VSP Highlight: Briarcliff Baseball

This week, our VSP spotlight shines not on an individual, but on the entire Briarcliff High School boys baseball team.

These boys significantly elevated their commitment and work ethic this past offseason in preparation for the 2025 spring season & it’s already paying off! 

The bears are currently 10-5 overall, with a 6-1 record in league, & are currently undefeated vs. section 1 class B teams.

Prior to the start of the off-season, we completed a focused, abbreviated IAA (assessment) on the boys to assess their strength, power, & speed. From that information, we were able to create a meticulously designed off-season plan. 

The players engaged in intensive training sessions twice a week, for the entire off-season & pre-season. These sessions were designed to be extremely focused & challenging. 

Here’s an overview of the different phases we completed with them in our off-season plan:

Strength & Power

Strength & power development had been a main focus and component of our off-season training with the boys. We dedicated 4 week blocks in the months of January & February to increase our overall relative strength, force output, & eventually power capacity. 

Below we can see overall team increases in force production & increased plyometric capacity (bilaterally & unilaterally) through our mid thigh pull, broad jump, triple jump, SL broad jump, & SL rot. jump tests.

Speed

Speed development had also been a focus for the boys this off-season.

Due to the fact that baseball is a sport that heavily relies on starting and stopping, & less on max velocity sprinting, we focused more on shorter distance sprinting at high intensities. As we got closer to the season, we started incorporating more speed focused training into our sessions. These sessions started with some aspect of acceleration or speed focused work before transitioning into our lift in the weight room.

Below we can see overall team increases in acceleration through our 10YD dash test. 

Overall

This highlight has shown the incredible progress these boys have made. From their off-season training, we have seen increases in all phases of speed, power, and force development. These gains are a testament of how much effort, consistency, & intensity these boys have put in.
 

With the season on going, we are proud to see how all of these gains have translated to their performance & success on the field.
 

We are incredibly proud of the team for their unwavering dedication and hard work this off-season. We can’t wait to see them continue their success on the field. 

Keep up the great work, Bears!

Written by: Jake Lebovitch – Assistant Director of Performance & Content Manager