On November 11, 2021, there will be a professional baseball skills camp at Lenoir Community College. Major league Texas Rangers coach Turtle Thomas will be the lead instructor along with Down East Wood Ducks Pitching Coach Steve Mintz, Head Coach at LCC Gary Smith, and his staff.

“What makes a good hitting camp is do you get good instructions, do you get a lot of drills that you can take home with you, and did you get a lot of swings, and the answer is yes, yes, and yes,” said Turtle Thomas.

The total cost of the event is $140. There are 50 spots available for the camp and will be done on a first-come, first-serve basis. There will be t-shirts and instructional DVDs for sale.

There are different ways to sign up for the camp. The first is to email Turtle Thomas, the second is to visit the LCC website, follow the instructions on the flier to register, and pay the fee.

Participants will go through hitting drills. There will be 10 different stations and each station time will be 15 minutes. Every station has multiple drills to work on things like the direction of their swing, and path of their swing, visual tracking of the ball.

“We have over 320 hitting drills at our disposal,” said Thomas.

Coach “Turtle” Thomas was the former FIU head coach and current hitting instructor for the Texas Rangers and has over 30 years of coaching experience.

“There is a ton of knowledge and drills,” said Thomas. “Last year, they had over 300 swings each at camp.”