive baseball and get quality instruction. We only keep 8-12 players from the previous season as the core of our roster and we continually look to improve our team by holding tryouts before every season for the remaining roster spots to get stronger in areas we feel are necessary. Players who are not a part of the core 8-12 are encouraged to try out again. These players have the advantage against new players (because we have had more opportunities to see them play and practice) with comparable talent as their try out performance will be the most influencing factor in determining who is chosen for the team. New players can and will be added to the roster every season.
Our experienced staff is ready to train and prepare any player who wants to get the proper training before they go to high school. There are no POLITICS in our organization. Playing time is based on PERFORMANCE and ADJUSTMENTS made in both practices and games and show the highest probability of success. There are 3 categories in which players will be put into from now and until they end their baseball career: Starters, Part-Time Starters, and Innings guy. There are usually 4-7 players who have EARNED the role of starters and they get the majority of innings and don’t come out of the line-up a whole lot. Next, there are 4-7 part-time starters who get the next chunk of starts and get filtered in to full up the line-up. Finally, the remaining players are inning players who will get their occasional starts but will serve mostly by coming off the bench as a pitch hitter, runner and defense replacements. Please read the following carefully so that there is no misconception of how our program works. Every player EARNS his playing time based on everything that all the coaches see throughout their time with us. Roles are assigned to player before and during the season. These roles can CHANGE at any time during the course of the season and are not set in stone. We will play our hottest 9-10 guys (or the guys that give us the best opportunity for success at that given moment) and are not always going to be our best 9-10 guys. This allows us to give every player an equal shot at playing time. This means that the players can control their own destiny and need to take advantage of opportunities that are given to them since there are only 9-10 playing spots. This is a travel ball baseball team (not little league) and there will be players on our roster that will not play all the time.
Our system works and is proven with the success of teams each season and success of players during their high school career. Players are put in stressful situations during practices that will allow them to be more comfortable during games and in high school. Players will go through their trials and error with us, while most players will go through them during their freshman and sophomore year in high school. We teach our players to become complete players so that they can have more opportunities in the future. In the past 8 years, every player that has finished on our 14U Spring team has made their high school team the following year. This is a stat that Coach Adrian and Will take a lot of pride in and plan on continuing each year.
For anyone who is interested in our program please contact Coach Adrian Mendoza. Or feel free to attend any of our practices (practices are open to viewers) and see for yourself what our program in all about. Just click on calendar for actual dates and time.
Varsity Players as Freshman
Colin Welmon – Foothill High School 08
Chris Barnett – El Modena High School 08
Justin Hazard – Beckman High School 08
Jake Riggs – Tustin High School 10
Derek Villalobos – Tustin High School 10
Nate Figueroa – Tustin High School 10
David May – Segerstrom High School 10
Players Drafted
James Simmons (SVD) – OAK 07 (1st Round #26)
Daniel Renken (SVD, OCBS) – COL 07 (#1058)
Gerrit Cole (TT, SVD, OCBS) – NYY 08 (1st Round #28)
Corey Arbiso (SVD) – NYY 08 (2nd Round #680)
Michael Eledrson (SVD) – ALT 08 (Undrafted Free Agent)
Grant Green (SVD) – OAK 09 (1st Round #13)
Eric Bovich (SVD) – SD 09 (Undrafted Free Agent)