World Series MVPs, Cy Young Award winners, and Team USA Champions are just some of the stars on this year’s impressive lineup of coaches and managers guiding USA Baseball’s 18U National Team this summer.

They’ve dedicated their entire lives to the game of baseball, and now, after playing their way to glory throughout their own careers, they’re training the next generation of great players at USA Baseball’s National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina.

Featuring legendary names such as Brad Penny, Doug Mientkiewicz, and even Stephen Strasburg, the 18U National Team Training Camp staff is stacked from top to bottom with some of the greatest names in baseball. This summer, they’re at the National Training Complex to pass on what they know and to help build the best national team possible.

“The staff, they've been there, done that,” said 18U Program Director Brett Curll. “We have World Series MVP winners, we have guys who have spent their entire career in professional baseball. So these players should look up to them and the knowledge that they have. Right now the game is in a state where the guys have all the tools in the world, but they don't necessarily know how to use those tools just yet. That's where the staff comes in.”

For the 84 players at training camp, including Ethan Holliday, having Gold Glove winners Cy and World Champions isn’t just an opportunity for a meet and greet. Holliday and his peers get to learn from and be motivated by the best of the best.

Most importantly, they get to interact with their role models and envision their own success at the top level as they compete for a coveted spot on the 18U National Team.

“It motivates you knowing that these guys have been in the league, they’ve been on USA teams, and we all bleed the same blood, and it's an opportunity that we can all reach,” Holliday said. “So I think everyone is really motivated here, and everyone wants to be successful, and when that comes together it's pretty special.”

Crafting a staff worthy of a gold medal isn’t an easy task. However, 18U National Team Manager Rick Eckstein intentionally hand-selected the training camp’s staff with a specific purpose in mind — to create the most well-rounded group of players and coaches in order to connect with players at camp.

“Every one of these coaches I have a personal relationship with,” Eckstein said. “They've made me better, and the impact they've had in my life is the exact impact I want to have in these kids' lives. So I knew coming in, there were roles in the staff that I felt like I needed to complement what I could bring and things I couldn't bring, and I wanted to complement that throughout the entire staff. So [the process] was very thoughtful. Every kid has a chance to connect to at least somebody to drive their career forward.”

Whether it’s Penny and Strasburg lending their expert pitching advice or Rick’s brother, David Eckstein, showing what it takes to win at the highest level, the staff was designed to compliment each other and bring as much to the camp’s 84 players in its short week in Cary.

“I wanted to leverage their experience in the game, for the kids to be able to connect with someone at some level,” Rick Eckstein said. “The areas that I'm short, I wanted to strengthen with the people I surrounded myself with. And if you go down the line and you see what everybody brings to the table — what they've experienced on the field, highs and lows, and how they got to where they got — a lot of that information was shared over the last week that we've been together.”

The training camp staff’s been through it all. From World Series victories, collegiate baseball seasons, and most importantly, international competitions, players at camp are motivated to follow in their footsteps.

“Their careers are awesome, and you want to honor them,” Holliday said. “You're super excited to learn from them, getting to be in the same dugout as legends. And it's a super special opportunity for all of us to come here and learn from them and just be around them every day for hours.”

Staff members like Mike McKenry help with the most important, and often the most challenging part of training camp — selecting just 20 athletes to fill this year’s national team roster.

For McKenry and his fellow staffers, it’s all about what players can separate themselves both on and off the field.

“I think there's a lot of kids here that can play,” McKenry said. “Obviously the talent's off the charts, but what's that separator? Who's going to step up? Are they going to be able to do something to help the team win? Do they lay down a bunt, pick someone up, be the ears for one of their teammates? I think that's the difference maker.”

Selflessness is just one of the all-important intangible qualities the staff is looking for in its players. Another is competitiveness, teamwork, and a drive to win, traits that many members often kickstart in players throughout their week at camp.

“We have to take that word ‘I’ and we have to look at it through the lens of inspiration and impact,” Rick Eckstein said. “And so that's what we're trying to do — when I think of ‘I’, it's not a selfish ‘I’, it's a selfless ‘I’. How am I impacting the team? How am I inspiring the team? All of those things are going into our messaging and what we're trying to do at USA baseball to build the strongest team to leave the country and go represent the United States of America on a world stage.”

Whether a player makes the team or not, the experience from their week at training camp is one that will spur on their career for years.

“The staff is a great resource,” Curll said. “I know even after [players] leave here, they stay in contact with the coaches. Obviously, winning gold is our ultimate goal. But every one of these 84 players should take something from this week and be a better player.”

The coaching staff assembled is meant to serve the talented players competing for spots on the national team. While making cuts is a necessary part in the process, they’re in place to guide, train, and develop the best players in the nation and transform them into professionals.

Ultimately, it’s a worthwhile and rewarding process for everyone involved.

“It's really neat just to be a part of something this special,” McKenry said. “But for these kids, it's just loving on them, serving them, and trying to pull out the best version of them and see who they are. I think they can learn a lot here, not just about the game, but about what character is, who you need to be in the dark. And it's been fun to watch these kids get after it.”

While players benefit from having the special coaching staff guide them at training camp, it's just as beneficial for coaches to do what they love most — passing the game on to the next generation.

“The game has done a lot for me, and I feel like this is a platform for me to give back on,” McKenry said. “Anytime I get on the field, especially putting on red, white, and blue, count me in. This is my love. This is what I want to be doing. And I realize that every time I step on the field and put on the uniform.”