Every summer as USA Baseball welcomes in hundreds of players to its various events, development programs, and national team training camps, plenty of former players also make their way to Cary, N.C. to perform a variety of different roles. Most of these former players take on roles with USA Baseball to coach the next generation, though others, such as Eric Brown, return as members of task forces to instead identify the next generation.

Brown, who played collegiate baseball at Wingate University before spending several years in the minor leagues as a player in the New York Mets’ system, is spending his week at Thomas Brooks Park as a member of the 12U Task Force at the 12U NTIS Champions Cup. He’s part of a team of six evaluators whose job it is to identify players taking part in the NTIS Champions Cup to be invited to USA Baseball’s Athlete Development Program, and a future shot at potentially representing the U.S. on a national team.

“Our goal here as the Task Force is to evaluate all the players and all the teams all the different regions, and really kind of pinpoint a select few that they'll bring back for ADP and watch them develop and grow in the program, and we're trying to target kids that we think will obviously be on a national team one day. So that's kind of the gist of what our job is,” Brown explained.

This is Brown’s second straight summer serving in this role on a NTIS Champions Cup Task Force, after spending a week last year being an evaluator at last year’s 14U event. As he explained, it was an opportunity that he couldn’t pass up to take on the role last summer and then to return this week.

“I was approached last summer, asked if this was something that I was interested in doing. Of course I said, ‘yes, I'd love to be involved in any sort of capacity that you would have me’ so I came out last summer for my first experience doing anything with USA Baseball,” Brown explained.

He certainly brings plenty of baseball knowledge with him. After his playing career finished in the minor leagues, Brown has spent time coaching at both the collegiate level and at the high school level; every stop has gifted him knowledge that he’s now putting to use at the 12U NTIS Champions Cup in his role as an evaluator.

I think recruiting as a college coach helped me learn what I'm looking for, because when I played I didn't really look at other players and evaluate them as much compared to being a coach. You’ve got to learn the player they are now and what kind of player they're going to be in two years from now. Playing professionally, obviously going up against some of the best players in the world, that helped me see what a really good baseball player is,” Brown explained. “Then coaching high school, knowing what you're looking for from that standpoint, that really helps too.”

Asked if there was much of a difference when it came to evaluating 12U players this year compared to 14U players last year, or if there was anything he had learned from going through the process previously, Brown shared that most of the evaluation process remained unchanged.

“It's the same, It's just on a different age scale. We're trying to evaluate how these players will progress in a year or two, so it's really just the same kind of evaluations. It is different with ages how we evaluate them, but it's still the same goal,” he noted. In regard to whether or not having a year under his belt changed anything, Brown replied that “scouting is still going to be the same, but it helps being back this year because I have a better understanding of what USA baseball is looking for after I went through it last year. That was a really good learning opportunity for me, sitting in on meetings with really good coaches matching my notes up with theirs. Now, I’m just trying to use that experience with the 12U players.”

Beyond just selecting players for next year’s ADP, Brown and the rest of the 12U Task Force at Thomas Brooks Park are scouting the potential future of USA Baseball. Any player from the 12U NTIS Champions Cup could wear the stars and stripes in the future, which makes events like this important.

“We're taking notes and we're evaluating all of them, so that we'll have a good database. Obviously we'll have the ones that we select to come back to ADP, but then we'll keep track of all the players so that when they come back next year we’ll have some notes on them to compare, see how they've developed. Maybe that gives them a better shot to come to a training camp at 14-years-old in the future.”

Asked what makes his stints as a task force evaluator special, Brown remarked on being able to wear the USA Baseball logo as an evaluator. He might not have donned it during his playing days, but the ability to assist now is something he’s immensely proud of.

“I dad the dream of maybe playing or being involved for USA baseball one day when I played. But now as a coach, being involved in any sort of capacity that will have me as a part of USA Baseball is something that I’ve taken as a great opportunity to come out here and learn from these coaches and kind of help out any way I can.”

Now, Brown is living out his dream of being involved with USA Baseball. This week at the 12U NTIS Champions Cup, he might just help uncover some players who will don the stars and stripes in their futures as well.