LEAD PROGRAM COACH -DEREK BELL
Lead instruction for Golden Era's Academy is provided by Derek Bell. Coach Bell, a native of Northern California, grew up in Fremont. Like our players, he spent his youth immersed in baseball before advancing to play college baseball at the University of Redlands in Southern California.
During his time at Redlands Coach Bell excelled as a player, setting the school records for home runs, RBIs, and runs scored at the time of his graduation.
He began his coaching journey at the college level in Kansas in his early 20s, It was while coaching college ball in Kansas that he came up with the idea of returning to California to offer training and instruction for aspiring young athletes.
Since founding Golden Era, Coach Bell has worked with hundreds of players who have moved forward to play college baseball, including several who have been drafted by Major League teams, and even a few who have reached the Major Leagues.
A MESSAGE FROM MITCHELL
A Message from Mitchell, former St. Louis Cardinals & Washington National Hitting Coach...
My son played on Golden Era's Club team, and I was able to see many games over the summer while putting together my major league organizational hitting manual.
It was great to see how the program and workouts were run. The practices were planned out to the minute and reminded me a lot of spring training where players spend the majority of their time working on their individual skills but also consisting of positive team building and teaching of the game of baseball.
I was pleased and impressed. It was exactly what I envisioned from a program for my son. I saw that there's a plan within the program to help every single player, a vision on how they could end up being and what it'd take to excel.
Derek as well as all of the Golden Era coaches do everything they can to get players to be on a higher level and to play at their potential. And that's all one can do as a coach.
I feel fortunate to have had my son within a program where he could grow as a player but also as a person. I'd recommend GE to anyone who's looking to be part of a positive baseball culture.
A THANKS IN REMEMBRANCE TO MITCHELL
Today as I write this, I was made aware that a tremendous influence in my coaching journey had passed away, Mitchell Page.
I still remember the first time Mitchell called me and asked if his son could be part of our Summer Club Team. It was a phone call that I will never forget.
Mitchell just asked one question… And it wasn’t the normal question you might expect to hear from a parent, his question was… do you play to win?
I told him yes and then he said, “Then do NOT play my son unless he earns it!”
Right then and there I understood the importance of this man’s influence on and within the game. He didn’t want any player, even his own son to be rewarded for something without earning it, even if he was a current Major League Hitting Coach for the St. Louis Cardinals at the time.
I learned a tremendous amount from Mitchell, most he probably wouldn’t even have remembered if asked with the tremendous types of baseball people he was dealing with. I mean my goodness; he was Albert Puljois Hitting Coach and coached with the likes of Frank Robinson and Tony LaRussa.
Those memories though of us sitting in front of a computer all night and breaking down video of player’s swings and talking about tiny aspects of hitting that could make players even better will stick with me for a lifetime.
I could go on forever when it comes to Mitchell and how grateful I am for how giving he was to me and how much I learned from him. I just wanted to say thanks to Mitchell for what he passed on to me that I now try to pass on to players myself.
Baseball has lost a true great, but his teachings to so many will go on forever…
Thanks for everything Mitch!
Derek