Meet Clint Sauls
With apologies to Dusty Baker, Rudy Tomjanovich, Van Chancellor, Bum Phillips and all the sports legends who’ve led their teams onto the field of competition, the only coach to win a true world’s championship for Houston in recent years is Clint Sauls.
Sauls coached his West U. All-Stars to the Senior League Baseball World Series title in 2014 and 2015. Senior League … odd name for an event played with only 15 and 16-year-old Little Leaguers.
The West U. squad, representing East Texas, had to defeat teams from across the U.S. as well as Asia-Pacific, Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe-Africa and Latin America to bring home the champions’ banners.
Sauls, a Georgia native, was drafted by the New York Yankees out of high school but decided to play college baseball at Georgia Southern University, where he set a school and Sun Belt Conference workhorse record for innings pitched. After coaching high school baseball at his alma mater and a year at Furman University, he elected to take a job in the oil and gas industry (“the real world" as he puts it) and moved to Houston. His heart was still on the baseball diamond, though, and he began coaching Little League.
Hounited: You don't just coach the West U Senior All-Stars in post-season tournaments, you skipper a team of Juniors (13 and 14 year olds) during the regular season. What is it about coaching youth baseball that appeals to you?
Clint Sauls: My dad was a high school football and girls basketball coach. So coaching young people is in my blood. When I got out of coaching as a profession, I missed it terribly. When I met my wife and relocated to Houston I told her I wanted to make this place my home and I wanted to be involved in the community. We were living in the Galleria area and I did some research on local Little Leagues. The two that popped up most were Post Oak and West U. I wanted to coach older kids and West U was the only Little League to offer that opportunity. I reached out and they wanted me to help.
Hounited: In Little League, from ages 5 to 12, it's usually parents who coach teams. In your division, it's not parents but adults who don't have children on the team. Do you think this is a good idea because it removes the factor of "daddy ball?"
Sauls: Absolutely. You have guys volunteering who are former players and have no “dawg in the fight.” All they care about is teaching the game of baseball and helping kids develop. There is no other agenda. Parents can be biased. The hardest thing for a parent is to evaluate the talents of your kids objectively. Taking parents out of the equation eliminates any bias or favoritism. It’s all about the kids, as it should be.
Hounited: Little League participation is down as "travel" or "select" baseball seems to be more attractive to kids, especially the more talented players. In West U, it's a different story, you manage to keep the top players coming back to play in the Little League Senior Division. How do you manage that?
Sauls: I’m not a big fan of travel ball. I believe it teaches kids the wrong way to play the game. It’s very selfish. Kids are taught to showcase themselves vs. play as a team. When kids decided to play with us it was with one goal and that was to win the World Series. It was all about the team and learning to play as a team. That was part of the reason kids played. The other was kids wanting to be part of our success. I don’t mean to bash travel ball but kids are sold the idea that it’s the only way to get a scholarship and that’s not true. Our kids will tell you that in 2014 and 2015 we had more guys come scout our team than any other team they played on.
Hounited: There are teams from around the world at the Senior World Series. How do you rate the quality of play of international youth baseball? Are foreign teams catching up to us?
Sauls: They are. Not all of them but a lot are. The teams from Italy, Australia, and the Caribbean were all very good. The Caribbean teams were as good as any team from the U.S. They had very good talent and were very well coached. Italy also has come a long way. They played us very tough and had good players. They just didn’t have the depth. They will get there.
Hounited: One year instituted a rule that parents were not allowed to talk to you. Tell me what happened before, during and after that experiment.
Sauls: Best rule ever. I had a lot of good friends that were parents. The problem was we were too familiar. They still had opinions and were obviously biased towards their kids. When their son didn’t play as much as the parents thought they should have, it led to friction. It’s best just to separate from it completely and that’s what we did. I lost what I thought were some good friends because of it. That’s a shame but it is what it is. It ended up being a rule that stayed in place moving forward and I think it was a big help. I sometimes wish I could add this rule in normal life.
Hounited: When you won the world titles in 2014-15, the tournament was held in Maine. How do you like your lobster prepared?
Sauls: Two boiled lobsters, baked potato and salad. My wife ate lobster with every meal when we were there. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She even tried a lobster roll from McDonald’s. Her cholesterol was through the roof when we got back but she loved it.
