High School Team Of The Year (Plus Top 50)

Stoneman Douglas High is building a dynasty in South Florida.

Located in Parkland—about 25 miles north of Fort Lauderdale and 45 miles north of Miami—the program captured back-to-back Florida 7A state championships this season.

Earlier this year, Stoneman Douglas became the second non-California program to win USA Baseball’s National High School Invitational, which has operated since 2012.

On its way to complete domination this season, the team won a school-record of 30 games, ending the season on a 22-game win streak. Hopefully, the Eagles have room on their trophy shelf for one last accolade: the Baseball America High School Team of the Year award.  

Stoneman Douglas won the TOY award previously in 2016, giving it two nods in the past seven seasons.

Coach Todd Fitz-Gerald has coached Stoneman Douglas for 11 seasons but knew this year’s team was something special from the start.

“It’s really the best group of guys I’ve ever coached as a collective unit,” Fitz-Gerald said. “There are so many talented guys in our program and they rally around each other. They’re so close, not just on the field, but off the field. It was a really fun group to coach and I couldn’t be happier for them.”

Of the 10 seniors graduating from the program, nine are expected to play college baseball next season. One has a chance to hear his name called early on draft day.

Senior outfielder Roman Anthony ranks No. 73 on the BA draft rankings this year, making him a candidate to be drafted in the first three rounds.

Anthony has a chance to join distinguished Stoneman Douglas alums Anthony Rizzo (class of 2007), Jesus Luzardo (2016) and Coby Mayo (2020). All three were drafted out of the program.

“He should be in the top 20 on everybody’s rankings,” Fitz-Gerald said. “He is one of the top players I’ve ever had the privilege of coaching. I put him right there with Eric Hosmer.”

Fitz-Gerald coached Hosmer while at American Heritage in Plantation, Fla., before he became the third overall pick in the 2008 draft.

Anthony is a quiet leader. His coach describes him as a lead-by-example type of player. The Gatorade Florida player of the year came into his own during his senior season. He led Stoneman Douglas in almost every offensive category, including RBIs, OPS and home runs.

“I can go on and on,” Fitz-Gerald said. “Everything that he gets is well deserved. I’d be disappointed if he’s not called on day one (of the draft).”

Anthony also created a team motto: “Who’s second?” The team had a few sayings it would turn to, but each night before a game the players would ask each other “who’s second,” and the goal was for it not to be them.

“Win the last game”—or WTLG—was another saying commonly heard around the Eagles clubhouse.

The team had one other saying it turned to during its record-breaking season: INAM. This four-letter acronym is inscribed on its state championship ring:

“It’s not about me.”

“We didn’t have one ego on the team,” Fitz-Gerald said. “We didn’t have one guy who thought that he was better than everybody else. It was just a total team effort.”

Stoneman Douglas racked up win after win this season, culminating in a chance to defend its state title. With the INAM motto in mind, each member of the lineup performed what was asked of them . . . and then some.

Jake Clemente took the mound for the semifinal game. The righthander tossed a complete game to bring the Eagles back to the championship stage.

For the finale, Stoneman Douglas gave lefthander Chris Arroyo the ball. On the mound, he was locating very well. But the final blow came off his bat. After smacking a three-run homer, Arroyo ended Palm Beach Gardens’ night via the 10-run mercy rule.

“(Clemente) picked the right night to have the best night of his career,” Fitz-Gerald said. “Then Chris Arroyo backed that up and gave similar performance.

“They just compete against each other every day of practice, and I think that’s what made them so good. If a guy went out and struck out eight, well, (the next guy is) going out tomorrow and (will) strike out nine. They competed against each other and had fun with it.

“They always had each other’s backs, and I couldn’t be happier for what those guys gave us. In the end, to be able to do it with two arms in the final two games was pretty impressive.”

Despite losing 10 seniors, including Anthony (Mississippi commit) plus both Clemente and Arroyo (both committed to Florida)—Fitz-Gerald is confident in the future of his team.

Fitz-Gerald’s son Devin, who was sidelined with an injury for part of the season, will make up one part of the nucleus of the future roster. Devin is committed to North Carolina State as a member of the class of 2024, while his older brother Hunter recently announced that he has signed to play for Old Dominion next season after playing two years of junior college ball.

“My younger son, I don’t even have to coach him,” Fitz-Gerald said. “He’s very motivated, very driven and wants to be better than his brother.”

Alongside coach Fitz-Gerald, righthander Christian Rodriguez and lefty Jacob Gomberg will head the rotation for Stoneman Douglas and hope to continue to push the dynasty forward for years to come.

They do this by running practice like a well-oiled machine. The junior varsity and varsity teams practice together for two reasons. One is to make sure that the best set of nine players are gelling together on the field. Fitz-Gerald noted that this does not always mean the nine best individual players.

