A STATEMENT WIN!

Lambert, longtime Spa Catholic coach, looks back after finally capturing state baseball championship

Spa Catholic head baseball coach Alphonse Lambert, who has won six sectional titles, 15 league titles and four regional titles during his almost 40 years as head coach, finally won his elusive first state baseball title this year. (Cindy Schultz photos and photos provided) (Courtesy photo of CINDY SCHULTZ)

With Saratoga Central Catholic on the cusp of its first state baseball championship last month, longtime head coach Alphonse “Phonsey” Lambert, finally allowed himself a moment to reflect on his nearly 40 years of coaching.

“When we had two outs, I started thinking about all the teams that I had,” Lambert said. “I am not one to go out and celebrate with the team, it’s their team. I didn’t throw a ball, strike out anybody or get a hit. So let them celebrate. But I had a little bit of emotion when I grabbed a couple of my seniors, because I coached these kids in the summertime, it just felt real good.”

The 4-0 win over Deposit-Hancock in the Class C state title game on June 14 at SUNY Binghamton Stadium was the last piece missing from Lambert’s incomparable coaching resume. In his 37th year leading the varsity — he coached the jayvee for two years — the legendary coach had won just about everything. Under his guidance, the Saints have captured six sectional championships, 15 league titles, four regional titles and have compiled 13 20-win seasons. And now Lambert can finally add that elusive state crown. 

“I think when you get to my age and you have been doing it for so long, you keep things in the proper perspective but yes I am very, very excited,” said the 59-year-old Lambert who is also the school’s athletic director. “I think that our program has always been one of the better programs in the state but we didn’t have that final jewel to say we have been there too. We have had drafted players and we have gone to the states and we have gone to the state finals but we never won it. And now that we have won it, we get a little street cred so to speak.”

One of the teams that he did think back on was the 2000 Spa Catholic team that was led by Tim Stauffer, who the San Diego Padres selected fourth overall in the 2003 MLB Draft. That team, which had won 27 straight games and had to play back-to-back games, the state semifinal and final, in the blazing heat, lost in the ninth inning of the championship game on a home run.

“I have won all these games and done all these wonderful things but really will the career be incomplete without the state title and that is just a personal thing,” added Lambert, who was also named the American Baseball Coaches Association Region 1 High School Coach of the Year. “We have done everything else on a local and sectional level. There have been so many great coaches who have never won a state title. It is just a very hard thing to do. The fact that we got it done is just, for me personally, that is done and over with. But it really has never been about me. You hear coaches say that but it is about the kids and I do it because I love being on a team. I love the team aspect. That is all I know. Some people are very good carpenters but I can’t do much other than coach baseball.”

This love for the players comes through in talking with Lambert, who has a system in place at Spa Catholic that just produces wins. Lots of them.

“I believe in developing our program. We have a very good modified team. We have a good jayvee team. I run three camps, one over the winter and two in the summer, so we work at it. We work hard to be where we are at,” he said. “I love developing our kids. A majority of these kids on the team were kids that went through my baseball camp, played modified through varsity. I am very proud of the program and the things that we are doing.

“We don’t start too early. We don’t throw a baseball until the end of January, early February because I believe that one sport helps the other. I feel if you isolate on one sport, say baseball year round, you are really only developing one set of muscles. The other set is not being developed. You are more apt to injury and most of our kids play three sports because we are a small school.”

With this year’s team, Lambert knew they could be special because of their pitching. Starters Pierce Byrne, a junior who pitched a complete — near perfect — game in the state final and is a Siena commit, Carson Moser, a junior who just committed to playing at Duke, and senior captain Tyler Weygand were lights out all year. Lambert also had the luxury of pairing up right-hander Brian Selig and left-hander Luke Dejnozka, both sophomores, on the mound. They gave up just two runs in 40 innings. 

Add into the mix five-year catcher Hunter Fales and an infield that featured senior Ryan Gillis at short, senior Ronan Rowe at third and Weygand at second, and as Lambert said “we were set for success.” The Saints also dominated the Wasaren League Awards with Gillis, Byrne, Rowe and Kihl Kelly named first-team all stars, Fales earning Wasaren League MVP and Lambert Coach of the Year.

And even with accomplishing his last remaining goal, Lambert is already talking about next year.

“I still have the fire, I still love it. I will be 60 years old next year and I can’t picture myself not doing it. I just enjoy it and it is something that I look forward to.”