Coach Jeff Blanco

    Jeff Blanco Born and raised in Southern California, Blanco played baseball at Saddleback High School and when his girls started playing, he became a coach and trainer.In the evenings he would do private lessons and ultimately they grew into a four day a week job and became so successful he was able to leave the mortgage industry and focus on softball as a full-time private instructor.“I always had a passion and eagerness to teach and work with kids, so this was perfect for me,” he remembers.

     Eventually, the private tutoring grew into his Advanced Fastpitch Training (AFT) business which he started in 2011 “when I had made a lot of contacts with college coaches and credibility was high after our team won a 16U National Championship.”The AFT works mostly with high school aged kids with “some younger now that I have a 12U team under my umbrella.”Blanco explains that the growth of his business came because of the learning he had with Kayla, who’s now a junior at Cal State Fullerton.“When she went through recruiting process, as her dad and coach I saw some of the pitfalls and traps you can fall into. I tried to get educated in the recruiting game and with Tera was able to rectify some of the mistakes I made with my older daughter such as how to streamline, expedite and maximize exposure.”Other players and parents beginning asking for Blanco’s help and he saw the opportunity to tie events, coaching and recruiting expertise together where he could help train athletes and work with college coaches to find players who’d be a good fit for them.

        My role is I train each one of the players on the site so I can speak on behalf of all the players to the colleges and give evaluations as to what would be a good fit.”Blanco says he also holds prospect camps that are free to college coaches that are open to players who train with him through Advanced Fastpitch Training. It was at one of those events that his 2015 shortstop, Taylor Becerra, was seen by Arizona State who would soon offer her. Becerra committed to ASU last week.“It’s not just the website or the events, though,” Blanco continues. “It’s everything tied together so I can help them. Say there’s a college looking for a sophomore… where I can come into play is call up the coach, give the information the school is looking for and see if it makes sense for the player to consider that school or attend a camp they might be having.”“We also provide a third-party point of view,” he continues. “I’m that party which the kid trains with and I can give a good perspective on where I see that kid ranking in her age group and where I project she’ll be when she gets to be a college freshman.

        ”In the last two years, Blanco says AFT has helped about 75 kids verbal or sign with college programs.“Our niche is with that player who’s not the blue-chip player, it’s those kids who may be just under that level, but are still valuable to a lot of major college programs.”While that may be his “day job,” he’s also very heavily involved in coaching. When daughter Kayla was 10 years old, Blanco started the Bomb Squad organization which he ran for six years until he met Tony Rico and, liking the mission and organization of the Firecrackers brand, turned the Bomb Squad into a Firecracker team.The next year, the summer of 2011, Blanco’s newly christened Firecrackers-Blanco 16U team won the PGF National Championship after taking third at the Colorado Fireworks tournament.

        This summer, the 16U tied for third at PGF after winning the Colorado Fireworks tourney. The Firecrackers-Blanco 18 Gold team tied for 17th at PGF.“We have four teams I oversee,” he explains, “two 18U teams, one at 16U and one at 12U. For two of the four to have top 20 national finishes is something we’re proud of.”With all that he has on his plate, he still manages to find time to coach all four teams.Tera Blanco“I attend each of their practices and they all train with me every other Wednesday,” he laughs, “although with playing conflicts I can’t obviously be with every team at every game.”One of his greatest “successes,” you could say, is his daughter, Tera, a senior pitcher and infielder. She plays for the Firecrackers-Rico team and is headed to Michigan. Some feel she’s one of the top 10 players in the 2014 class.Not only is she a softball talent, when asked “Who or what inspires you to be your best?” she replies, “My Dad.”With both girls playing at a high level of softball and in, or soon will be in, college, Blanco is excited to help other girls live the dream at playing at the next level.“I believe whole-heartedly that if a player is on a travel ball team and she works hard and wants it bad enough, that there’s a home for her and everybody like her. Maybe during the process they’ll come to a realization that they want to just focus on their studies or go to a school where it’s not as high level and that’s fine.”“But if you’re a travel ball player and willing to invest the time to train at a high level, then there should be a college softball program out there for you.”