Paul Alteri's power of persuasion is either extraordinary, or there is something the Jefferson Community College baseball coach is not revealing.
How else do you explain Alteri's ability to entice four players from another part of the country to come north to suit up for the Cannoneers? To leave the warmth and year-round sunshine of South Florida for a climate that generally receives as much as 125 inches of snow during the winter?
The almost 1,500-mile trek to Northern New York for Dustin Francis, Zachary Rosenthal, Kristian Basanta and Travis Grogan is even more amazing considering how short the JCC season actually is, just a little over a month in actual days to play around 35 games. And, all four arrived at the campus without as much as a prior visit.
"To this day, it's one of the most amazing things in my coaching career,'' said Alteri, now in his 12th season at the JCC helm. "The Florida kids have made an immediate impact on not only our team, but our school and the whole college community. We all truly appreciate their sacrifice."
The recruiting network that Alteri has put together in the South Florida region has gone from just a trickle to a full-fledged flood in four years. His first Florida recruit, catcher Andrew Mendez, arrived at JCC three years ago and developed into a standout. He is now the starting catcher for Division I Savannah State.
Alteri already has eight Florida players lined up for next year. "And we've even had to turn a couple away,'' he said.
Each of the Florida players' stories are similar, but distinct. They were all searching for a spot to start on a college team, to improve their skills and find a coach that truly cared about them as not only players but students and human beings.
In JCC and the professorial Alteri, the Floridians have found a perfect match.
"I had heard a lot of good things about coach Alteri and the JCC program from people in Florida, and my time here has already exceeded my expectations,'' said Grogan, a freshman right-handed pitcher from Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., who came to the north country in January to start the second semester. "It's kind of weird having to practice in the gym early in the season. But other than that and the snow, it's been a great experience.''
Grogan actually went to Methodist College originally to play football after not playing baseball his senior year in high school. He lasted just one year at Methodist, then took a job as a welder for a year and a half.
The pitching coach at Palm Beach Lakes High School got him in contact with coach Alex Morales at Palm Beach Community College. Morales told Grogan he didn't have a spot, but he knew of someone who could use a pitcher.
Morales put Grogan in contact with Alteri, and the rest is history.
"Alex told me Travis was a big kid with good stuff and said he could come and play for us right away,'' Alteri said of Grogan. "I e-mailed Travis and then we talked a little bit on the phone and he said, "'Coach, I'm coming.''' That really impressed me that he would take a chance on our program sight unseen.''
Francis is a freshman outfielder from Santa Luces High School in Lake Worth, Fla., just outside of West Palm Beach. Alteri has taken his team to West Palm Beach every spring since 2004 to begin the season and get in a week's worth of competition against some of the best junior college teams in the area.
Said Francis: "I had gone to a couple of showcases and a lot of teams promised they'd have a spot for me. But I know that a lot of the junior college teams around home just recruit 30 or 40 kids, and the ones they really don't want they just drop.''
Enter Alteri. "It's actually kind of crazy how I got Dustin. My niece attends the same high school that Dustin did, and she told me about him originally. I started communicating with him, and a couple of weeks later he made the decision to come up here.''
"I had heard coach Alteri was kind of like a father figure, and that was comforting,'' said Francis. "He does treat all of his players like one of his kids, and he takes care of us in so many other ways.''
Basanta attended the same high school as Mendez, St. Brendan's in Miami. Like Mendez, Basanta also has Cuban-American roots.
"I'd heard some good things about Andrew's time at Jefferson. I was really looking for a small-town program as opposed to a big place like Miami,'' Basanta said. "I liked what I saw of the JCC program, it was a relatively cheap school to attend and I knew I could come in and play right away.''
Alteri said convincing Basanta to follow Mendez north wasn't very difficult. "He saw us play against Miami-Dade (one of the national junior college powers) last year and Kristian's high school coach called me. We had talked just a few times when he made up his mind to come to Jefferson.''
