By Todd Bradley, DCSportsFan.com
MaxPreps.com
It was the spring of 1998 and Kevin Gibbs (St. John's, Class of 1992) had just made the Major League roster for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Gibbs had been in the Dodger organization since being drafted in the sixth round following his junior year at Old Dominion University.
ODU was coming off two straight league titles and had been consistently ranked among the top 25 teams in the nation. Gibbs was named an All-American in each of his collegiate seasons. After being drafted, Gibbs was an All-Star in each of his first three professional seasons, and two of those seasons ended with league championships.
Early on in his baseball career, Gibbs excelled at St. John's College High School in Washington, D.C. He even started in left field and batted leadoff for a United States Junior Olympic Team that consisted of seven future first round draft picks, including Alex Rodriguez and Preston Wilson.
"I expected that my success in high school and college would continue in professional baseball," Gibbs said. "And early on in my pro career, it did."
Going into his fourth professional season, Gibbs finally reached the Major Leagues and was voted the third best position player in the Dodgers organization behind Paul Konerko and Adrian Beltre.
"I was 23 years old, doing radio and television interviews about playing for the Dodgers with the big stations in Los Angeles," Gibbs said. "I was sure I would make the big leagues that year."
However, Gibbs began experiencing trouble with both of his shoulders and would end up missing almost all of the next seven seasons (1998-2004) because of different shoulder surgeries to repair "a whole range of problems."
Gibbs eventually hung up the cleats but not before getting valuable life experiences out of a injury-plagued 10-year career.
"I was very fortunate to play with and against some great players," Gibbs said. "My first year on the Dodgers Major League roster my locker was right next to Mike Piazza’s, and my second and third year with the Dodgers my locker was next to Gary Sheffield. It was awesome to talk baseball with them, and it was great to watch two future Hall of Famers work on their games. In spring training we played the Mets, Braves, Cardinals, Expos and Orioles all the time, so I got to play some games against guys like Mark McGwire, Cal Ripken, Chipper Jones, Greg Maddux, Vladimir Guerrero, Billy Wagner and Ricky Henderson.”
Meeting Ted Williams in 2000 was another highlight.
With his playing career over, Gibbs returned home to the D.C. area. He was raised in a St. John's family and his grandfather, father and over 20 family members attended the school through the years. For Gibbs, the Washington Catholic League had always been synonymous with famous coaches, great players and huge rivalries all playing out in a big-time atmosphere.
"If you play in the Catholic League, you can be sure that you are going to compete against some of the top high school athletes in the country each game," Gibbs said. "You know that every time you are on the field you are playing against a large number of future Division I athletes, as well as a handful of future professional athletes."
And with top talent comes great highs and even greater lows.
"The highlight of my high school career was beating DeMatha in football at Byrd Stadium for the 1989 Catholic League title," Gibbs said. "The lowlight of my high school career was losing to DeMatha in basketball in double overtime by one point for the 1992 Catholic League title. It was a great game that Michael Wilbon wrote a front page column about the next day in The Washington Post."
An athlete at heart, it was only natural for Gibbs to stay involved with baseball, which is why he started Diamond Skills Baseball in 2002 with Chris Rodriguez, who is the new head baseball coach at Georgetown Prep. Rodriguez played professional baseball for the Cleveland Indians and coached college baseball for four years. In 2005, Mark Gibbs, the current coach at St. John's and younger brother of Kevin, was brought on as the camp's director.
"Mark turned down several college baseball jobs to come back to St. John’s and has amazing contacts in the college game," Gibbs said. "This is one of the reasons that even though he has only been a head coach for two years, he has already sent 17 players into college baseball. He has also been instrumental in getting big time schools like Alabama, Auburn and Virginia to send their coaches to our camp."
Bobby St. Pierre is the pitching coordinator for Diamond Skills Baseball. A DeMatha grad, St. Pierre played professional baseball with the New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves, and he is currently a coach with the Kansas City Royals. According to Gibbs, the camp, which is run at Georgetown Prep's 54,000 square foot field house, has attracted large amounts of college coaches, including 35 their first year running the camp. In 2008, 52 college coaches participated and 70 are expected to come in 2009.
"Initially, we ran camps for players in all age groups, but as our time became more and more limited we decided to streamline our camps and focus on players between seventh and 12th grade. During the summer we run a ‘Prospect Camp’ for advanced players entering seventh, eighth and ninth grade. The ‘All-American Camp’ is run each January and is for high school players. The ‘Hitting Factory’ is run in February and is for players between the ages of 13 and 18."
The All-American Camp is divided into two sessions each Saturday. The Infield/Outfield Camp is run from 7:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. and the Pitcher/Catcher Camp goes from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
"This camp also continues to introduce college coaches to the skills and talents of players in the Washington area," Gibbs said. "This is a solid baseball area, which should continue to get better as more colleges get an opportunity to see and work with the local players. Many coaches have told us that they are pleasantly surprised by the depth of talent in this area."
And with Kevin Gibbs leading the way, the talent should only get better.
