FORT MYERS, Fla. – Welcome to "Fort Jupiter", Florida Burn. It will be exciting do find out if your new digs are just as accommodating to the championship lifestyle you’ve come to enjoy over the last seven years across the state in Jupiter, on Florida’s Atlantic Coast.
The Sarasota-based Florida Burn 2021 National come into this week’s 22nd annual Perfect Game WWBA World Championship being staged here on Florida’s Gulf Coast with an opportunity to accomplish a feat that has only been achieved one other time in the event’s 21-year history.
The nationally prominent Canes Baseball program out of Virginia won three straight WWBA World Championships from 2013-15 and after grabbing titles at each of the last two Jupiter tournaments, the Florida Burn have a chance this week to put their name alongside the Canes in the PG record books.
“I think all of the players in our organization are proud of it; it’s an amazing accomplishment what those kids did the last two years,” Florida Burn program founder/owner/head coach Mark Guthrie told PG during a telephone conversation on Tuesday. “It’s still so seemingly impossible to win that I think you just go in there and you play as hard as you can and you kind of see where it all comes out.
“That’s what our guys have done every year, and every year we go in we tell them that you could walk away from this thing without a win; we felt that way the last two years, as well.”
If the Burn – who were Jupiter runners-up in 2013 – are to win a third straight WWBA World Championship just six days hence, it will be done under circumstances perhaps unequaled in the event’s history.
The Roger Dean Chevrolet Complex in Jupiter, Fla., has hosted the event every year but one over the last 20 years with the exception being in 2004 when a particularly active Atlantic hurricane season forced its relocation to – you guessed it – Fort Myers.
This year the reason for the relocation is the still raging coronavirus pandemic and the continued strict restrictions in place in Florida’s Palm Beach County, where Jupiter sits.
So, the question remains, will this change of venue have an effect on the Florida Burn 2021 National? Will the dynamic of the venue change without the hundreds of scout-laden golf carts scrambling from field to field at what sometimes seems like break-neck speed?
“I think we’ll feel it a lot more when we get there,” Guthrie said. “Even though Fort Myers is a great place to hold any type of event, it’s still a little more spread-out and that’s kind of the uniqueness of Jupiter is having everybody in one complex and being able to walk around and see everything. We’ll lose a little bit with that but once the games start things should settle back to normal.”
It seems as if every year the cries of “best ever” are heard when the pre-event talent assessments and the scouting reports reach the light of day, and this year is certainly no different.
Dozens of Class of 2021 PG All-Americans fill the rosters of the 96 teams invited to this year’s WWBA World Championship, including No. 1-ranked Jordan Lawlar (Dallas Tigers 2021 Hernandez, Vanderbilt commit), No. 4 Brady House (Team Elite/Atlanta Braves Scout Team, Tennessee), No. 6 Joshua Baez (Ohio Warhawks, Vanderbilt), No. 9 Marcelo Mayer (San Diego Show, Southern Cal) and No. 10 Christian Little (Team Elite/Atlanta Braves Scout Team, Vanderbilt).
No. 15 Alex Mooney (Duke), the MVP at the PG All-American Classic, will be on hand as a member of the Canes National/Mets Scout Team, and he’ll be joined on that absolutely ridiculous roster by fellow PGAA’s Malakhi Knight (No. 22, Oregon State), Camden Hayslip (No. 24, Alabama) and Cody Schrier (No. 25, UCLA), among others.
Many of these rosters are so stacked it’s not unreasonable to think they could make a run at an NCAA D-I regional tournament berth if allowed to stay together through the spring of 2021.
So where do the Florida Burn 2021 National fit in? Well, they have a PG All-American of their own and he really is something special. Third baseman Tommy White, a North Carolina State commit ranked No. 19 overall, is one of the most dynamic players in his class and has been a member of both of the Burn’s Jupiter championship teams the last two years.
His long-time association with the Florida Burn program has been so mutually beneficial it’s difficult to describe, as he told PG in late August just before participating in the PGAA Classic over the Labor Day Weekend.
“They put me on the biggest stages to help me succeed and get my name out there,” White said. “(The coaches) know so much and they feed their knowledge into me just to help me to perform better. They don’t beat around the bush or anything, they tell me what I need to hear, which I love.”
And what better place to show off your goods than at the WWBA World Championship: “I love it at Jupiter,” White told PG. “Sometimes you might wake up and you’re like, ‘I don’t know if I want to play today’ but as soon as I step on the field it’s go time; I love it. I might need a little kick-start to go in the morning but after that as soon as I step on the field it’s go, go, go until we get the win.”
