Our Instructors are former and current professional players, college stars and area coaches with years of experience. They all have a love, a passion and a respect for the game that they share with their students while they teach mechanics and fundamentals.
In addition, all of our instructors have passed a fingerprint background check administered by the Illinois State Police.
Jim Price has been involved in Chicago youth baseball for almost 15 years. He has coached at every level -- from 7 year olds to high school. He spent eight years on the board of directors of the Welles Park youth baseball league, one of the largest in Chicago. And from 2004-2007 he served as president of the league. In 2004, he came up with the idea to build an indoor baseball/softball facility on Chicago's north side and 3 years later, BASH opened its doors.
Justin Stone is one of the most in-demand private instructors in the
country. Justin teaches approximately 3,000 players from across the
United States each year. Justin was a two sport Division 1 athlete in college at Eastern Illinois University as a starter in both baseball and
football. In 1998, he was a first team All-Ohio Valley Conference
second baseman and a finalist for the Ohio Valley Conference
Student-Athlete of the Year. Justin finished with a career batting
average of .356 and is still in the top three in single season stolen
bases at EIU.
Justin’s coaching career began in 1998 as an Assistant Coach at
Indiana State University. He was the youngest full time
Division 1 coach in the country at that time. While at Indiana State,
Justin helped build recruiting classes that were recognized nationally
by Collegiate Baseball Magazine. Thirteen players were eventually
drafted off of those Sycamore teams, with four players making it to the Major Leagues.
Justin became the head instructor at the Chicago White Sox Training
Academy in 2004. An expert in the field of high-speed video analysis, Justin utilized technology to teach baseball mechanics more efficiently. Soon he was being contacted by professional players who were looking for the most detailed instructional resource available. At the White Sox Academy, Justin developed an “elite” division inside the Academy, running “high end” classes and exposure opportunities for athletes looking to excel in and beyond high school. He continues to work with college coaches and professional scouts in the area for many “high profile” exposure events.
In 2007, Justin co-founded the Chicago White Sox ACE program, an inner city elite travel program designed to train and prepare inner city players for college baseball. The program has been a huge success and continues to expand while placing numerous players into college and professional baseball.
Justin works frequently outside of Chicagoland as a nationally
recognized clinician and has spoken at numerous state and national
coaching clinics on hitting. He has worked in USA Baseball
events like the Breakthrough Series and the National Trials
Identification Series every year since 2008.
He is available for classes and lessons at Elite for hitting, pitching, defensive work and catching.
Coach Young offers a level of instruction that is unique in the Chicago area. Currently, he is the manager of the West Michigan Whitecaps, the A-ball minor league affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. Before retiring at the end of 2007, Ernie played 18 seasons of professional baseball. He spent parts of 8 seasons in the big leagues, including all of 1996, when he hit 19 home runs, while commiting just a single error in center field for the Oakland As.
In 2000, he helped bring home the Gold Medal as part of the U.S. baseball team that competed in the Sydney Olympics. Ernie continues to work with USA Baseball as a member of several committees, and is one of the managers for Team USA.
A Chicago native, Ernie played at Mendel Catholic High School on the south side. Named All-State in 1987, he went on to Lewis University, where he was a two-time All-American before being drafted by Oakland in 1990.
Ernie currently lives in Arizona, but visits BASH as often as possible during the off-season, bringing his enormous experience, expertise and love of the game to ballplayers of all ages.
The pride of the North Side, Coach Puente started playing youth baseball at Welles Park and eventually played his way into being drafted into the Baltimore Orioles organization.
A catcher, Dan graduated from Gordon Tech where he was All-Catholic League in 1999 and 2000. His hard work and talent earned him a scholarship to Bradley University in Peoria where he continued to star, eventually being named the Missouri Valley Conferences Best Defensive Catcher by Baseball America.
Today, Dan is involved in another of his passions - teaching. He has a remarkable ability to work with students of all ages and all skill levels. And, as a catcher, he has an enormous amount of knowledge to share about every aspect of the game and every position.
Dan is available for lessons in hitting, pitching, catching and defensive skills.
Career Highlights:
* 2003 Tim Trunk Most Improved Player
* 2003 All-Missouri Valley Conference Second Team
* 2004 Preseason All-MVC
* 2004 MVC Baseball America Best Defensive Catcher
* 2004 12th Round Draft Pick to the Baltimore Orioles
* 2004 Bluefield Orioles
* 2005 Delmarva Shorebirds
Bo grew up playing high school baseball at Highland Park HS in
Dallas, Texas, and continued as a walk-on outfielder at Northwestern
University in 2004. During his junior year, he was converted into a
pitcher. Over the next two seasons, he progressed from reliever to
closer to Big Ten Saturday starter. Following his senior year in 2008,
the Oakland A’s signed him as an Undrafted-Free Agent, and he spent the year as a starter for the Arizona Athletics. He had great success for two years leading his teams in appearances and innings out of the bullpen with the Vancouver Canadians in ’09 and Kane County Cougars in ’10. In 2011 he signed with the Grand Prairie Airhogs, an independent team in the American Association, and won a ring as American Association Champions.
