Last year, USA Baseball’s 2023 12U National Team rolled through the competition at both the VII World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) U-12 Baseball World Cup and the WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup Americas Qualifier to claim two gold medal finishes. Assistant coach Erick Quesada was a crucial piece of the puzzle on the gold medal campaigns and will return to the dugout with the national team again in 2024.
Getting to coach on a gold medal squad isn’t something that one can jump into right away, as it takes someone who has an immense amount of passion and dedication for the sport to be primed for a position of this nature. Quesada has a proven track record as he has served USA Baseball in a number of roles prior to becoming a national team coach.
“I started at USA Baseball about nine years ago as a scorekeeper in Arizona, and progressively worked my way up. I worked as a tower supervisor, and then earned my way onto the Task Force. And then this past year, I was on the national team for 12U, so my journey has been an unbelievable experience with USA Baseball to say the least,” stated Quesada.
One of his responsibilities as an assistant coach on the national team is to coach at Training Camp prior to the tournaments that the squad will compete in. Quesada and the rest of the coaching staff will have to cut down on the Training Camp roster to finalize the national team roster.
“Right now we’re just trying to find the best piece that will fit us moving forward to get a gold medal. It's really tough, because we have 36 kids who are extremely talented, and it's a very long, drawn out process for the right reasons. We want to make sure we give everyone an opportunity to showcase their best talents and make sure we're putting the best team together possible to go compete for a gold medal.”
When cutting down the roster size, Quesada has a few keys he looks for when evaluating players. He wants players to play the game with exceptional sportsmanship while also having a strong mindset.
“We like to use the phrase ‘we want to find good players, but also better people’. Guys who do the little things the right way and that are going to compete and show emotion in the right manner. We want guys who go about playing the game of baseball that we all love and do it the way it should be played. There can be a lot of misconceptions about the razzle dazzle, but at the end of the day we want hard-nosed players who will go out and compete and do it the U-S-A way.”
Quesada relishes his opportunity to be with the national team and notes that his time spent with USA Baseball has been something that he will take with him forever.
“Oh, it's the best feeling in the world. Every time I talk about my USA experience I always get chills, especially having the honor of standing up on the podium and receiving a gold medal last year. It's the greatest honor and one of the best highlights of my life. I'm super thankful for USA Baseball and what it's done for my life and my career. I can't say enough about USA baseball.”
