Coach perfect tonic for ailing Largo baseball team

By John C. Cotey, High Schools Columnist
Published March 13, 2008

Largo baseball coach Rob Stanifer takes a swing at practice. He is working on turning around an oft-overlooked program.
	[Joseph Garnett, Jr. | Times]

LARGO - It starts in Anderson, S.C., the early 1990s, where a big-hitting, strong-armed pitcher has lunch in the cafeteria with a nimble-footed soccer player from Seminole.

They fall in love.

They get married.

They come home, to her home, where her dad teaches at Largo High School.

This is where Rob Stanifer works out in the offseason. After three years in the majors, which include winning a World Series ring in 1997 with Florida, this is where he waits for his next shot.

He stretches. He runs. He throws a little batting practice for the kids.

The Packers aren't very good, at a school where no one seems to care, but Stanifer is intrigued.

He was a late bloomer given little chance with one college offer who developed into a 12th-round draft pick and a World Series champ.

He sees a little of himself in the Packers.

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Maybe, it starts here: After a few years volunteering his time, Stanifer is hired as head coach midway through last season.

His perpetual band of losers-turned-winners, with just two playoff appearances in its history only one unless you want to go back to 1956, is opening eyes.

Largo is 7-2 and leading the county in smiling faces.

"We've never been anywhere near this," said pitching standout Tony Floyd. "It's amazing."

Stanifer added hitting, pitching and catching coaches, which the team hasn't had in years.

He started with the basics, stressing basic fundamentals. He insisted the losing attitude be left at the dugout entrance.

Most of all, he said he cared, and his players believed him.

"We started at the bottom," said Stanifer. "But hey, all the powerhouses started somewhere."

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Come to think of it, maybe it starts here: a new scoreboard.

Oh, it's nothing fancy, a stock model tucked away in a warehouse somewhere. Doesn't even say Largo on it.

It went up Monday, and will be lit up for the first time tonight against Dunedin.

"Blue and kind of beat up ... just like us," he jokes.

But it's better than nothing, which is exactly what Largo has had after four years without one.

The crew of county dignitaries that visited the football field and was aghast at its condition apparently didn't look left on its way into the stadium.

Stanifer got some parents together in the winter to mow the field ("waist-high"), pull weeds, dump and mold hundreds of pounds of clay, paint the dugouts (with paint left over from the football field makeover).

Like the program, the field is a work in progress. The rusty chain-link fence behind home plate is an eyesore. There are huge patches of dirt where there should be grass, the on-deck batting circle reduced to an on-deck mosh pit.

"We could use some sod," says Stanifer.

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Largo will face its toughest test tonight against traditional power Dunedin.

Floyd knows the doubters are out there. Weak schedule, lucky breaks, blah, blah, blah.

"Oh yeah, we know people are waiting for us to start (losing)," he said. "But not this year."

Quarterback Leonard Johnson is a believer. He was at practice Wednesday. He told Stanifer he wanted to join the team as a pinch-runner, and after pleading his case said he was going to bring running back Brynn Harvey with him.

Everyone loves a winner.

[Last modified March 12, 2008, 22:41:54]