The second reason is that it gives his varsity team a chance to mentor younger players and set the standard of what is expected when you wear an Eagles uniform.

It is not just the level of talent that made this Stoneman Douglas team special. It’s the culture and expectation Fitz-Gerald has been building since he arrived. In his 29 years of coaching baseball and 11 seasons with the Eagles, he has never had a losing record and has made the state playoffs each year.

When you ask Fitz-Gerald about that, he immediately credits those he has surrounded himself with—his assistant coaches, boosters, parents and administration.  

“It’s not just me,” Fitz-Gerald said. “I am who I am because of the players in the program. I’m who I am because of the great coaches that I have, and the administration at the top.

“So without that, I’m just another guy coaching high school baseball.”

 

High School Top 50

The final National High School Baseball Coaches Association poll

Rk	High School	City	State	Coach	Record
1	Stoneman Douglas	Parkland	FL	Todd Fitz-Gerald	30-2
2	Sumrall	Sumrall	MS	Andy Davis	35-1
3	St. Mary’s Prep	Orchard Lake	MI	Matt Petry	39-0
4	North Oconee	Bogart	GA	Jay Lasley	39-1
5	Northwest Rankin	Brandon	MS	KK Aldredge	32-2
6	Providence	Charlotte	NC	Danny Highnight	33-0
7	Hamilton	Chandler	AZ	Mike Woods	29-4
8	Reagan	San Antonio	TX	Chans Chaoman	31-6
9	De La Salle	Concord	CA	David Jeans	27-7
10	Bishop Gorman	Las Vegas	NV	Gino DiMaria	36-7
11	St. Francis	Mountain View	CA	Matt Maguire	31-5
12	Doral Academy	Doral	FL	Ralph Suarez	26-4
13	Rockwall-Heath	Rockwall	TX	Greg Harvey	35-6
14	Stinton	Sinton	TX	Adrian Alaniz	34-1
15	Reno	Reno	NV	Pete Savage	31-6
16	Olympia	Olympia	WA	Derek Weldon	26-3
17	Pope	Marietta	GA	Chris Turco	33-7
18	Calvary Christian	Clearwater	FL	Greg Olsen	26-2
19	Hanover	Mechanicsville	VA	Jason Hancock	21-2
20	Blue Valley Southwest	Overland Park	KS	Joe Allison	20-2
21	Jackson Prep	Flowood	MS	Brent Heavener	31-7
22	Southlake Carroll	Southlake	TX	Larry Vucan	32-8
23	Huntington Beach	Huntington Beach	CA	Benji Medure	25-9
24	Austin Prep	Reading	MA	Jonathon Pollard	20-0
25	Mason	Mason	OH	Curt Bly	26-4
26	Villa Park	Villa Park	CA	Burt Call	27-5
27	Legacy	Broomfield	CO	Ty Giordano	27-4
28	J Serra Catholic	San Juan Capistrano	CA	Brett Kay	22-11
29	Jesuit	Tampa	FL	Miguel Menendez	24-8
30	Colgan	Manassas	VA	Mike Colangelo	22-1
31	Georgetown	Georgetown	TX	Jordan Vierra	32-7
32	Millard West	Omaha	NE	Steve Frey	31-6
33	Madison-Ridgeland Acad.	Madison	MS	Allen Pavatte	35-4
34	Brother Rice	Chicago	IL	Sean McBride	34-5
35	North Broward Prep	Coconut Creek	FL	Brian Campbell	23-9
36	Orange Lutheran	Orange	CA	Eric Borba	25-5
37	Barbe	Lake Charles	LA	Glenn Cecchini	36-4
38	St. Augustine Prep	Richland	NJ	Michael Bylone	25-1
39	Ray	Corpus Christi	TX	Orlando Ruiz	35-4
40	Stockdale	Bakersfield	CA	Brad Showers	26-4
41	Lake Travis	Austin	TX	Mike Rogers	34-7
42	Edwardsville	Edwardsville	IL	Tim Funkhouser	29-4
43	Basic	Henderson	NV	Scott Baker	31-10
44	Andrean	Merrillville	IN	Dave Pishkur	29-4
45	Liberty North	Liberty	MO	Ryan Stegall	33-9
46	American Heritage Acad.	Plantation	FL	Bruce Aven	25-2
47	Archbishop Spalding	Severn	MD	Joseph Palumbo	25-4
48	Fort Mill	Fort Mill	SC	Travis Collier	25-7
49	St. Paul Catholic	Bristol	CT	Vic Rinaldi	21-0
50	Notre Dame	Sherman Oaks	CA	Tom Dill	25-9