JANUARY 17, 2004
EAGLES SETTLE ON PLAYERS
By NICK PIECORO
npiecoro@poststar.com

Published on 1/17/2004 - Local Sports - THE POST-STAR

GLENS FALLS -- The second Will Groff learned that a New York Collegiate Baseball League team was coming to Glens Falls he knew he wanted to play for it.

Groff got his wish Friday when the Glens Falls Golden Eagles officially announced that he and 21 others have committed to play for the first-year team in the summer wood-bat league that begins in June.

The commitments, announced at East Field by owner and general manager Charles Adams, are the result of three months' worth of phone calls and scouting by Golden Eagles coach John Mayotte, a former longtime college coach who tapped contacts across the country to assemble the roster after he was hired in October.

Mayotte, a Hudson Falls native who makes his home in Madeira Beach, Fla., didn't have to do much to land Groff, a Cortland State freshman who last year graduated from Queensbury.

"When you get to a higher-level college for baseball, that's what everybody does," said Groff, who led the Spartans to a runner-up finish last year. "You have to go to a summer collegiate league. It makes you a better player."

After Mayotte was hired, Groff's parents called their son to tell him about the league. Groff then called his college coach, Joe Brown.

"He was ahead of me," Groff said. "He said he was already working on getting me on the team."

Brown talked with Mayotte, who spoke with others in the area before deciding that Groff would be a good fit.

"I've only heard good things about him as a player," Mayotte said. "Everybody really likes his ability and his potential."

That includes Adams.

"This player was not signed because he was local," Adams said, "but because he is a great athlete."

Adams likes the diversity of the roster and the amount of major college talent -- only two of the players who have committed play for non-Division I programs.

"I like the talent," Adams said. "This is the best college talent we can find in the nation. I think that means good baseball. The only reason they play in these leagues is to be scouted."

Mayotte, who coached for 12 years at Troy State in Alabama before retiring last year, said the players won't be as elite as those in, say, the Cape Cod League, but he feels comfortable with the roster he was able to cobble together from recommendations by various college coaches.

"I know most of the coaches I've recruited kids from," Mayotte said. "I'm aware of them and their programs, and I think they're sending me good kids.

"Everybody's trying to sell their kids. I'm not new to this -- I tried to sell my kids to summer leagues, so I know what they're going through."

The Golden Eagles still have two roster spots open but Mayotte is in no hurry to fill them. With a number of college tournaments scheduled near his Florida home in the coming months, Mayotte figures to have plenty of opportunity to scout.

"It'll work itself out," he said.