Earned expectation: TFA baseball squad gears up for a big season

When asked about his star player, Jayson Tatum, having to deal with unfair criticism, Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla responded to the question in a unique manner. Instead of directly answering the question, Mazzulla reframed it. 

“He gets to deal with it,” he said. “It’s the ultimate compliment. That’s what we talk about; this is what you asked for. You asked to be one of the best players in the NBA, on the best team in the NBA, with the opportunity to be an icon for the league for a long, long time. This is what you asked for.”

Mazzulla’s point is simple: When you strive to be the best and achieve greatness, don’t be surprised when others hold you to the standard you’ve demonstrated you’re capable of reaching. Instead, understand that the expectation that comes with greatness is a luxury those who have accomplished less never get to experience.

Coming into the 2025 season, The First Academy baseball gets to deal with the consequence of its achievements: The expectation of greatness.     

In 2024, the Royals finished with a 24-7 record, won their district and regional championship and reached the Class 2A state semifinals. A majority of the key players from this Final Four team return to the TFA dugout this season.

“We definitely hear the noise,” senior catcher Austin Pierzynski said. “But with us, we know what we’re capable of doing, and we know how to get to that place. So we don’t worry about any of it and just treat the sport like a game, you know? Baseball is still a game at the end of the day, so we just play for each other. We know that there’s noise, but that’s all it is: noise. When we go out there and the first pitch is thrown, it’s just a baseball game and that’s how we treat it.”

The wins will take care of themselves

Despite returning most of its roster — including all but one member of its pitching staff and all six of its batters that hit for an average of .300 or higher — there is a big difference in this season’s Royals squad: the coach. 

Following a mid-season coaching change in 2024, Alan Kunkel was announced as the program’s next coach. However, the introduction of the former college baseball assistant coach and two-time high school state championship-winning coach at South Florida school Calvary Christian Academy didn’t temper expectations for the Royals in 2025. If anything, it’s fanned the flames of excitement around Orel Hershiser Field.

Like his star catcher, Kunkel is not worried about the outside noise. He is focused on establishing the winning standards that will define TFA baseball and its players on and off the field.

“We’ve talked a lot about what our expectations are for the team,” Kunkel said. “I think, more appropriately, we talk about standards. The standard for us as a program is to play hard, to play fast, to do the little things the right way. … At the end of the day, I think the things that we would like families and opponents to remember is just how we play the game. I think that winning is a byproduct of doing things the right way. If we come in every day with the focus of holding the standard of doing things the right way, I think the wins take care of themselves.”

Bigger than baseball

So far, the implementation of this approach to building a successful program has been seamless, thanks in large part to this senior class buying in and their understanding of the bigger picture.

“This has been a great group of guys to work with,” Kunkel said. “I think the easy part has been coming in and just setting expectations of what we believe the standards are, showing them this is how we’re going to play, this is what we want it to look like. I think the greatest challenge for them is to get them to not focus on the end, right? It’s easy to say, ‘Hey, they were in the Final Four last year, so the only way this season is successful is if it ends in a dog pile.’ That’s not a factual statement. … I want them to understand that how we play the game and the purpose for which we play the game is the most important thing. Our school’s mission is to make disciples, who make disciples and to honor the Lord in all that we do. I want people to know us for the way we play. I want people to know us for how we prepare. I want people to know us for how we treat each other. I want people to know us for how we respect our opponents. And again, I think winning is a byproduct of doing all those little things right, so our focus is on those things and we’ll just kind of roll the dice and see what happens with everything else.”        

Kunkel’s philosophy has resonated with his club and encouraged key leaders, such as Pierzynski, to carry that standard each day.

“Honestly, baseball is just baseball,” Pierzynski said. “I just want to grow in my walk with the Lord, and I feel like as a team, we really try to make sure that baseball isn’t our identity. Baseball is something we do, not who we are. As a team, we’re really focused on growing in our relationship with the Lord and projecting that onto those around us, even onto our opponents. We play against them in a game but not in life. We don’t have to hate them or anything like that. Whether we win or lose that game, at the end of the day, they’re also humans. They’re also people. So we try and approach the game with that understanding.”

Based on the early season results and what Kunkel’s seen from his team on and off the diamond, the wins might very well just take care of themselves and see the Royals finish the season as the ones dogpiling.

“Ultimately, I feel like we have a strong enough club that’s prepared enough that we have a chance at the end of the season to be ahead of our opponent,” Kunkel said. “With this group of seniors, it’s been easy to do those things because they have had success, they know what success looks like and how hard you have to work. They know what it takes to get there, and I think they want to get back, so they’ve bought into the standards we’ve placed in front of them.”