CARY, N.C. – USA Baseball today announced the coaching staff for the 2022 12U National Team, highlighted by the return of RJ Farrell as the manager. The remaining members of the 2021 coaching staff will also reprise their roles in 2022 with Seth Kenny again serving as the pitching coach and Erik Johnson and Tanner Vesely returning as assistant coaches.
The staff will lead Team USA in its pursuit of the program’s fourth world championship at the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) U-12 Baseball World Cup 2022 in Tainan, Taiwan. The tournament is scheduled for July 29-August 7.
“We are thrilled to welcome RJ and his staff back to lead the 12U National Team as we return to international competition in 2022,” said USA Baseball 12U National Team Program Director Will Schworer. “RJ has displayed incredible dedication to the growth of young athletes throughout his many years with USA Baseball. We are confident he and the rest of this tremendous staff will provide invaluable leadership and guidance to our team as we go for gold this summer.”
“Being named manager again this summer is truly special,” said Farrell. “I love USA Baseball and what it stands for so leading the 2022 team is a true honor. Baseball has afforded me so many amazing experiences and this opportunity is at the top of them all. I cannot explain how grateful I am that we were able to get the same staff together from last summer, and we look forward to working toward our goal of bringing the gold medal back from Taiwan.”
Farrell made his USA Baseball managerial debut with the 2021 12U National Team, leading the group to an unbeaten record in exhibition play in Flower Mound, Texas. The U.S. outscored its opponents 55-3 in the contests, batting a collective .445 (49-for-110) and posting a 1.29 team ERA. Before taking the reins as manager, Farrell spent three years as an assistant coach for the 12U National Team. In that role, he helped lead Team USA to gold medals at the 2017 WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup and the 2018 COPABE U-12 Pan American Championships. Additionally, Farrell has worked with USA Baseball at the 11U National Team Identification Series (NTIS), 12U National Open, and the USA Baseball Futures Invitational, as well as serving as a 12U National Team Trials coach in 2016.
Farrell is currently in his third season at Orange Lutheran High School (Orange, Calif.), where he serves as the associate head coach and athletics manager. He was named associate head coach following two seasons as an assistant for the Lancers, who are ranked the No. 6 high school team in the country in the 2022 MaxPreps Preseason Top 100 and will aim for their fourth consecutive USA Baseball National High School Invitational title in April at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina. Previously, Farrell spent seven years as the head coach at Rancho Cucamonga High School (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.), where 30 of his former players went on to play collegiate baseball.
Prior to his time at Rancho Cucamonga, Farrell spent one year as an assistant coach at Orange Lutheran and held roles as an associate head coach and recruiting coordinator at Patten University (Oakland, Calif.) and an assistant coach at De La Salle High School (Concord, Calif.). In addition to his current position at Orange Lutheran, Farrell is also an associate scout for the Texas Rangers and a co-founder of Coastal Empire Baseball.
Kenny returns to the 2022 12U National Team staff as the pitching coach after first serving in the role in 2021. Kenny is currently in his 12th year with Top Tier Baseball where he is the director of teams and started his 20-year coaching career as a pitching coach for the Danville Dans, Austin Peay State University, and Illinois State University from 2000-2008. Following his time at Illinois State, he returned to his role as pitching coach at Austin Peay, while also serving as the program's recruiting coordinator until joining Top Tier Baseball in 2010. He oversaw a Team USA pitching staff last year that held opponents to a .162 batting average against and struck out 33 batters in 21.0 innings pitched. In addition to his first stint as a national team coach in 2021, Kenny has coached at the 12U National Open, was a member of the 11U NTIS task force in 2017 and 2019, and was a 12U National Team Trials coach in 2018 and 2019.
Johnson will reprise his role as an assistant coach for the 12U National Team in 2022 for the second time. While he made his national team coaching debut in 2021, Johnson is no stranger to donning the red, white, and blue, having first played for Team USA on the 1985 Collegiate National Team before suiting up as a coach. He has been involved with the NTIS since its inception in 2007, serving as a coach of the Northern California region until 2017 when he became a scouting director and coach for the Northwest Region. Additionally, he was a member of the 12U National Open coaching staff in both 2018 and 2019 and then served as a 2019 12U National Team Trials coach. Currently, he is the president and general manager of EJ Sports where he has also been a coach since 1997.
Before becoming a coach, Johnson played ten seasons of professional baseball in the San Francisco Giants, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Miami Marlins organizations. He was selected in the 18th round of the 1987 draft out of the University of California-Santa Barbara by the Giants, where he made his major league debut on July 8, 1993. Johnson also appeared in the majors in 1994, playing under three-time National League Manager of the Year and current Houston Astros manager Dusty Baker before finishing his playing career in 1996.
Vesely, who has helped guide Team USA to four gold medals as both an assistant coach and manager, rounds out the 2022 staff. This will be his second consecutive year as an assistant coach for the 12U National Team and his sixth year overall on a national team staff. Vesely first served as an assistant coach with the 12U National Team in 2013 when he helped lead the U.S. to its first-ever gold medal at the 2013 International Baseball Federation (IBAF) 12U World Cup. He then returned to the staff in 2014 and assisted in guiding Team USA to a silver medal at the COPABE "A" Pan-American Championships before being named manager of the 12U National Team in 2015. At the helm, Vesely led the stars and stripes to a defense of their world championship title with a gold medal at the WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup, earning him 2015 Olympic Committee Developmental Coach of the Year honors.
Vesely began his national team coaching career more than a decade ago with back-to-back gold medals as an assistant coach with the 2008 and 2009 14U National Teams. In addition, he has served as a member of the task force at the National Team Championships in Arizona since 2008, has served as a coach at the 12U National Open, and was a coach at the Women's National Team Trials in 2019. He was also part of the inaugural 2019 13U Athlete Development Program coaching staff and served on the NTIS task force in 2009, 2010, 2017, and 2018. Currently in his 17th season as an assistant coach at Corona del Sol High School (Tempe, Ariz.), Vesely also helped lead his team to the USA Baseball National High School Invitational in 2019.
The 2022 11U Futures Invitational will serve as the primary identification event for the 12U National Team Trials. The USA Baseball 11U Futures Invitational is an elite youth championship event exclusively reserved for the best 11U teams featuring the top youth talent in the nation. The tournament will be hosted at Thomas Brooks Park, at the home of the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina, as well as Middle Creek Park in Cary, North Carolina, from June 23-26.
12U National Team Trials will take place in Cary, North Carolina, from June 27-July 1. Players will participate in comprehensive testing, games, and workouts to compete for one of the final 18 roster spots on the 2022 12U National Team, which will compete at the WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup in Tainan, Taiwan, from July 29-August 7.
Since its inception in 2013, the 12U National Team has won four gold medals in total, including three world championship titles. The U.S. won its first three World Cups at the 12U level, earning back-to-back-to-back gold medals at the 2013 IBAF U-12 Baseball World Cup and the 2015 and 2017 WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cups. Team USA’s three world championships are the most at the 12U level, followed by Chinese Taipei with two.
The final 2022 12U National Team schedule will be announced at a later date.
For the most up-to-date information on the 12U National Team, be sure to follow @USABaseball12U and @USABaseball on Twitter.
