A Brotherhood Through Baseball: The friendship between Paddy Bergkamp, Gus Bergkamp and Tate Moody stems from the baseball team they’ve played on together since they were little.

9:00 a.m. Monday morning. Sweat is already pouring from Seniors Tate Moody and Paddy and Gus Bergkamp as they unpack their basement hats and bats from their equipment bags. The trio prepares to throw and field countless balls, knowing their three hour practice is far from over.

This is the type of dedication, strenuous effort and valuable time these three invested over the last few summers on the Building Champions baseball team.

Just like many other sports, baseball requires players to participate in a club team if they want to get recruited or continue the sport in college. That’s where the team comes in for the three boys. 

They chose Building Champions because of its reputation as a prestigious baseball academy — with former MLB coaches and a track record of helping players play in college and in the MLB.

Tate’s relationship with Building Champions began in eighth grade after his previous team, the KC Giants, split up. Tate already knew he wanted to play at the college level even at age 13, and had been advised by other coaches and teammates to give Building Champions a try. 

“Building Champions was more of a showcase team, we would get to travel and get college coaches to come to our games,” Tate said. “It was just an upgrade honestly.” 

Tate immediately fell in line at Building Champions, appreciating the high-quality coaching staff. The coaches emphasized the simple aspects of baseball to improve their game such as mechanics, ground balls and hitting.

“Some days we would have film sessions and just learn baseball,” Tate said. “Other days we would take thousands of ground balls and fly balls.”

Because the Building Champions roster consists of players from all over Kansas City, Tate has faced many of his teammates in normal East season games. It turned out to be one of his favorite aspects of the team, partially because of the playful trash talk that occurs in the dugout.

“Almost every game this year I’ve known someone on the opposing team,” Tate said. “It’s fun to compete with them especially when they’re a pitcher and you can talk trash.”

Paddy’s decision to play for Building Champions was driven with the same motive as Tate — a college offer. He knew about Building Champions for many years but didn’t consider joining until high school when he started taking baseball more seriously.

“Our high school coach Will Gorden was the one who suggested Building Champions in my sophomore year,” Paddy said. “He really believed in me and helped me accomplish my goal of playing in college.”

Paddy’s main takeaway from Building Champions was the repetition of hitting, fielding and film . The consecutive practices, tournaments and private lessons led him to slowly improve his game skill.

“Practices were five days a week in the summer at least and two days in the fall even with other sports I had going on,” Paddy said. “Day in and day out. It made me play better by getting these reps.” 

Another big draw of the team for Paddy was the team dynamic — he still remembers when they all went to Indiana or when the head coach of Johnson County Community College watched him play. Playing building Champions in the summer provided another benefit as well, giving him a bond with people that he also plays with in the off season on the East team.

“I got to know a few guys through Building Champions before they started going to school here,” Paddy said. “Jack Jones and Wes Lyerly were two [underclassmen] players I built a relationship with before the season started. It really helped with team chemistry.”

Gus was a newer addition to the team — he played with the team for the first time last summer. His main motivation in joining the club team was to improve as a player, but it also proved as a double to spend time with his brother.

Growing up playing an array of sports, every aspect of Gus and Paddy’s lives has been competitive. Despite this sibling competition, the boys’ chemistry on the field is shown through years of playing catch in the back yard and hitting together at the batting cages.

“It’s the little things that we just know that other players might not,” Gus said.” If there’s a runner on first and I need to pick him off, or throw to Paddy who’s at second, we have that connection.”

Gus planned to use his time with Building Champions to improve and be ready for the spring season at East. Since it was his first time playing baseball in the summer, it took some getting used to.

“It’s a lot different,” Gus said. “In the summer it’s more about player development and getting yourself looked at, whereas in the spring it’s all about winning. It doesn’t matter if you go three for three with home runs and lose in the spring, it’s all about winning.”

The team paid off for Tate and Paddy — with Tate committing to Wichita State to play baseball and Paddy Committing to Johnson County Community College. Both boys attribute it to their time with Building Champions — where their college journeys first started.