White is the only prospect on the roster that was with both the 2018 and 2019 Florida Burn Jupiter championship teams but he is not the only Burn player who has experienced what it’s like to sip the figurative champagne.
Top 2021s, including corner-infielder Aidan Corn (t-500, uncommitted), lefthander/outfielder Noah Harsch (HF, uncommitted) and righthander/outfielder Harrison Povey (t-500, Florida Gulf Coast), were on last year’s Jupiter championship team roster.
“We’re lucky in that we’re able to bring young guys a year in advance if we can, to get them to experience it and know what they’re in for before it becomes their big year to do it,” Guthrie said. “Tommy being there for his third year and winning it twice is certainly (meaningful), and the other guys as well; that experience is valuable.”
This appears in many ways to be a “typical” Florida Burn roster in that it’s not necessarily stocked with top prospects from across the nation but instead a bunch of home-grown Southwest Florida ballplayers who have worked hard to optimize their talents and, as a result, do a lot of winning along the way.
It’s impossible to miss White. He is a long-haired, 6-foot-1, 220-pounder who is not only considered among the top bats in the 2021 class but is also ranked the No. 1 third baseman in all the land. And as an added benefit, Guthrie and his equal partner in success Craig Faulkner, have found a way to surround their PG All-American with some working class talent that just seems to get the job done day-in and day-out.
Pay attention over the course of the next five days to Burn 2021s like outfielder Michael Robertson (No. 91, Florida), catcher Tayden Hall (No. 245, South Florida), righthander/corner-infielder Conner Whittaker (t-500, Florida State), outfielder Billy "BJ" Graham Jr. (t-500, Tulane), outfielder Richard Sales (t-500, UNC-Wilmington), middle-infielder Jake Mummau (t-500, St. Petersburg College) and outfielder Dean Hotz (HF, West Florida).
Add to that impressive collection top 2022s like lefthanders Zachary Root (No. 96, Florida) and Josh Cone (t-500, Stetson), righthander Jaxson Crump (t-1000, Air Force), infielder Chris Barr (HF, Army) and 2023 middle-infielder Sammy Mummau (No. 157, Florida) and the future certainly seems bright, as well.
Not the glitziest roster, perhaps, when compared to many of the scout teams that will be showing up at Lee County fields this week, but all winners through and through. Guthrie told PG that this group is very similar to the previous two teams that won WWBA World Championship titles in that they’ve played together for a number of years now and they’ve found common ground, found a way to jell with another.
It has a proven leader in White, just like the 2018 team had WWBA World Championship MVP Josh Rivera, an MLB draft pick now with the Florida Gators, and last year’s PG All-American Mac Guscette, the 2019 WWBA World Championship MVP who is also with the Gators.
Guthrie noted that the nucleus of this team has played together for a number of years now which gives them a leg-up on the dozens of “scout teams” that are assembled for this event alone. They’ve grown close, they do the little things right and they’ve picked up easily the things the Burn coaches try to implement into the system.
Those things, Guthrie believes, are very important at the amateur level and they are intangibles that help a well-rounded team win a lot of ballgames.
“These guys are doing those things very well and they’re performing against really good teams,” he continued. “They had a great summer winning the UBC, which is pretty much a smaller, Jupiter-type event. We’re proud of what they accomplished and I think they’re very confident but again, very respectful of what’s in front of them.”
Almost all of the players on the Florida Burn 2021 National roster are from the Sarasota area, which is only about an hour’s drive north of Fort Myers. With that in mind, the idea right now is to have the players commute from their homes on a daily basis while making sure the kids are able to enjoy every aspect of the “Jupiter experience.”
Guthrie acknowledges that the class of 2021 has had a tough go of it all-around ever since March when their high school seasons were canceled by the pandemic. It is hoped that something very good will come to them from this week’s WWBA World Championship experience and more opportunities will open up for them in the very near future.
So, anyway, Florida Burn. Welcome to Fort Jupiter and everything it has to offer. It promises to be a great week with outstanding competition and camaraderie and maybe, just maybe, the summer of 2020 can be put in the rearview mirror.
“This year has been a tough year,” Guthrie said. “There’s been a lot of juggling, a lot of changes in plans, and our families have been very flexible and have made it easier for us as organizers. … To play against the best competition in the best event of the year, if you’re not excited about it you probably shouldn’t be in the business.
“So I think everyone going is very excited about and it’s definitely a huge challenge,” he concluded. “Each year you never know how it’s going to roll out and we’ll do the best we can.”