USA Baseball Unveils 18U Coaching Staff

Barbe High (Lake Charles, La.) coach Glenn Cecchini will manage USA Baseball’s 18U national team for the second year in a row, USA Baseball said Tuesday.

“We are thrilled to have Glenn Cecchini return as the 18U National Team Manager this year,” said Paul Seiler, USA Baseball’s executive director and CEO. “His reputation at the high school level, and now at the international level, is first-class and we are confident that he will lead his staff and team to another successful season.

Cecchini’s Barbe powerhouse has won the Louisiana 5A state championship seven times and was BA’s High School Team of the Year in 2014. Cecchini’s sons, Garin (Brewers) and Gavin (Mets), play pro ball with Garin spending time in the majors with the Red Sox in 2014-15.

The coaching staff will include Greg Moore, who will serve as the pitching coach, and Brooks Badeaux and Rene Gayo, both of whom will serve as as assistant coaches.

Moore is also coming back for a second consecutive season, having assisted Cecchini last summer. Moore is in his third season as the head coach at Cal State Northridge, and previously served as the associate head coach at San Francisco.

Gayo is perhaps the most well-known of the coaches. He is the Pirates’ director of Latin American scouting, and has played a crucial role in Pittsburgh’s international success in recent years. He has worked in scouting since 1989.

Badeaux has experience coaching at the international level, having coached the 18U national team in 2011 and 2012, as well as the 14U national team development program in 2013 and 2015. He played professionally for 10 years, primarily in the Rays’ minor league system.

The coaching staff will get a more thorough look at candidates for the national team at this summer’s Tournament of Stars.

The event, which will run from June 21-26, is a key stop on the summer amateur scouting circuit. USA Baseball will evaluate players at Tournament of Stars and invite a group of approximately 40 players to participate in the national team trials in Houston from Sept. 11-15.

The final roster will be selected following the trials, and the team will play in the COPABE Pan Am Championships in Monterrey, Mexico, from Sept. 23 through Oct. 2.