Having taken the road less traveled from high school to walking-on to a Big Ten team to signing undrafted with a major league organization and all the while having success, Bo knows how to relate to young athletes of all skill levels and help bring out the best in them.
Coach Rodriguez grew up playing baseball on the north side of Chicago. Today, his passion is sharing the knowledge he's gained from his many years of playing and coaching with the current generation of youth ballplayers in the area.
As a Senior at Schurz High School, he was named to the All-City team. That same season, he led his team to the city championship game at Wrigley Field. Ralf went on to play college ball locally at North Park University and Northeastern Illinois University.
Ralf has taught hitting, fielding and pitching for several years all around the north side. He has built a reputation as a knowledgeable coach, combing old school drills with new techniques, along with an easygoing personality that helps kids of all ages become their very best.
Kate Madden started her softball career in her hometown of Aurora, Colorado. As a standout at Smoky Hill High School, she earned a full scholarship to Southwest Missouri State University where she pitched and hit her way to becoming the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year in her Senior season. That same year, she was named the MVC Tournament MVP after leading the Lady Bears to their first NCAA Tournament berth in 13 seasons.
After graduating, Kate joined the Durham Dragons in the inaugural season of the Womens Professional Fastpitch Softball League, pitching, playing infield and batting leadoff for the North Carolina team. She finished second in the race for the batting title with a .343 average as the team's leadoff hitter and also played in the infield. An injury cut short her professional career after that season.
In 1998, she became the first full-time assistant softball coach at Georgia Tech University. After just one season as an assistant, Kate was named Head Coach. In 2002, her Lady Jackets compiled a 52 18 record, earning her the Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year award.
In 2007, Kate was named to the Missouri Valley Conference All-Centennial Team.
Career Highlights
* 1996 - Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year
* 1996 - Set league records for batting average (.450), hits (86), runs scored (60) and stolen bases (37)
* 1996 - MVC Tournament MVP
* 1997 - Hit .343 for the Durham Dragons (Women's Pro Softball League), 2nd highest average in the league
* 1998 - Hired as assistant softball coach at Georgia Tech
* 1999 - Named Head Coach of Georgia Tech's Lady Jackets team
* 2002 - ACC Coach of the Year
Coach Quiles has been coaching youth baseball in the Chicagoland
area for over twenty years at several different levels. Ray has been an assistant coach at Lane Tech at the freshman, sophomore and varsity levels. He coached travel baseball for twelve years, leading teams to numerous reputable tournament championships, including a state runner-up in 2003, two CABA World Series appearances, a Triple Crown tourney championship, and even took two teams to compete overseas.
Many of Ray’s players have gone on to play college baseball,
including the Division 1 universities of Illinois State,
Illinois-Chicago and Northern Illinois.
Known around BASH as the “Hit Doctor,” Coach Quiles continues to
learn and play the game with the same passion as the young men that he coaches.
Throughout his high school career, Coach Harang was one of the most feared hitters in the Chicago area. He holds the all-time home run records for both New Trier High School and the American Legion Wilmette Waves. In 2003, his senior season at New Trier, he was named to the All-State team as a 3rd baseman.
Chris went to Bradley University on scholarship and after having shoulder surgery, transferred to NIACC in Mason City, Iowa where he was selected All-Region in 2005. Shoulder injuries continued to plague him, but he battled back over and over finishing his college baseball career at Trinity University earning a degree in finance.
Baseball is in Chris' blood. Multiple surgeries may have cut his playing days short, but he has followed his passion into coaching and teaching the game. Since he stopped playing, he has been a head coach of the 16U Chicago Blue Sox, the Sophomore team at Northside College Prep, the Academy Elite 18U Nationals, and the Academy Elite Homestead Ranchers collegiate team.
His teaching resume includes Academy Elite, as well as Frozen Ropes where he was also the General Manager. Today, Chris is a fixture with Elite here at BASH, where he has become a favorite hitting and catching coach of many of our students and teams.
Craig is from downstate Illinois and played high school baseball at
Lincoln High. Out of Lincoln, he was a left handed pitcher at
Springfield College and Blackburn College.
Craig started his coaching career at an early age. When he graduated from Blackburn, he was so well respected, he stayed on as the team's pitching coach. He has international coaching experience as the pitching coach for the United States Baseball Team at the 2006 Goodwill Games. In 2007, Craig progressed to the professional level and became an Associate Scout for the Philadelphia Phillies as well as instructing at the Chicago White Sox Training Academy.
For the last three years, Craig has coached on the north side as a
travel team coach for the Welles Park program. He took a team that had previously won one game in the previous two years to one of the top teams in the travel league.
