As the spring sports season comes to an end, the Varsity Baseball Team earned its 15th consecutive winning season, the longest such streak among the boys teams at Harvard-Westlake. Over the stretch they have compiled a 345-203-10 record, or a 76.4 winning percentage. Catcher Michael Gonzalez ’26 said that the biggest part of the team’s consistency is its coaching.
“[Jared Halpert] and our other coaches are always preparing us for everything,” Gonzalez said. “They always pay so much attention to detail and we practice all the little things so much, which is the separator in big games. Our team is super talented but there are a lot of talented teams. We stand out year after year because we don’t make the little mistakes.”
Third baseman Jack Lafitte ’25 said the coaches help the team win by expecting a high standard and emphasizing the strategy of the game.
“The coaching staff prepares us year round for everything we may encounter throughout a baseball season and they set high expectations for us and that allows for lots of growth as a team,” Lafitte said. “They also make sure we always excel at the details of the game. Our success is more than just using brute talent to win baseball games. Situational hitting, bunting, and pregame preparation are just a few ways we find an edge over our opponents.
Lafitte said that the team’s culture was another factor in its success.
“We’re a brotherhood,” Lafitte said. “We’ve all faced adversity together and that is essential to building a deep connection as a group. We all have each other’s backs and would go to battle for one another. That mentality we all have is key to the winning culture here. We all expect each other to put in work and we keep each other accountable. That translates year through year.”
Gonzalez said that the team’s togetherness contributes to their winning.
“We’re all so close,” Gonzalez said. “It helps us to communicate better and honestly it keeps all of us more accountable because we don’t want to let down our friends. Everyone is here to win and I think the program reflects that. In any team sport communication is super important, but it is even more important in baseball cause there are so many of us on the field at once and we all need situational awareness.”
Athletic Director and former Baseball Program Head Matt Lacour said the team’s culture of discipline, shared responsibility and sustained effort are what help the team be successful.
“The winning is a byproduct of the things that the program does on a daily basis,” Lacour said. “The base structure of our baseball program is commitment from the players and coaches, work ethic from the players and coaches and buying into the team concept. That allows for them to be successful way more than they’re not. There’s no magic pill to it. You have to show up every day and put in the work, and that goes for not just the players, but the coaches. And our baseball program, along with others of our school, have demonstrated that they can do that on a consistent basis, which leads to success that everybody sees.”
Lacour said the team was not always as consistently successful and that only through strong expectations did the team instill a winning mentality and culture.
“Each program has their own culture, and I can tell you that for people that have been around [the school] for a long time, that hasn’t always been the case,” Lacour said. “When I first got to [the school], our baseball program looked very different than it does today. I tried to change it from the very beginning though by instituting a very clear, non negotiable set of standards that our players and parents initially had to conform to. Now though, it has turned into what you just expect when you come to [the school] if you want to play baseball.”
Lacour said the team’s culture is driven by a desire to uphold the tradition of winning.
“There’s definitely a strong family type of bond from our players to know that they are part of a legacy that is important to them, is important to our school, and they are just shepherding that legacy from one group to the next,” Lacour said. “We don’t have a culture where you see the younger kids getting bullied or picked on. The older kids are there to make sure that they’re ready to do it at the level they need to do it in order for us to be successful. They teach them and it’s a really healthy environment for young men to be involved in to where they also know that it doesn’t matter what year you are, whether you’re a freshman, sophomore, junior or senior. If you’re the best, you get to play. Everybody understands that going in. You’re on equal ground.”
Legacy Baseball Group is a youth baseball organization run by the school’s coaching staff. Lacour said the one way the team continues to have talented teams is through the pipeline of Legacy players to the school.
“Legacy allows us to identify student athletes that fit the mold of what [the school] is as an institution,” Lacour said. “It allows us to get to know them, it allows them to get to know our facility and school. It also allows for kids to develop and get coached from a younger age level and have the skills that are necessary for them to play in high school baseball.”
Gonzalez said many of his teammates now are the same ones from his time on Legacy, and that continuity is important to the team’s culture now.
“We have lots of team events every year that keep us close like the trip to Texas this year and team events like the Hoedown & BBQ but most of the guys on the team I have already been friends with for a long time because of Legacy,” Gonzalez said. “I’ve done legacy for a while and it’s how I met some of my closest friends now. We also have the same coaches there so it really doesn’t even feel all too different.”
Lafitte said that over the course of his time on the team, he learned that building a great team that lasts is about more than talent.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to play with many very skilled baseball players during my time at [the school],” Lafitte said. “But I’ve learned a team is not complete unless everyone buys in and sacrifices themselves for each other in the pursuit of a common goal. This unity is grown by the time spent with one another.”
Gonzalez says that with the culture instilled in the team, he foresees many more years of winning seasons.
“With the coaching staff we have and the older kids now passing down the tradition, I don’t see us being bad anytime soon,” Gonzalez said. “I know that the next few years will be just like the last couple, kids will come up and see all of us working hard and emulate that, which will lead to better baseball.”