Rosenthal preceded his fellow Floridians by a year. He came to JCC in the fall of 2006 from Miami Norland Senior High School. And like the other three, he was searching for a program he could contribute to right away. "And I really wanted to play somewhere away from home,'' Rosenthal said.
Alteri remembers working Rosenthal out at the West Palm Beach complex and being immediately impressed. "I offered him a spot and it didn't take long for Zach to accept.''
Remarkably, none of the four knew each other in high school even though they lived relatively close.
"We've become pretty tight since we've been up here,'' said Grogan. "And I'm sure we'll get together this summer when we go home.''
The baseball part of playing so far away from home is the easiest part of the transition.
"The competition is very strong and the level of play pretty high,'' said Francis. "But I knew JCC had been pretty competitive with some of the good teams in Florida, so they came highly recommended.''
The short college season in the north country, however, took some getting used to.
"In Florida, we play high school ball in the fall, have tournaments in the winter, then start spring ball again in January,'' said Basanta. "If you played in each season, then all summer, you'd probably get in 100 games or so.''
Here, high school teams play around 20 games in the spring, if they are the lucky and the weather cooperates.
Alteri started making connections in the South Florida region four seasons ago. He now he has inroads with several Division I coaches as well as junior college people that he has played against.
"There aren't enough colleges for all of the good high school players coming out of that area,'' Alteri said. "We've been fortunate with all of the kids we've brought up. I told them right off the bat, it's a long, embarrassing trip back home if you have a problem up here. You can't just get in the car and drive home in a couple of hours. That helps to break the ice.''
The Florida players realize what Alteri expects of them, both on the field and in the classroom.
"Coach being an actual teaching professor, that helps him understand some of our problems a little better than a coach that is just a phys ed guy,'' said Grogan.
Alteri is also an assistant professor of criminology at JCC besides coaching baseball. He said working with his players to attain their academic as well as their baseball goals is a part of the process he really enjoys.
"I'm involved in helping make their schedules, and making sure they go to class and stay eligible,'' said Alteri. "And they know that if they have a problem in either area, they can come to me and we can work it out.''
Alteri said he's had only one problem with an unnamed Florida recruit over the past few years. "And he just didn't fit in well,'' said Alteri. "These kids have been a blessing to me with their enthusiasm, and their willingness to work hard and help our program improve.''
None of the four had ever seen snow, except for a rare snow flake here and there, before suffering through a north country winter.
"It was kind of neat, at first,'' said Rosenthal. "But then when it lasted for four months, that was enough.''
The main complaint that Francis has about Jefferson is that "the girls are a little disappointing. They have to wear so many clothes most of the time.''
Basanta bemoans the fact that there aren't many Spanish-speaking people on campus or in the immediate Watertown area. "I miss conversing in Spanish because we do it all the time at home,'' he said.
Rosenthal said he will never get used to "throwing off a rubber mound in the gym. You never have to do that back home, and it's nothing like being on the real thing.''
The thing that makes Alteri so proud of his Florida players, and all of those in his program from outside the Watertown area, is, "They and their parents trust that we'll take of care of them when they come here. That's a lot to ask of a little school so far away. They are an integral part of the JCC family and we try to treat them as if they've been here forever.''
All four were able to visit home on JCC's southern swing this past March. Other than that, trips back home are few and far between because of the distance involved and the cost of traveling back and forth.
"You get a little homesick,'' said Francis. "But we've all made great friends up here, and the team is now a part of our family. That makes the distance away from the home a lot easier to take.''
The three freshmen insist they will return next year, all hoping to improve on their performances and help elevate the JCC program into one of the elite clubs in Region 3.
Rosenthal, like plenty of JCC players before him, will be looking to continue his baseball career at a four-year school.
"Hopefully, these kids will now spread the word even further about Jefferson,'' said Alteri. "That's as good a publicity as you can get.''
