Chambers envisions a winner

Spencer Patterson

Thursday, July 29, 1999 | 10:13 a.m.

Standing surrounded by dirt, on a plot that will soon become the Community College of Southern Nevada baseball field, head coach Tim Chambers acts like a kid in a candy store.

"We'll have hybrid-bermuda (grass) in the infield and outfield, 300-seat bleachers behind the backstop and a press box behind that," says Chambers, with a wide smile on his face.

And who can blame him for his enthusiasm? Although Chambers earned a reputation as one of the top prep coaches in Nevada during his 10 years at Bishop Gorman, amassing more than 230 wins, he never had a field to call his own.

While peers such as Green Valley's Rodger Fairless and Durango's Mike Gomez spent the 1990s in two of the Southwest's top high school ballparks, Chambers' Gaels played their home games at Hadland Park, a city field they shared with adult leagues and kids' leagues alike.

Now, with CCSN's Henderson campus baseball facility slated to be finished by Sept. 1, Chambers finally sees the light at the end of the tunnel for CCSN's first foray into organized sports.

"In my opinion, Gorman was one of the top two programs in town in the '90s, and we didn't have our own facility," Chambers said. "I'm finally going to be a guy who can go out and rake and water and work on his own field."

Although the ballpark is still in its early stages -- construction began just three weeks ago -- Chambers already has every inch memorized, from the pile of bricks that will soon become a home dugout to a stake in the dirt representing the site of the eventual pitching mound.

"It'll be 300 feet down the lines, 380 in the gaps and 400 to center with a 16-foot fence in center field," Chambers said. "We've got mountains in the background, so it sets up pretty nicely."

So far, the same could be said for the entire baseball program, as Chambers and his assistants appear to have the school's first-ever varsity team in position for a competitive inaugural season.

"I've put all my efforts into putting CCSN on the map," Chambers said. "I think it has the potential to be a powerhouse."

Working the phones

Although Chambers and his three-man staff (outfield/hitting coach Richard Ebarb, the former head coach at Chaparral; infield coach M.J. Mariani, a former UNLV assistant; and pitching coach Glen Evans, a longtime Chambers assistant at Gorman) have been in their new offices for less than three weeks, they are already fielding more than 30 calls a day from kids interested in playing for the first-year Coyotes.

"It's been a grind for us," Chambers said. "It seems like we've been on the phone from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every night."

Not that the Coyotes are lacking for athletes. Far from it, they already have commitments from more than 30 players, including many of Southern Nevada's top 1999 graduates.

Among the Coyotes' first recruits are such local notables as infielders John DiBetta (Durango), Ben Quinto (Gorman) and Dwayne Sparks (Chaparral), outfielders Nick Didier (Gorman), John Slack (Green Valley) and Mike Luczyinski (Cimarron-Memorial) and pitchers Jason Vita (Silverado), Ryan Myers (Green Valley) and Richard Kilby (Durango).

"With the level of high school baseball here, if we do things the right way, we're going to win," Chambers said.

Also in the fold are several 1997 and '98 area grads, including catcher Sean West (Green Valley '97), infielder Matt McCurdy (Durango '98) and pitcher/ infielder Ryan Lee (Gorman '97).

For Lee, who redshirted last season at Utah's Dixie College, CCSN represents an opportunity to represent his hometown on the field again.

"It's an honor to be on the first team here and try to get some tradition started," said Lee, who played for Chambers on Gorman's 1998 American Legion World Series club. "Plus, everything that Chambers is involved in is a first-class operation."

With five of their 24 scholarships slotted for out-of-state recruits, the Coyotes have also had some success outside Nevada -- something of a surprise considering the school's coaching staff got a late start on recruiting after only officially coming together this summer.

Highlighting the out-of-state commitments are: Ernie Tapia Jr., a pitcher from Arizona; pitcher Richard Gilbert, a Montana native transferring here after a year at the College of Eastern Utah; and John Perry, a first baseman from Colorado.

Gilbert and Perry come to Nevada with extra-impressive credentials, having been selected by the Texas Rangers and New York Yankees in this summer's Major League draft.

Chambers will also hold tryouts for walk-on hopefuls next month, with a handful expected to earn roster spots.

"We are going to be under a microscope from the community, being the first junior college athletic program in Nevada," Chambers said. "So our top priority has been trying to get a team this season that will be competitive, and I think we've done that."

Setting the schedule

With the Coyotes slated to spend their first season as an independent member of the National Junior College Athletic Association (they'll apply for membership in the Arizona Junior College Athletic Association next season), filling a full schedule was expected to present a problem for Chambers & Co.

When all was said and done, however, the coaching staff found plenty of opponents willing to come to Las Vegas. The Coyotes will play a full 56-game spring schedule, evenly split between home and road, featuring such JC powers as Dixie and Arizona's Mesa and Scottsdale Community Colleges.

A .500 spring record will qualify the team for the NJCAA playoffs.

Additionally, CCSN will play a 20-game fall season, primarily against California opponents and Southern Nevada's own local scout team, made up of the top area seniors. Contests with the latter will also give Coyotes coaches a chance to get a head start scouting next year's top local grads.

Though recruiting and schedule-making have taken up the biggest chunk of Chambers' time, there's no question it's the new field that excites him the most.

"(CCSN President) Dr. (Richard) Moore and Mike Meyer, our athletic director, have gone out of their way in making sure we have the very best facilities and equipment here," Chambers said. "They understand that in order for us to be competitive, we need a front-line facility."

Meyer, who helped raise the money for the ballpark through private donations, said the new field will help put the team on the map.

"It will be a good starting point," Meyer said. "The first year will give us an opportunity to see where we are and where we can go. If we do this right, it will set a standard for all the other sports we plan to have."