Nansemond-Suffolk Academy baseball coach Joey Seal was invited to work with USA Baseball for its 15U National Team Identification Series.

Seal will head down to Cary, N.C., this week to help out with USA Baseball. He is a part of what is considered a task force, in which the coaches invited will watch the best 15-year-olds in the country work out and compete for a few days. At the end of the week, the coaches will take what they’ve seen and put together the 16U developmental team for the next year.

“It’s an unbelievable opportunity,” Seal said. “It has always been a dream of mine to represent our country and have an affiliation with USA Baseball. There are eight of us coaches selected to be on this task force, and it is comprised of coaches from all over the country.”

The job has been described as a grind, with the need to pay attention to every little detail of every player. Putting together a team with the best young players takes time, but it’s a very beneficial experience. Seal had been hoping for the opportunity at some point in his coaching career, and it came as a surprise when they reached out to him.

“One of my top personal goals was to kind of garner these kinds of responsibilities,” he said. “I just want to make sure I represent NSA well, and hopefully I can do a good job of spotting some kids who can make a difference and win a gold medal.”

Seal believes the experience will also allow him to learn different things from different coaches that can help him at NSA. There are going to be a ton of highly touted coaches, and Seal believes anything he can learn or pick up from different coaches’ brains whether big or small, is always helpful.

“I’m pretty excited to get to be able to interact and pick the brains of different coaches down there,” he said. “Anything that’s going to make me better I’m always looking forward to, and I can’t say how excited I am enough that I’ll have this opportunity.”

This year will be Seal’s third year coaching the NSA baseball team. In two seasons, he has helped NSA to winning records and state tournament appearances. Before taking the job at NSA, Seal spent multiple years at the NCAA Division I level, as he was previously an assistant coach at Norfolk State University.