| By BOB DECKER
DENVILLE - Frank Elias is 64 years old
and he still looks forward to "summer camp " each year. Fact is,
this year he got in an extra week. Elias coached the Morris Knolls
High School varsity baseball team 19 years after 11 years as an
assistant, and made the state playoffs 17 times. His teams won two
county champ-ionships as well as three conference, three sectional
and two North Jersey titles and reached the Group 4 championship
game. Elias retired from high school coaching seven years ago but
still keeps a hand in working with kids by running the Denville
Recreation Baseball Camp at Gardner Field, a camp that serves the
youth of Denville from 5 to 15 years of age. Elias has been running
the camp for the past 28 years, the first 25 with the late Walt
Stasiak,
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who was his freshman coach at
Knolls, and the last three with the help of several former Knolls
players and area coaches. uWe like to think of it as a solid
teaching camp that is also fun," Elias says. "Our coaches here have
a combined 60 years of high school baseball coaching experience and
their goal is to pass on their knowledge of the game to the kids."
The camp starts each year in the last week of June and ends the
second week of July The campers are divided into groups by age and
ability and -just as Elias did in his high school coaching days
-fundamentals are stressed. "We demonstrate proper throwing
techniques, 'perfect fielding* drills and throwing accuracy," Elias
says. "To reinforce our teachings, we give out baseballs to the
campers for doing things the right way "We'll end each day with a
game and
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give out game balls for kids who make great
plays, put into practice what they have just learned, or for showing
good sportsmanship. "We don't give away hats or
T-shirts be-cause we saw a long time ago how kids' eyes light
up when you hand them a brand new baseball. We gave
away more than 12 dozen baseballs this year... we always try to get
at least one to each camper." There are also trivia questions (with baseballs as
prizes, of course) when the groups take a "bug juice" break or assemble
at the end of each camp session to go over
the day's activities. At the end of each of the three weekly
sessions, the camp staff gives out plaques to the "most improved" campers on
all three levels. The 5-6 year-olds have a frozen fruit bar party
on the last day of camp and take home a Wiffle ball
bat Elias' coaching staff includes Adam Bonfiglio, who took over the Morris Knolls
varsity job when Elias retired; who took over the Morris Knolls varsity job
when Elias retired;
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former Knolls varsity
assistant and JV coach Rich Luttenberger; former Knolls JV coach
Craig Minter, and Mark Janis, a JV coach at Knolls now who played on
Elias' 1999 team that went to the state finals. 'These guys love the
game and it shows in the way they work with these kids," Elias says.
"Coaching and helping kids is in our blood and we do our best to
treat these kids as if they were our own." Elias has responded to
many of the parents of his campers who have asked for a camp for the
older players, especially players making the transition from the
Little League fields to a regulation field. Called the "Welcome to
the Big Diamond" camp, Elias added the extra week to the program
this year. Another week of camp for Elias & Co. Another week of
teaching and fun.
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1973