This past week we highlighted some of the top performances of the past year from some the best youth baseball programs in North Carolina. Today we wanted to highlight some of the other outstanding programs in North Carolina who did not quite make our top 10 ranking. These programs are from all over the state and represent some of the best teams and training environments for youth baseball players in North Carolina.
The Carolina Baseball Academy (CBA) Copperheads are on the top the programs in the Lake Norman, NC area. With facilities located in the Lake Norman/Mooresville and Concord/Carrabus areas, the programs serves a large range of talented players with teams and instruction from 8u through high school. They had a few different teams in and out our rankings throughout the 2017-2018 seasons.
The FUNGO organization, located in Wake County, is a unique program that is one of if not the only program to offer professional training from age 7 through college. The FUNGO organization is home to travel teams (7u-14u) as well as two Legion affiliated teams at the high school level (Post 187 junior and senior division teams). FUNGO has previously been housed within the FBI Baseball Organization and North Wake County Baseball Association, however recently made the decision to branch out as an independent program and has incorporated as North Carolina Amateur Baseball Club (NCABC). In addition, they have moved locations effective immediately. Although none of their teams finished in our rankings this past year, we'd expect to see their teams competing for top 20 spots as soon as this fall.
Greenville Athletics represents a somewhat unique program in North Carolina. The vast majority of their players play within the highly respected Greenville Little League program. That means many of their players are not involved in the travel ball scene throughout the mid-to-late spring and summer. We observed this as we had 3 of their teams (8u, 9u, 13u) in our rankings in the early spring, but eventually removed them due to inactivity over the course of the spring and summer season. This, however, should not be viewed as a negative statement against their program. It does, however, make it very difficult to rank their teams throughout the season. We'll continue to keep a close eye on the Greenville Athletics teams to try and figure out the best way to incorporate them into our rankings.
The Lake Norman Baseball Club (LBC) is located on the Eastern side of Lake Norman and serves the Cornelius, Huntersville, Davidson, and surrounding communities. They, like several other programs in the state, have centralized indoor and outdoor facilities where their players are able to work out and develop. This is a program that perhaps should have earned the right to be in our top 10 programs this past year with some outstanding performances. The Lake Norman Vipers finished 4th in our 8u rankings, the Thunder finished #9 in our 9u rankings, the Attack finished 7th in our 11u rankings, and the Five Star LKN Shockers (obviously affiliated with Five Star Carolina as well) finished 19th in our 12u rankings.
The Norman Showcase Academy (NSA) is located in St. Paul's, North Carolina, just south of Fayetteville. They are another program offering training facilities, professional instruction and coaching, as well as teams from 8u through high school showcase teams. They had several teams perform quite well this past year, including a few who bounced in and out of our rankings throughout the year. In particular, the 11u NSA 06 Elite and NSA Thunder were two NSA teams who made appearances in our top 20 at various times this past year.
North Carolina Baseball Academy
The North Carolina Baseball Academy (NCBA) is located in Greensboro, NC, and is one of the finer training facilities in the entire state. They boast indoor and outdoor training facilities as well as teams ranging from 8u all the way through high school (the Golden Spikes). With private training, professional coaching, and first class facilities, we'd expect to see NCBA teams competing with some of the best teams in the state this fall.